From the official announcement of cooperation to the start of operation, Leaprun International only took half a year.
On May 14, Leapmotor and Stellantis Group announced that the two companies have approved the establishment of "Leapmotor International B.V." (hereinafter referred to as "Leaprun International") and the joint venture company was formally established and commenced operation.
With the formal establishment of Leapmotor International Joint Venture, the cooperation between Leapmotor and Stellantis Group has made substantial progress. In October last year, Leapmotor entered into a strategic partnership with Stellantis Group. The two companies plan to establish a joint venture called Leap International. The joint venture has exclusive export and sales to all other markets around the world, as well as the exclusive right to manufacture Leapmotor products locally.
Unlike the previous model in which foreign companies provided technical and management experience, and Chinese companies provided market access and localization support, Leapmotor International is the first reverse joint venture in China's automotive industry. Leapmotor has become an exporter of technology and will enter the global consumer vision under the name of the Leapmotor brand.
It is understood that Leapmotor and Stellantis Group hold 49% and 51% of Leapmotor International respectively. In terms of shareholding ratio, the joint venture is dominated by the Stellantis group. According to reports, the joint venture is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with Zhu Jiangming, the founder of Leapmotor, as the chairman of Leapmotor International, and Xin Tianshu of the Stellantis Group's China management team as the CEO of Leapmotor International.
In this regard, Zhu Jiangming, the founder of Leapmotor, said, "Since Leapmotor International is more engaged in markets outside the Greater China region, Leapmotor International is mainly based on the Stellantis team, and senior executives from both sides will also join. ”
According to the plan, Leapmotor International will first start sales in Europe in September this year, and plans to expand its sales outlets in Europe to 200 by the end of this year. In terms of products, the C10 and T03 models will be launched first in the new joint venture.
Up to now, Leapmotor has six products on sale in the domestic market. It includes two range extender products (C01 and C11) and four pure electric products (T03, C01, C11 and C10). Among them, the C10 is a B-segment model positioned for family users; The T03 is an A00 class pure electric vehicle suitable for urban use.
At present, the above-mentioned management team is preparing for the launch of the two electric models of Leapmotor C10 and T03 in Europe. In addition to the above two models, Leapmotor International will launch four models in the next three years, and it is expected to launch Class C cars codenamed A12 and A03 in the first quarter of next year, and then continue to launch new models codenamed T05 and T11.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the first stop in the European market, Leap International also plans to further enter the markets of India and Asia-Pacific (excluding Greater China), the Middle East and Africa, and South America from the fourth quarter of this year. However, the leaders of the two sides did not directly disclose the more detailed cooperation models and sales channels in the follow-up markets, and the specific details will be announced in the future.
Regarding the goals of Leapmotor International, Tang Weishi, Global CEO of Stellantis Group, said, "The goal of the joint venture in the current stage is to increase the sales of Leapmotor models in the world and sell Leapmotor models to markets outside China. ”
This means that Leapmotor will play a leading role in technology research and development and provide internationally competitive products within the joint venture, while Stellantis Group will empower Leaprun International through its overseas marketing network, sales, after-sales service, auto finance, logistics network and toB business advantages.
In fact, at the beginning of the cooperation between the two parties last year, some industry insiders pointed out that "Stellantis needs Leapmotor's cost-effective integration technology in the 150,000-200,000 market range, so as to expand its market share in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe and other markets, which is the basic reason and background for the cooperation between Leapmotor and Stellantis Group." ”
At the same time, Leapmotor is also one of the few new car manufacturers in the industry that is guided by the strategy of 'global self-development + vertical integration'. It is understood that at present, the core three electrics of Leapmotor such as battery, electric drive, electronic control, cockpit, intelligent driving, electronic and electrical, and car lights are all self-developed and self-made, accounting for 70% of the cost of the whole vehicle, and have now given full play to the advantages of scale.
Thanks to the cost control advantages of Leapmotor, Leapmotor will achieve a positive annual gross profit margin for the first time in 2023, with a gross profit margin of 0.5%. For comparison, Leap's full-year gross margin in 2022 was -15.4%. In fact, in the third quarter of 2023, Leapmotor has reached the goal of turning the gross profit margin into positive ahead of schedule, and the gross profit margin of Leapmotor in the third quarter of last year was 1.2%.
For Leapmotor, the positive gross profit margin is a very critical node, which means that the company has begun to have self-hematopoietic ability, which is an important milestone from quantitative change to qualitative change.
In terms of market performance, in the first quarter of this year, Leap achieved sales of 33,400 units and formed a new top three pattern of "Asking Reason Zero". This achievement is not unrelated to its "pure electric + extended range" dual power layout, especially after the launch of the Leap C10, its sales have been rising.
The C10 is Leapmotor's first global model, which was officially launched in March this year, and has delivered more than 10,000 vehicles so far. In addition, the C10 is also one of the first models launched by Leapmotor International. What is certain is that the establishment of Leapmotor International will further increase the sales of Leapmotor in the domestic market, and at the same time increase its influence in the international market.