At present, the six-seater SUV on the market is more than 250,000, whether it is fuel or pure electric, the price is relatively expensive, and even the price has to be increased. No good car in the range of less than 200,000 can meet this need, and the C16 is such a product.
In April, Leapmotor opened the pre-sale of the C16 model at the Beijing Auto Show, positioning it as a large six-seater SUV, equipped with a self-developed four-leaf clover central integrated electronic and electrical architecture, and providing OrinX + LiDAR high-end intelligent hardware.
With such a performance configuration, Zhu Jiangming, CEO of Leapmotor, gave a gimmicky pricing expectation early: the price of the Daman C16 will not exceed 200,000 yuan.
C16 Beijing Auto Show pre-sale, Zhu Jiangming standing in front of the car
Walk the talk.
Last night, Leapmotor officially released the LEAP3.0 architecture flagship model C16, starting at 155,800, providing two power forms: extended range and pure electric, with 6 model versions, including:
*Smart Edition
- C16 智驾纯电版：16.18 万
- C16 智驾增程版:155,800
*Premium Edition
- C16 尊享纯电版：16.88 万
- C16 尊享增程版：16.28 万
*智驾版（OrinX+128 线程激光雷达，算力 284TOPS）
- C16 智驾纯电版：18.58 万
- C16 智驾增程版:179,800
Zhu Jiangming: The C16 will be my only car
The experimental engineering vehicle of the C16, which I have been experiencing for a month, has exceeded my expectations in every way. I also ordered our Leap C16, and when I go back tonight, I will auction off all the luxury cars I bought in the past few years, and the C16 will be my only car in the future.
Zhu Jiangming, who stood on the stage of the press conference, could not hide his excitement.
Leap C16
The all-new C16 is the flagship model of Leapmotor LEAP 3.0 technology architecture, and the positioning of the flagship comes from the flagship technology. Leapmotor C16 has 4 smart configurations:
- Four-leaf clover central integrated E/E architecture
- A full-range 800V high-voltage silicon carbide fast charging platform
- Smart cockpit with 8295 chip
- Equipped with LiDAR + OrinX supercomputing intelligent driving platform
The core concept of Leapmotor is to turn cutting-edge technology into practical technology.
Cao Li, Senior Vice President of Leapmotor Technology, revealed to us:
Leapmotor conducted a survey on pre-sold small users, and finally found that at least more than half of these small users are families with two children or above, 65% of users have the demand for "three generations in the same house", and the proportion of additional users even exceeds 91%.
The 6-seater SUV is the perfect choice for family car upgrades.
How do you make a 6-seater SUV have an MPV-like space experience?
The first is space. With a length and width of 4,915 mm and a width of 1,770 mm and a wheelbase of 2,825 mm, the C16 adopts an MPV-like space design, with a six-seat layout of "2+2+2" and a space utilization rate of 67.2%.
In order to further expand the effective seating space in the car, Leapmotor's internal team adopted an innovative rear-flip electric drive design, making the C16 comparable to the riding experience of the 2950mm wheelbase model with a wheelbase of 2825mm.
In addition, thanks to the integration of Leapmotor's CTC2.0 battery control module, the C16 realizes a fully flat floor design in the car, with a maximum longitudinal height of 1216mm.
In the end, the internal volume of the Leapmotor C16 reached 5290L, achieving the best volume and space performance in its class. With a full load of 6 people, the trunk of the C16 is still capable of holding 2 large 24-inch suitcases.
Under the "2+2+2" seating arrangement, in order to take care of the riding experience of all passengers, the width of the third-row center tunnel of the C16 has been reached 160mm, which improves the flexibility of entry and exit. Cao Li further told us that the third-row seats of the Leapmotor C16 will only be more comfortable than the economy class position of the aircraft.
The all-new Leapmotor C16 will be available in two power versions: extended range and pure electric power, of which the C16 of the pure electric series will be the only model in its class to be equipped with an 800V silicon carbide high-voltage platform as standard.
It is worth mentioning that the 800V high-voltage silicon carbide fast charging platform equipped with the C16 is a "true global high-voltage", and the battery module, electric drive controller, compressor, inverter, etc. of the whole vehicle are all high-voltage components.
Powered by an 800V high-voltage silicon carbide electric drive, the C16 has a maximum power of 215kW, a torque of 360Nm, and an acceleration time of 6.37s per 100 km/h, "which has reached the power level of 3.0T in the same class of fuel vehicles," Cao said.
The C16's electric drive has a comprehensive efficiency of up to 92%, helping to increase the overall range by 6%, and the average power consumption per 100 kilometers is controlled at 14.8kWh, which is better than the BYD Tang, Xpeng G9 and Wenjie M5 in the same class.
