Leapmotor says nine in 10 buyers wouldn’t choose another Stellantis brand

Leapmotor may be using Stellantis’ global reach to expand outside China, but it says it isn’t simply moving customers from one brand within the automotive giant’s portfolio to another.

According to Leapmotor, nine out of 10 of its international customers would not otherwise have purchased a vehicle from a Stellantis brand.

Speaking with media including CarExpert at the international launch of the Leapmotor B03X in Spain, Leapmotor International’s global head of brand strategy, product and marketing, Francesco Giacalone, said the company now had enough sales data to begin measuring where its customers were coming from. 

“We have 150,000 sales on the counter, so we can start to run our numbers, do our homework,” said Mr Giacalone.

“We can rightfully say that nine customers out of 10 would not have purchased any [Stellantis] brand if we were not there.”

Therefore, according to Mr Giacalone, only one in 10 Leapmotor customers would otherwise have bought another Stellantis vehicle. The remaining nine represent additional business for the wider group.

Stellantis owns approximately 21 per cent of Leapmotor and controls 51 per cent of Leapmotor International, the joint venture responsible for selling and manufacturing Leapmotor vehicles outside Greater China. Leapmotor owns the remaining 49 per cent. 

The arrangement gives Leapmotor access to Stellantis’ established distribution, logistics, engineering and servicing infrastructure, while giving Stellantis a range of comparatively affordable Chinese electric and range-extender vehicles it didn’t have to develop itself.

It also creates an obvious risk of cannibalisation.

Stellantis already owns brands including Jeep, Peugeot, Fiat, Citroën, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Opel, Vauxhall, Dodge and Ram. Adding another brand with competitive pricing, a rapidly growing model range and a high level of standard technology could simply give existing Stellantis customers another badge to choose from.

Leapmotor says that isn’t what is happening.

Mr Giacalone said Leapmotor customers were, on average, eight to nine years younger than buyers of established automotive brands.

He said some of these customers may otherwise have bought a used car, but were willing to consider a new Leapmotor because of the amount of technology and equipment being offered for the money.

They were also less attached to the history or perceived status of a traditional brand, according to Mr Giacalone, and more interested in whether the vehicle itself represented good value.

“We are not a budget brand,” he said. “We are a value for money brand. We are an affordable innovation brand.”

That positioning is consistent with what Leapmotor told CarExpert earlier this year, when it said its real Australian competitors weren’t Jeep, Peugeot or Alfa Romeo, but fast-growing Chinese brands including BYD, GWM, MG and Chery. 

Leapmotor’s own figures put its overseas volume at 47,500 vehicles during 2025 and 105,000 in the first eight months of 2026.

Australian sales are, however, just beginning to grow.

Leapmotor delivered 112 vehicles in Australia during August 2026, up 286.2 per cent on the same month last year, and the brand remains a relatively small player compared with the Chinese brands it considers its real competition.

In August, BYD delivered 8231 vehicles in Australia, followed by GWM with 4870, MG with 4767 and Chery with 4238. Leapmotor’s growth is significant in percentage terms, but it is coming from a very low base. 

Nonetheless, its local range is expanding quickly. Leapmotor commenced Australian deliveries with the C10 mid-size SUV in December 2024 and added the smaller B10 late in 2025. The B05 electric hatch has since joined the range, while Australian Government certification documents show the B03X small electric SUV is also set to come here. 

For Stellantis, the best outcome isn’t Leapmotor taking sales from another badge it already owns. It is Leapmotor reaching customers those brands were never going to win.

The company says nine in 10 buyers fall into that category, which is a compelling claim, but the Australian market will be the real test. As Leapmotor adds more models and its sales grow beyond their current low base, it will become much easier to see whether it is genuinely expanding Stellantis’ customer pool or simply reshuffling buyers within it.

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