Who is Lepas?

If you’ve never heard of Lepas then don’t worry – the company behind it isn’t. 

Lepas is a new design-led electrified car brand from Chinese carmaker Chery, which also brought you such hits as Omoda, Jaecoo and Chery. 

It’s a European-focused brand, so it won’t be going on sale in China interestingly. The brand says that it’s aimed at the more discerning design-conscious buyer than the sort of riff-raff who buy other cars – so this isn’t another budget brand is what they’re saying. 

The brand name is apparently a portmanteau (mash-up) of ‘leopard’, ‘leap’ and ‘passion’, but why not. 

Good job there are only five letters in this new name, would've taken ages to set this up for Vauxhall

When did Lepas start?

Lepas was launched as a new brand all the way back in 2025 at a Chery event in its home city of Wuhu, a couple of hundred miles west of Shanghai.

Its UK arrival was heralded in 2026, with the brand launching in the summer and the L8 arriving shortly after and going on sale in September. 

Chery itself is old by Chinese automotive standards, but started in 1997 – impressive to see how far it’s all come in a relatively short time. 

Heritage is for chumps – we want lots of tech and loads of style in our plug-in hybrid family SUVs

How many cars did Lepas sell in the UK last year?

Well, none. It’s only just launched, you see. It has sold 739 of its new L8 PHEV so far in 2026 at the time of writing (October 2026), but that’s because it started selling its cars in September. 

It was only 300 cars off Fiat, actually – not bad for one month, even if they have no overlapping models in common. 

The brand does have a target of selling 500,000 cars a year worldwide by 2028 though, so it needs to get a move on.

These new L8s are fresh off the boat and just waiting to be sold at a new Lepas dealership near you

What cars does Lepas build?

Its launch car in the UK is the L8 – that’s a large five-seat family SUV based on the same underbits as the Omoda 7. It’s currently only sold in PHEV guise with an 18.4kWh battery and up to 56 miles of electric range (and it starts from £34,900). There’s a fully electric version of the car coming at some point in 2027. 

The L6 will be the next car from Lepas, with orders opening before the end of 2026. It’s a smaller SUV and this one is electric from the go, with a 65kWh LFP battery and 279 miles of range. 

There’s an even smaller L4 model on the way in 2027 that we saw revealed at the Beijing motor show earlier in 2026. 

Here's a picture of the leopard-like Lepas L8 looking majestic on the Cotswold savannah

What other brands is Lepas associated with?

You’ve probably guessed all these already – it’s owned by Chery International, which is the outward facing arm of Chery Automobile in China. 

Its sibling brands Omoda/Jaecoo are marketed as almost conjoined twins, but the Lepas brand appears to sit slightly apart from those at the moment. Chery does also sell cars in its own right in the UK as well. 

Interestingly, there was some talk recently about Chery and Nissan chatting about using spare capacity at the Japanese carmaker’s Sunderland plant in the northeast of England, so there’s a distinct possibility we could see some Lepas models being built in the UK.

This is the Jaecoo 7, which shares its engineering with the Omoda 7 but also the new Lepas L6

Why should I be interested in Lepas?

The main attraction of a brand like Lepas has to be the fusion of Chinese tech and European style, which it seems to have managed quite nicely. The long warranty and reasonable pricing can be a sort of cherry on top. 

To my tired eyes the Lepas versions of the Chery SUVs underneath are the best looking of the bunch, but they all have their relative virtues. But these are the brands keeping everyone else on their toes, so it’s worth paying attention for that reason if nothing else. 

This looks pretty stylish, doesn't it? The new L8 is the Lepas flagship straight out of the gate

What warranty does Lepas offer?

Lepas offers an impressive standard warranty of seven years/100,000 miles for the car and eight years/100,000 miles for the high-voltage battery. 

A nice little touch is the offer where you can get up to seven years of free RAC cover if you get your car serviced at an official dealership. 

If this falls off in the first seven years then Lepas will glue it back on for you. Probably, we don't really understand warranties

How can I buy a Lepas?

There are already 35 Lepas dealers on the carmaker’s map on its website – which is impressive given the first one only opened a few weeks ago. 

You can’t order online at the moment, but you can fill out a contact form on the configurator and have someone get in touch with you. Likewise, test drives are being arranged through the growing dealership network. 

This was Lepas's first dealership, which opened way back in August 2026 in Wolverhampton