Leapmotor delivered a record 105,656 vehicles in September, up 59% from a year earlier and its third straight month above 100,000, but still below the pace needed to reach its target of 1 million this year.
Deliveries rose 2.5% from August’s 103,129, while year-on-year growth slowed from 80.7% in August.
Leapmotor delivered 310,052 vehicles in the third quarter, up 78.3% from a year earlier and 25.9% from the second quarter.
The brand delivered 666,539 in the first nine months, up 68.5% and already 11.7% more than in the whole of 2025.
Leapmotor will show its D19 flagship SUV and A05 sedan at the Paris Motor Show, which runs from October 12 to 18.
The 1 Million Target
Leapmotor does not give quarterly delivery guidance, but has set a target of 1 million sales for 2026.
Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Zhu Jiangming set the goal in a letter to staff in December and reaffirmed it in July.
“We can’t have a Plan B,” Zhu said in an interview with Sina Finance in July.
“If Leapmotor is to hit the target, it has to take several hundred thousand units of sales from others,” he said.
To reach 1 million, Leapmotor needs 333,461 deliveries in the fourth quarter, an average of about 111,200 a month.
That is 5.2% above September’s record and 65.9% more than it delivered in the same period of 2025.
Monthly growth has slowed since Leapmotor first passed 100,000 deliveries in July, with deliveries up 8.5% in July, 1.8% in August and 2.5% in September from the previous month.
Leapmotor kept its sales target with its first-half results in August but cut its full-year net profit target to about 3 billion yuan ($447.4 million) from about 5 billion yuan ($745.7 million).
Exports Ahead of Plan
Leapmotor exported more than 27,000 vehicles in September and more than 150,000 in the first nine months, meeting its 2026 export target ahead of schedule, the company said.
Chief Financial Officer Li Tengfei said in August that exports were expected to reach 200,000 this year.
Exports were about a quarter of Leapmotor’s September deliveries.
The company now has more than 1,000 sales and service outlets in Europe.
Stellantis, which owns a stake in Leapmotor and runs its international sales through a joint venture, said in September that the brand had passed 1,000 European retailers in 36 countries.
Leapmotor is preparing to build the B10 SUV at Stellantis‘s plant in Zaragoza, Spain, while the UK will keep getting Chinese-built cars.
It entered Argentina in August.
A Wider, Cheaper Lineup
Leapmotor has launched or refreshed most of its lineup this year, with an emphasis on cheaper models.
The A10 small SUV, launched in March from 65,800 yuan ($9,800), was China’s second best-selling car in August by insurance registrations, with 30,652 units.
The A05 sedan followed in August, priced from 63,900 to 90,900 yuan ($9,500 to $13,600), with LiDAR available below 100,000 yuan.
Leapmotor updated the B10 and B01 in July, from 99,800 yuan ($14,900) and 95,800 yuan ($14,300), and refreshed its C-series SUVs in June with an 800-volt platform and LiDAR versions.
At the top of its range, it launched the D19 SUV in April, from 219,800 yuan ($32,800), and the D99 multipurpose vehicle in June.
It will be among more than a dozen Chinese brands at the show in Paris.
Next Steps
Leapmotor said at its technology day on September 16 that it would add plug-in hybrids, its third type of powertrain, alongside battery-electric and range-extended models.
Its next vehicle architecture, LEAP 5.0, will reach its first vehicles in 2027, the company said.
Zhu said a second brand would debut and start deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2027.
Leapmotor said it would upgrade LiDAR-equipped models to driver assistance based on its own world model from the first quarter of 2027, including models priced below 100,000 yuan.
Leapmotor posted revenue of 38.1 billion yuan ($5.68 billion) in the first half, up 57.1%, and a net profit of 208 million yuan ($31 million).
