September 16, 2026, Huzhou. Leapmotor laid out the thickest stack of technical cards it has had in its 11 years on the table at once: 8,500 R&D engineers, 65% of vehicle costs self-developed and self-manufactured, three consecutive semi-annual profits, etc.

No slogans were shouted, no concepts were hyped. This launch event themed "Confidence" was more like a technical report from an engineering team—laying out one by one the underlying technologies hidden beneath the car body that users usually don't see.

As Leapmotor founder, chairman, and CEO Zhu Jiangming stated: "Leapmotor will not innovate for the sake of showing off skills; every innovation released this time will be implemented in the next generation of products, making good technology accessible to everyone."

The words "Confidence" were not shouted out of thin air. From 2015 to now, Leapmotor has walked a path recognized as much harder: full-domain self-research, deep self-manufacturing. While others look to suppliers for configurations, it chewed its way up the industrial chain step by step from battery cells to battery packs, from motors to controllers, from plastic particles to headlights. Now 18 manufacturing plants have been established, platform standardization reaches 90%, and 65% of vehicle costs are independently controlled.

In fact, many people only see Leapmotor's aggressive pricing but fail to see that its cost advantage does not come from cutting specifications, but from being nibbled out through full-link self-research.

The return on this investment is also straightforward: from selling 1,000 units annually in 2019 to now having monthly sales stable above 100,000 vehicles and ranking in the top three among China's new energy brands, and top four globally.

Even more rare is that the technical capability not only fed its own product line but also became an industry supplier—whole vehicle technology output to FAW, Stellantis, and the cooperating automakers for electronics, electric drive, and battery systems exceed 20, making technology external supply the second growth curve for Leapmotor.

01

Becoming the "Apple" of the Automotive Industry

"Broadband wireless communication was not invented by Apple, nor was the computer, neither were touch screens, digital cameras, nor MP3s. However, Jobs conducted excellent functional combination innovation, ecosystem innovation, and ultimate product innovation, achieving the Apple of today. Leapmotor also hopes for such innovation, striving to become the 'Apple' of the automotive industry." Standing at the 11th anniversary milestone, Zhu Jiangming set a new goal for Leapmotor.

In the past few years, Zhu Jiangming repeatedly compared Leapmotor to Uniqlo: "Leapmotor's positioning in the automotive industry should be like Uniqlo in the apparel industry, slightly more expensive than general products, but also with better quality."

Zhu Jiangming does not think these two things contradict.

He explained that Leapmotor's existing products will continue on the Uniqlo route, while the second brand to be launched next will do what iPhone did replacing feature phones.

The heaviest release at this Leapmotor Technology Day is undoubtedly the brand new LEAP 5.0 whole vehicle architecture. This architecture is not for existing model updates but is tailored specifically for the second brand to debut in 2027. The goal is clear: build a "new species of mobile space" that doesn't look like a traditional car.

How to understand? For example, traditional cars are like old houses with huge shared area, the engine occupies the front cabin, shock towers squeeze into the cabin, transmission shafts pass through the floor. The car looks big, but usable space is small. What Leapmotor does is return all this "shared area" to users, extending the cabin outward along the three dimensions of length, width, and height, achieving the official "Strong >100% Space Utilization Rate".

More importantly, space is no longer a fixed layout; seats and functional areas can be flexibly combined according to scenarios, switching between living rooms, cinemas, bedrooms, and coffee bars in the future.

Space reconstruction is just the skeleton. What truly makes this space "alive" is the Clover 5.0 Central Domain Control Electronic Architecture.

Traditional distributed architectures are like various departments managing their own turf, requiring layered approval for communication, many wiring harnesses, and slow response. Leapmotor's architecture goes further: true central integrated control, with only one central brain making decisions, other domain controllers only responsible for execution.

Full vehicle 48V power supply replaces traditional 12V, electricity capacity quadruples, and wiring harness weight is halved; full vehicle Ethernet uses a unified communication protocol, equivalent to paving an information expressway for the whole vehicle; the vehicle-cloud AgentOS makes the vehicle more fitting to user habits the more it is used. Ultimately, the total vehicle wiring harness is compressed to within 500 meters, the shortest in the industry.

Do not underestimate these 500 meters of wiring harness; behind it is the integration of the architecture, and the ceiling of a car's future OTA upgrade potential.

"After opening the doors of new energy vehicles, it remains 5 seats, 6 seats, 7 seats, with no changes. Functional areas are like original feature phones. Apple started designing with iPhone, making phones multi-functional, and that is innovation." Zhu Jiangming hopes the second brand will become "a completely new species."