In terms of energy replenishment, it supports a maximum charging power of 180kW, and the fastest charging time of 30%-80% is 15 minutes, which is 1 times faster than that of medium-voltage platforms.
In the extended range version, the CLTC pure electric range of the Leapmotor C16 reaches 200km, the comprehensive range reaches 1095km, and the fuel consumption of the C16 is only 5.4L under low charge conditions.
It's easy to use, it's easy to sit, and it's easy to open.
Cao Li introduced to us: The rear suspension of the Leap C16 adopts a luxurious five-link structure, with DP-EPS intelligent steering system, which has both a passionate and comfortable driving style, and the C16 can achieve a smooth performance that leapfrogs the level.
In comparison with the ideal L9, the up-and-down acceleration of the Leap C16 is on par with that of the L9, while the side-to-side oscillation acceleration is more than 13% better than that of the L9.
Just as at the beginning of the launch of the C10, Leapmotor shouted "a more ideal home for young people", the C16 may want to be "more ideal than the ideal".
Carry it clearly, use ingenuity
Leapmotor's car-making concept is indeed different from other new power car companies.
China's new energy vehicle market is not yet a winner-takes-all, but with the deep cultivation of various brands in the market segment, the overall market pattern has emerged.
From January to April, the 15-200,000 yuan new energy passenger car market sold a total of 762,000 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 18.6%, and it is also the most concentrated sales range of all price segments, and the new energy market of 15-200,000 yuan has become the most mainstream sales segment.
According to the domestic new energy market data compiled by ThinkerCar, in the first quarter of 2024, BYD won more than 45% of the market share in the price range below 200,000.
Accounting for nearly half of the share, BYD has become a "giant" by relying on scale and cost control.
Data from X@ThinkerCar
Avoiding confrontation with it and making a differentiated layout is the "best policy" in the hearts of most new forces.
However, Leaprun does not think so, adhering to the concept of "focusing on the mainstream sales segment with the most competitive price", Leapmotor does not care about competing head-on with BYD in the 10-200,000 yuan market.
It's not so much that this style of car building is weird and stubborn, but that Leap has to understand its own ability and positioning.
In a conversation with Late Auto, Zhu Jiangming once confidently said: Leap's cost control is no worse than BYD's, BYD takes the initiative to reduce prices to fight a "price war", and Leap can also follow the card.
The confidence of following the card comes from the global self-development of Leap.
Zhu Jiangming believes that the iteration cycle of smart electric vehicles is extremely similar to that of integrated circuits. At present, 60%-70% of the components of smart electric vehicles are electronic parts, and the cost of three electric vehicles and intelligent cockpits together accounts for about 60%-70% of the cost of the whole vehicle.
Different from the traditional concept of parts integration and assembly, Leaprun believes that as long as the technology of core electronic devices is mastered, it can achieve cost reduction more efficiently.
Zhu Jiangming once used Changzhou Xingyu as an example of judging self-developed standards, he believed: when the sales of lights reached the millions, the gross profit margin was 20%, and the net profit exceeded 10%, reaching this scale, even if there was no innovation, there was a theoretical profit of 10%, so that the extra money could be used to improve the configuration, which is the competitiveness of Leap compared with other cars.
In the past 8 years, Leapmotor's development scope has covered the whole vehicle, battery, electrical, electric drive architecture, intelligent networking, and intelligent driving.
From 2015 to 2023, the number of electronic patents and 230 invention patents of Leapmotor reached 443, and the electronic and electrical architecture of Leapmotor has also completed a more rapid iteration:
- In 2019, the first OTA push was completed on the basis of the distributed electronic and electrical architecture
- In 2021, Leapmotor innovated its self-developed intelligent driving chip and began to enter the era of domain-controlled electronic and electrical architecture, increasing the OTA rate of the whole vehicle to 85%
- In 2023, Leapmotor will release a new "four-leaf clover" central integrated E/E architecture, which has an OTA rate of more than 95% for the whole vehicle, and all computing chips are in the same "box", reducing the redundant design of parts, and achieving more efficient command decisions with lower hardware costs
It is worth mentioning that in the era of LEAP 3.0 architecture, the parts sharing rate has reached 88%, and the self-developed and self-manufactured core components of Leapmotor account for 60% of the vehicle cost.
The flip side of insisting on self-development is that Leaprun needs to endure losses that have lasted for many years in the early stage.
In 2022, Leapmotor submitted a detailed prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on the eve of its listing, which disclosed that since the Pre-A round of financing launched in 2018, Leapmotor has raised more than 11.8 billion yuan in 7 rounds of financing.
In the four years from 2019 to 2022, Leap's gross profit margin was a staggering -95.73%, -50.65%, -44.3% and -15.43%, respectively.
