缺席新能源汽车下乡 零跑把目光瞄准了海外

This article explains why Leapmotor opted out of China's "New Energy Vehicles Going Rural" initiative this year and is instead focusing on the overseas market, including its current development. The key takeaways are as follows:

1. There are three core reasons for Leapmotor's absence from the program: First, the company's new core models missed the application window, as several of its previous models have been included in the initiative's eligible model list. Second, Leapmotor has already completed its downmarket channel layout: by the end of 2025, 53% of its stores are located in tier-3 cities and below, with 32% in county-level regions, allowing rural consumers to purchase vehicles easily without the program's incentives. Third, Leapmotor currently operates on thin profit margins. Participating in the program requires additional manufacturer subsidies, which the company cannot afford.

2. Leapmotor has posted strong overseas growth: in Q1 2026, its exports exceeded 40,000 units, up 442% year-over-year, accounting for 37.1% of its total sales. It holds a 33.5% share of Italy's pure electric vehicle market, having scaled rapidly by leveraging its shareholder Stellantis's established overseas distribution network.

3. Leapmotor still faces notable hurdles in its overseas expansion: its infotainment and advanced driver assistance features cannot reach full performance due to local regulatory restrictions, while disorganized distribution networks and low brand awareness in some markets limit further growth.

This article offers valuable actionable insights for new energy vehicle (NEV) brands developing downmarket and overseas strategies. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. For downmarket expansion: Brands that have already completed their downmarket channel coverage across most county-level regions do not need to rely on the "New Energy Vehicles Going Rural" initiative to drive new sales. Additionally, participation in the initiative requires brands to forfeit additional margin, so brands already operating with thin profit margins should avoid joining blindly to prevent deeper losses.

2. For overseas expansion: By partnering through a capital tie-up with global automotive giant Stellantis, Leapmotor has rapidly entered overseas markets via Stellantis's established distribution network and achieved explosive sales growth in a short period. Its models sell at roughly double the price overseas compared to China, leaving solid profit margins after covering costs. The cooperation can also be extended to joint R&D and localized production.

3. Risks to prepare for: Brands going overseas must adapt their infotainment and advanced driver assistance systems to local regulations in advance, and streamline their distribution networks early to avoid cutthroat competition from overlapping channels that erodes brand reputation.

This article summarizes Leapmotor's latest development strategy, offering key insights for NEV industry practitioners. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Current domestic market conditions: The domestic NEV market is extremely crowded, and a pure cost leadership strategy easily leads to higher revenue without higher profits. Leapmotor's gross margin dropped to 9.4% in Q1 2026, with its loss tripling from the same period a year earlier, a warning for all sellers pursuing a low-price strategy.

2. Growth opportunities overseas: High-value Chinese NEVs are gaining strong traction in overseas markets, particularly in Europe. Through its partnership with Stellantis, Leapmotor gained immediate access to a mature distribution network. Exports accounted for 37.1% of its total sales in Q1 2026, and it holds 33.5% of Italy's pure EV market, with extremely rapid growth establishing overseas expansion as a clear new growth driver.

3. Risks to prepare for: Sellers must familiarize themselves with local regulatory restrictions on infotainment and ADAS features in advance, streamline distribution networks to avoid cutthroat competition from overlapping channels that causes customer churn, and proactively invest in brand building to address low consumer awareness.

This article offers valuable insights for NEV manufacturers developing domestic and overseas market strategies. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Product design and production requirements: The domestic market favors high-value, low-cost products, but a low-price strategy compresses profit margins significantly and puts extremely high demands on a manufacturer's cost control capabilities. For overseas expansion, different markets have distinct regulatory requirements for infotainment and ADAS, so targeted adjustments must be built into product design at the early stage to unlock a product's full intelligent advantages.

2. New business cooperation opportunities: Chinese automakers can build deep partnerships with global automotive giants. This not only allows for rapid market entry via the partner's existing channels, but also opens opportunities for joint R&D of new models and localized production at overseas factories to avoid high tariffs and cut costs. Leapmotor's planned joint development of an SUV with Stellantis's Opel brand, scheduled to start production in Spain in 2028, offers a replicable new model for the industry.

3. Key takeaways: Amid intensifying competition in China's domestic NEV market, overseas expansion is a clear new growth direction. Partnering with established local players allows for rapid market entry and greatly reduces upfront layout costs and risks.

This article summarizes the current development status and key pain points of Chinese NEV makers going overseas, offering key insights for service providers supporting automotive international expansion. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Industry trends: Intensifying domestic competition has pushed more and more Chinese NEV brands to seek new growth overseas. Leapmotor's exports already accounted for over one-third of its total sales in Q1 2026, with year-over-year growth exceeding 400%, confirming overseas expansion as a mainstream industry direction that will drive sustained growth in demand for supporting international expansion services.

2. Core pain points for clients: The biggest challenge for Chinese automakers going overseas is the lack of established overseas distribution networks—building a network in-house requires long timelines and high upfront costs. A second major pain point is limited familiarity with local regulations that leads to non-compliant product features. In addition, poorly managed multi-channel distribution easily damages brand reputation and hurts conversion.

3. A proven solution: Leapmotor's partnership model with a local global automotive giant, leveraging the partner's existing distribution network to enter the market quickly, is a tested, asset-light approach to overseas expansion. This model has also created new demand for related services including regulatory adaptation, distribution network management, and localized brand marketing.

This article analyzes Leapmotor's channel layout and overseas expansion strategy, offering key insights for automotive sales platforms and automotive overseas service platforms. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Market demand: Chinese domestic NEV brands have strong demand for overseas expansion, and most lack mature overseas distribution networks and localized operation capabilities. Leapmotor's rapid growth through its partnership with Stellantis proves that access to established overseas channels is a core value proposition for Chinese automakers going overseas, creating significant market opportunity for platforms building out overseas service offerings.

2. Operational lessons: Leapmotor's experience of cutthroat competition from overlapping dual dealership arrangements in some markets, which led to infighting and customer churn, highlights that platforms need to clearly define territorial distribution rights and unify pricing and service standards to avoid internal friction that hurts overall performance.

3. Risk mitigation: When expanding into overseas markets, platforms need to map out local regulatory requirements for automotive infotainment and ADAS features in advance to help partner brands adapt their products. They should also support brands in brand building to boost awareness and reduce order losses stemming from low consumer recognition.

This paper documents the latest development strategy of Leapmotor, a Chinese NEV startup, offering high reference value for research on the development of China's NEV industry. Key findings are as follows:

1. New industry trends: Amid intensifying competition in China's domestic NEV market, brands pursuing an extreme value strategy broadly face the challenge of rising revenue without growing profits. An increasing number of brands are accelerating overseas expansion through capital tie-ups and channel partnerships with established local global automotive giants—Leapmotor is a typical example. This model significantly lowers the barrier to entry for overseas expansion and shortens the market introduction cycle, making it a new emerging industry trend.

2. New industry challenges: This partner-channel-based expansion model has clear drawbacks: a product's intelligent advantages are constrained by local regulations, and the separation of brand ownership and channel control easily leads to disorganized distribution and low brand awareness. The long-term competitiveness of this model amid growing competition from other Chinese NEV brands remains to be tested.

3. New business model innovation: Leapmotor's cooperation with Stellantis has gradually expanded from channel distribution to joint R&D and localized production, forming a new cross-border expansion business model of capital bonding and complementary strengths. This provides a new representative case study for research on Chinese automaker overseas expansion.