The term ‘legacy brand’ is often used by fast-growing Chinese automakers to characterise marques from other countries, which have been in Australia longer, as slow-moving and behind the times.
However, one rising Chinese brand in Australia is boasting of its connection to a ‘legacy’ automaker.
Leapmotor is a Chinese automaker that’s a little over a decade old, which European-American automotive giant Stellantis acquired a 20 per cent stake in back in 2023.
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The two companies formed Leapmotor International, a Stellantis-led (51/49) joint venture that sees the Fiat and Jeep parent distribute the Chinese brand outside of China.
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In Australia, however, Stellantis brands are generally niche players, particularly after the slow collapse of Jeep sales here. Leapmotor now outsells every Stellantis brand here bar Ram, which is distributed separately by Ateco Automotive, and Fiat, which is transitioning to selling only commercial vehicles.
“I think Stellantis has different strengths in Europe versus here. I think Stellantis itself, the awareness of Stellantis in Australia is pretty limited, as opposed to Europe where it’s quite well-known, together with the dealer network over there,” Leapmotor Australia boss Andy Hoang told CarExpert.
“The strengths in Australia is that Stellantis does come with a lot of global processes. It comes with established ways of handling customers, handling ownership, handling aftersales service, having processes in place for how you train your technicians, what equipment do you need in your workshop before you even have a car.
“So all of those processes helped us kickstart the brand here in Australia without having to try to develop that from scratch. So I do see it as providing us with benefits in trying to launch this new brand.”
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Leapmotor arrived here in 2024 with the C10 mid-size SUV, which was followed last year by the B10 small SUV. Joining the lineup this year are the B05 small hatch and B03X light SUV.
All Leapmotor models, regardless of market, are electric vehicles (EVs) or extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs).
Leapmotor is handily outselling every Stellantis brand bar Ram and Fiat. To the end of September, it has delivered 1168 vehicles, up 158.4 per cent on the same period last year.
While that’s less than Ram (2322, down 8.0 per cent) and Fiat (1422, up 0.8 per cent), it’s more than Peugeot (652, down 39.7 per cent), Jeep (442, down 69.9 per cent), Alfa Romeo (265, down 39.2 per cent) and Maserati (143, down 33.8 per cent).
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However, it’s well down on rival brand Geely, which launched several months after Leapmotor in early 2025 and has delivered 23,632 vehicles year-to-date, up 639.2 per cent. All of its vehicles here are EVs or plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).
Leapmotor is, however, currently outselling EV brand Deepal (924 vehicles, up 269.6 per cent) which is distributed by Inchcape, which also handles Subaru distribution.
Roughly half of Leapmotor’s 25 sales and service locations in Australia also handle other Stellantis brands.
“The vehicles obviously don’t come from Stellantis… But having that distribution network and those processes in place has enabled us to launch the brand successfully here,” said Mr Hoang.
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“We have a joint Stellantis warehouse in Melbourne that stores all the parts, purpose-built 12-18 months ago now. A massive facility, and we carry parts there for what are the fastest-moving parts.
“I think I had to buy six million dollars worth of parts before I even had a car here. To our process of ensuring that we have the right aftersales support for customers. That benchmark of 90 per cent [parts availability within 24 hours], that’s something that is also true for here in Australia.
“Our parts are here in Australia. We also have parts for the whole region in Malaysia, and then we also get parts out of China for anything that we need to air freight.”
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Mr Hoang said there may be some situations where, for example, a customer has a prang and a small clip on the back of a screen breaks, and it’s not a part dealers have readily on hand.
However, he added: “On average we’re pretty confident that we’re holding significant parts here to be able to satisfy most of our customers, and then we do deliveries to our dealers all over the country on a daily basis.”
Leapmotor says it plans to expand its sales and service network in Australia, opening in new regions – including its first Northern Territory location – and growing to 35-40 locations, though it didn’t disclose a timeframe for this.
