Automotive News Europe — 2026-10-20
Automotive Industry
Leapmotor has become the first Chinese automaker to build both electric vehicles and batteries in Europe, starting production at a Stellantis plant in Spain.
The move underscores how Chinese automakers are sidestepping tariffs to rapidly expand overseas, often with the help of the legacy automakers they partner with.
Leapmotor, founded only 11 years ago, kicked off output of its B10 electric compact crossover on Oct. 16 at a renovated Stellantis factory in Zaragoza. The same day, it opened a battery plant in the nearby city of Mallen to make lithium iron phosphate modules for the vehicles it is manufacturing at Zaragoza. That operation was jointly established by Leapmotor and Stellantis, which has a 20 percent stake in its Chinese partner.
The step makes Leapmotor the fourth Chinese EV maker to produce vehicles in Europe, after Chery Automobile Co., Xpeng and GAC Motor Group began local assembly from kits, and the first to produce batteries locally.
Local production allows these companies to avoid extra tariffs of up to 35.3 percent that the European Union applied in 2024 to China-made battery EVs, on top of a pre-existing 10 percent. It also frees Chinese companies from a strict quota system the European bloc is set to impose on hybrids and plug-in hybrids from China in 2027.
Building battery modules in Spain also allows Leapmotor to comply with local content rules the EU is seeking to implement to prevent China-made electrified vehicles from flooding its market.
“Our roots are in China, and our ambition is global,” Leapmotor founder and President Jiangming Zhu said in a statement. “Europe is a strategic part of that ambition, and producing in Zaragoza allows us to bring our technology closer to European markets and customers.”
Leapmotor will add the B05 electric hatchback to the plant in the first half of next year. At the factory, Stellantis also builds three products — the Opel Corsa, Peugeot 208 and Lancia Ypsilon.
Leapmotor becomes China’s No. 4 EV maker with help of Stellantis
Leapmotor, incorporated in the eastern China city of Hangzhou, began sales of battery EVs and extended-range EVs in the domestic market in 2019. But it has risen to become China’s fourth-largest electrified vehicle maker partly through its partnership with Stellantis.
Stellantis acquired its 20 percent stake in the EV maker in 2023 for €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion). The deal paved the way for Leapmotor to use Stellantis’ production facilities and distribution networks across the globe to speed up expansion into Europe and other markets.
The Zaragoza factory is the second Stellantis facility to build Leapmotor’s vehicles. In June, Stellantis’ plant in Malaysia started assembling right-hand-drive electrified vehicles for Leapmotor targeting the Southeast Asian market. It assembles kits imported from China.
In July, Leapmotor began selling China-made autos in Mexico via Stellantis’ dealer network.
Leapmotor’s overseas deliveries more than quadrupled to nearly 100,000 in the first half of 2026, leading a 61 percent surge in global deliveries to 356,000 from a year earlier. The tally made Leapmotor China’s fourth-largest electrified-vehicle maker, behind BYD Co., Geely Automobile Holdings and Chery, according to the tally of the China Passenger Car Association.