Leapmotor founder Zhu Jiangming used the company's 2026 technology day to lay out an ambitious roadmap: a second brand launching in 2027, and a stated goal of "becoming the Apple of the car industry." The Hangzhou-based automaker, which posted record global deliveries of 103,129 vehicles in August and has now topped 100,000 units for two straight months, argues the industry is far from technological maturity, according to a report by NetEase Auto.
"Leapmotor won't innovate just for show. Every technology released today will land in next-generation products," Zhu said at the event. His core thesis: electric vehicles replacing combustion cars is fundamentally an electronics-for-mechanics substitution, leaving room for innovation from the base architecture down to individual components. He believes most rivals are still building EVs with a petrol-era mindset.
Five cards on the table
The centerpiece is LEAP 5.0, a new architecture that Leapmotor says reclaims cabin space from mechanical components. The company claims a "usable space ratio" of 100%, achieved by moving the powertrain rearward, shrinking the air-conditioning unit from 69 parts to 21, and cutting piping length from 6.2 meters to 3.3 meters. That frees about 700mm of extra longitudinal cabin space, a 19% gain, while front-seat legroom improves 37.5% and cabin height rises 63.7%, letting occupants stand upright.
Electronically, the LEAP 5.0 platform uses a 48-volt electrical system, all-vehicle Ethernet, and a cloud-vehicle AgentOS. Leapmotor says total wiring is now under 500 meters, the shortest in the industry. The architecture will underpin the second brand, which Zhu says will deliver an experience jump comparable to smartphones replacing feature phones.
On driver assistance, Leapmotor is breaking with the industry pattern of reserving advanced features for premium models. Its self-developed LWM world-model system can run on 200, 640, or 1,280 TOPS of compute, meaning it can be deployed in vehicles priced below 100,000 yuan. The company also promised free lifetime upgrades to world-model ADAS for all 350,000 owners of lidar-equipped vehicles, including roughly 10,000 early cars that require 50 million yuan in algorithm porting costs alone.
Full powertrain lineup and a profitable streak
Leapmotor also introduced its MM-i multi-mode hybrid drive, entering the PHEV (plug-in hybrid) segment and completing a lineup that already includes BEVs (battery-electric vehicles) and EREVs (range-extenders). The company says the system rethinks conventional hybrid layouts where generator and drive motor work independently, improving electric-only performance and highway efficiency.
The technology push comes as Leapmotor extends a profitable run. It posted net profit attributable to shareholders of 210 million yuan (about $29.6 million) in the first half of 2026, its third consecutive profitable half-year. The company sells 10 models spanning A0 to D segments, priced from 60,000 to 300,000 yuan, with the C16 large SUV selling 78,060 units last year and the A10 small car reaching 100,000 units produced in 135 days.
Leapmotor's strategy rests on vertical integration. It operates 18 component factories, controls 65% of vehicle cost in-house, and achieves 90% platform commonality. The company also sells technology externally: complete vehicle-level systems to FAW and Stellantis, plus electronic, e-drive, and battery systems to five, eight, and ten external customers respectively.
Zhu pushed back on the "half-price Li Auto" label that has followed the brand, arguing it is a result of cost control rather than a strategy. "Good technology for everyone is not something you give only after customers buy a premium car," he said. The second brand, due in 2027, will be the test of whether that philosophy scales.
