Leapmotor may already be outselling some familiar Stellantis-owned brands in Australia, however the Chinese automaker says its real focus isn’t Jeep, Peugeot or Alfa Romeo.
As a substitute, Leapmotor says it’s measuring itself against fast-growing Chinese rivals similar to BYD, GWM, MG and Chery – and it intends to accomplish that with a single global brand, somewhat than following the growing Chinese trend of launching multiple sister brands.
Speaking with Australian media in China, Leapmotor International’s Global Head of Brand Strategy, Product and Marketing, Francesco Giacalone, said the corporate is concentrating on constructing value across the Leapmotor name internationally.
Asked whether Leapmotor could follow Chinese rivals by launching sub-brands beneath it, Mr Giacalone said the corporate was, not less than for now, focused on the Leapmotor brand itself.
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That puts Leapmotor on a unique path to several other Chinese automakers, lots of that are introducing multiple brands to cover different buyer groups, price points and personalities in Australia.
For instance, the Chery group’s growing local family of brands now includes Chery, Omoda Jaecoo and Lepas, with Chery Australia saying those brands are designed to focus on several types of buyers somewhat than sit on a standard premium ladder. In essence, acting as a more “horizontal” strategy than the vertical brand hierarchies often adopted by European and Japanese automakers.
The Chery group’s Australian expansion is simply getting broader. While Lepas will launch here later this yr, iCaur and Freelander are as a result of arrive between now and the tip of 2027, and Jetour has also confirmed its intentions to enter the Australian market.
Chery isn’t alone in its multi-brand strategy, with MG and BYD having launched the IM Motors and Denza premium brands respectively. Leapmotor, in contrast, wants to maintain the concentrate on one badge.
That doesn’t mean it should have a narrow model range. Leapmotor Australia has previously said it plans to cover 65 per cent of Australian market segments inside three years, and offer as much as six models locally.
The brand launched here with the C10 mid-size SUV in late 2024, before adding the B10 small SUV earlier this yr. The B10 is priced from $37,888 before on-road costs, while the smaller A10 – often called the B03X in export markets – is into consideration for Australia, where it could sit below the B10 and rival the BYD Atto 2.
At the opposite end of the range, Leapmotor can also be expanding upwards through its D-series models with the D19 flagship SUV, while the B05 electric hatch is already confirmed for Australia. CarExpert has reported the regular B05 will go on sale here within the fourth quarter of 2026, while the warmer B05 Ultra has just been revealed in China and is predicted to follow.
The strategy also comes as Leapmotor’s Australian sales start to construct, albeit from a low base.
In March 2026, Leapmotor delivered 170 vehicles in Australia, That put it ahead of other Stellantis brands similar to Peugeot (distributed in Australia by Inchcape) with 102 deliveries, Jeep with 58 and Alfa Romeo with 31, even though it remained behind Fiat on 212.
Across the primary quarter of 2026, Leapmotor delivered 277 vehicles in Australia. That placed it ahead of Peugeot on 252, Jeep on 191 and Alfa Romeo on 96, but behind Fiat on 408.
Mr Giacalone said Leapmotor’s performance against Stellantis-owned brands ought to be viewed in context, because Leapmotor is a unique proposition and is more directly competing with Chinese brands. That may be a much tougher benchmark in our market.
In March, BYD delivered 7217 vehicles in Australia, GWM delivered 5680, MG delivered 4218 and Chery delivered 4018. Omoda Jaecoo, Chery’s separate sister brand, delivered 1010 vehicles in the identical month.
Across the primary quarter of 2026, BYD delivered 16,041 vehicles, GWM delivered 14,878, Chery delivered 11,736 and MG delivered 9595. Even Omoda Jaecoo, which only launched locally in 2025, delivered 2516 vehicles in the identical period.
Leapmotor’s challenge, then, isn’t to beat low-volume Stellantis-owned brands but to turn into relevant in a market where Chinese brands are growing quickly, launching latest models at speed, and increasingly using multiple brands to broaden their appeal.
Leapmotor has some European benefits that ought to help its product lineup stand out. It’s backed internationally by Stellantis, which in 2023 invested €1.5 billion (A$2.5bn) in Leapmotor, purchasing about 21 per cent of the Chinese automaker. Stellantis also controls 51 per cent of Leapmotor International, the three way partnership exporting vehicles to markets including Australia and Europe.
Leapmotor is a young company, founded in China in 2015, and exclusively offers electric vehicles (EVs) and extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs). The trade-off of using only one brand is that Leapmotor might want to stretch from inexpensive small EVs to potentially large, premium-leaning SUVs and performance variants just like the B05 Ultra.
For now, Leapmotor appears comfortable with that and, somewhat than creating latest brands, its plan is to construct brand recognition across the Leapmotor name – and use a rapidly expanding model range to take the fight to the Chinese brands already reshaping the Australian new-car market.
This Article First Appeared At www.carexpert.com.au