Reflected in the book data, the annual losses of Leap are about 901 million, 1.1 billion, 2.845 billion and 5.108 billion yuan respectively, and the loss area continues to expand.
And the past 2023 is a crucial year for Leap.
In this year, Leapmotor's sales focus began to smoothly transition from the compact T series to the C series. Throughout the year, Leapmotor sold more than 144,000 new vehicles, a year-on-year increase of more than 29%.
Looking back at the sales structure, we find that the C11 has become the main volume product, with annual sales of more than 80,000 units, accounting for 55.92% of the total delivery ratio, and the average price of a single vehicle has also exceeded 130,000 yuan.
In the third quarter, Leaprun's gross profit margin turned positive for the first time in a single quarter, improving to 1.2%.
For the whole year of 2023, Leapmotor achieved revenue of 16.747 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 35%, compared with 2022, when the loss was the largest, Leapmotor's revenue achieved a month-on-month growth of 35.7%, and the gross profit margin for the whole year turned positive to 0.5%, which is also the first time that the annual gross profit margin of Leapmotor turned positive.
The long-term low-profit pricing did not crush Leapmotor, but with the improvement of scale effect, Leapmotor ushered in a higher-quality rebirth. In the price range of 10-200,000 yuan, low gross profit and cost, this "dead end" that seems to be a "dead end" to the outside world was won by Zhu Jiangming's "bet".
In October last year, Leapmotor reached a strategic cooperation with automotive giant Stellantis, which invested 1.5 billion euros (about 11.657 billion yuan) to acquire a 20% stake in Leapmotor. In the future, Stellantis and Leapmotor will establish a 51:49 joint venture "Leapmotor International" to produce and sell vehicles worldwide.
Leap International Product Planning
"Volume" going to sea has become the most eye-catching label of Leapmotor in 2024, especially in the context of such a black humor going overseas.
According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in 2023, China will export a total of 5.221 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 57.2%. Among them, the export volume of new energy vehicles was 1.727 million units, accounting for nearly 33.07% of the total export volume, while the export volume of new energy vehicles to Europe reached 716,000 units.
Breaking down the structure of European exports, we find that the number of pure electric passenger vehicles exported by China to the EU reached 482,000, an increase of more than 42.6% compared to 338,000 units in 2022.
As of April this year, the German market, a traditional automotive powerhouse, including BYD, imported a total of 31,500 electric vehicles from China during the year, accounting for 40.9% of Germany's total imported electric vehicles.
The growth of the domestic market segment has peaked, and if you want to get rid of the status quo of "big but not strong" in the automobile industry, going overseas is almost a necessary stage for car companies in the future.
However, the new energy going overseas is far less wonderful than imagined.
In September last year, the European Commission announced that it would open a countervailing investigation into China's imports of electric vehicles, and the export of domestic new energy began to cast a haze on the sea.
Seven months later, the EU decided to require BYD, Geely, and SAIC to impose additional tariffs of 17.4%, 20%, and 38.1% respectively in July, in addition to eight automakers such as NIO and Leap, which were uniformly subject to a weighted tariff of 20%.
In mid-May, almost on the same day that Zeekr landed on the New York Stock Exchange, the U.S. decided to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.
If Europe's temporary tax hike is still a "defensive" posture, then the United States' resolute and one-size-fits-all attitude means that a cold war in the automobile industry has begun, and a towering wall of heavy taxes has been erected.
The problem facing domestic new energy vehicle companies is that the necessary condition for large-scale overseas expansion is to choose asset-heavy localized production.
Stellantis CEO 唐唯实深夜造访零跑总部
Thanks to the strategic partnership with Stellantis, Leaprun is able to do tricks.
In May, Stellantis and Leapmotor formally formed a 51:49 joint venture with Leapmotor International, through Stellantis' distribution channels, Leapmotor International had planned to launch its first products C10 and T03 to nine European countries in September.
Due to the temporary tariffs imposed by the European Union, Stellantis will relocate some of the production of Leapmotor to overseas. According to relevant reports, Leapmotor International has begun to produce the T03 model at its factory in Poland, and it is expected to be mass-produced in September; In the first quarter of 2025, the second production model, the Leapmotor A12, will also enter the production line.
Wu Qiang, co-president of Leapmotor, also said: "Leapmotor will not build factories overseas, and local production will rely on Stellantis factories and third-party factory OEMs."
In essence, on the premise of not investing heavily in assets, Leapmotor sacrificed the exclusive right of overseas production and sales in exchange for a lighter and faster overseas layout, which minimized the impact of tariff barriers.
Being clear about the boundaries of one's own ability, understanding one's own positioning, and having the courage to make a balance and trade-off, flexibility and flexibility are the core concepts of Leaprun's survival in a fierce and complex competitive situation.