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Stellantis, the parent company to Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen and a host of other brands, has bought into new Chinese electric carmaker Leapmotor and will start selling its low cost models in the UKfrom March 2025.
Under the agreement, first set out at the end of last year, Stellantis has bought a 21% share of Leapmotor for £1.3 billion and a new company has been formed to sell the cars outside China; Leapmotor International.
In the UK Leapmotor will initially bring two models to the UK, the Fiat 500-rivalling T03 and the Tesla Model Y sized C10.
The T03 is an all-electric city car, which Leapmotor benchmarked against the Fiat 500. However the Chinese firm claims the T03 has interior space that’s in line with a supermini. In China the top specification version costs less than £9,000 and has a an official EV range of 165 miles thanks to a 36.5kWh battery and a 75hp motor.
The C10 is a large family SUV similar in size to a Skoda Enyaq. In China prices for the C10 start from less than £15,000. Two battery options are available a 53kWh with a claimed range of 256 miles and a 70kWh version with a range of 330 miles. Both versions are understood to be powered by a 230hp motor.
While UK pricing has yet to be confirmed, the sale price here is expected to be much higher as is typically the case with Chinese brands. For example the BYD Seal costs from the equivalent of£20,000 in its home market, but in the UK starts at £45,695.
Speaking at the launch of Leapmotor International, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said adding Leapmotor would give Stellantis a low cost brand and attract more buyers to electric cars: “Affordability ist he number one problem of the EV expansion around the world. “With Leapmotor, we are going to be able to bring faster to our markets affordable EVs that will not only contribute to the profitable growth of Leapmotor and the profitable growth of Stellantis but of course they will contribute in a more efficient way to fixing the global warming issue that we have to fix as humanity.”
Without exact pricing is it not clear where the new Chinese cars will fit in to the Stellantis brand line up which currently includes Vauxhall, Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep as well as DS and Abarth.
Speaking at the launch, Leapmotor founder, chairman and CEO Jiangming Zhu said Leapmotor would have price parity with class rivals, but would offer greater levels of equipment and a better experience for owners. For Leapmotor, partnering with an existing car manufacturer which has a network of dealers around the world gives a faster route tocar buyers than having to set up a new dealer network. In the UK, Stellantis has more than 600 showrooms across its eight brands as well as owning a dealer group called Stellantis &You.Electrifying.com sources have said a significant number of these dealers will sell the Leapmotor electric cars.
While Leapmotor will launch with two models, the plan is to expand the range to six vehicles by the end of 2027 including a family sized SUV and hatchback, a supermini and a supermini-SUV.
Leapmotor's plan is to expand the range to six vehicles by the end of 2027 including a family sized SUV and hatchback, a supermini and a supermini-SUV. 