02

Invest 50 Million Yuan to Upgrade Intelligent Driving for Existing Owners

If the architecture is the foundation, then intelligent driving is the strongest technical tag under current user perception.

This time Leapmotor presented the LWM World Model Intelligent Driving, taking a path somewhat different from the industry mainstream: not relying on BEV perception conversion, not depending on massive rule code, but letting the model truly understand road conditions and reason scenarios.

Leapmotor Technology Electronic Product Line Head Zhou Hongtao's statement is very direct: "The World Model lets vehicles move from 'remembering road conditions by rules' to 'truly understanding road conditions'."

The cloud large model is responsible for knowledge base precipitation and fleet collaborative learning—a vehicle encountering complex road conditions learns to handle it, and all vehicles can synchronize mastery through the cloud, hitting the pain point of long-tail scenarios being difficult to implement in the intelligent driving industry.

More solid is the commitment. Zhu Jiangming clarified on site: "As of the end of August, all 350,000 units of LiDAR version vehicles already delivered will be upgraded to World Model Intelligent Driving for free, and the use will be free for a lifetime."

You know the earliest over 10,000 users used the Orin-X platform, completely different from the mainstream 8650 Snapdragon platform architecture now; algorithm porting is equivalent to redeveloping the entire system, and the investment for just this item is at least 50 million yuan.

For other companies, this calculation would likely be "batch adaptation" or "gradual elimination". But Leapmotor chose the most arduous path. Zhu Jiangming explained in an interview: "Users are the foundation of Leapmotor's development. Early users with LiDAR and advanced intelligent driving chips are the core supporters of the brand."

Behind this is a deeper logic. Leapmotor Intelligent Driving's starting point was not high; in the past few years, its voice on the intelligent driving track was far less than that of a few top new forces.

The turning point occurred in October 2025, when Leapmotor internally ran three technology routes simultaneously: 2.0 was two-stage end-to-end, 3.0 increased the large model proportion and weakened rules, 4.0 directly made one-stage end-to-end World Model. These three lines raced for a few months; in the third-party test early this year, the 4.0 solution won with a comprehensive intervention rate only one-third of that of top car companies.

Even more ruthless is, Leapmotor brought this advanced intelligent driving down to the 100,000 RMB segment vehicles. In order to move the World Model from cloud to vehicle end, Leapmotor adapted 200 TOPS, 640 TOPS, 1,280 TOPS three computing power levels, and even A10 within 100,000 yuan can be used.

03

Plug-in Hybrid Goes Global, Battery Opens Source

As intelligent driving sinks, power layout complements all. The release of MM-i multi-mode hybrid electric drive this time marks Leapmotor officially entering the plug-in hybrid track, also completing the "pure electric + range extended + plug-in hybrid" full power map.

Many people ask, range extended sells well, why make plug-in hybrid? The answer is overseas and in complex domestic scenarios. Leapmotor Electric Drive Product Line Head Wu Cun stated: "Overseas new energy charging infrastructure lags far behind domestic, hybrid vehicles still have a 5 to 10-year or even longer lifecycle overseas."

From a global view, many places in Europe, Southeast Asia have imperfect charging facilities, users travel long distances more, requiring high acceleration at medium-high speeds. Traditional hybrid either weak in pure electric, or lack power at high speed. Leapmotor reconstructed this system from the bottom layer directly.

Three original creations sound professional, landing benefits are straightforward: generators can also participate in driving, system peak power 206kW, 28% stronger than same class; dual electromagnetic clutch coaxial integration, whole electric drive only 106kg, 40% lighter than same class, 25% smaller volume, A0 level small cars can also fit; intelligent control lets shift time shrink from 400ms to 150ms, lower than human perception threshold, switch process completely seamless.

Say plainly, it is combining the advantages of range extended and plug-in hybrid, city pure electric quiet and fuel-saving, highway direct drive powerful and not fuel-consuming.

While power system completes, battery technology also takes a step forward. CTC3.0 high-low voltage fusion battery, did something no one dared in the industry: cancel independent low-voltage batteries used for hundreds of years.

Anyone who drives knows this pain point: car sits for a long time loses electricity and won't start, every few years have to spend hundreds of yuan changing battery, lead-acid battery waste not eco-friendly. Leapmotor integrates low-voltage power supply module into power battery interior, sharing protection and thermal management system, low-voltage electricity capacity directly increases 7 times, maintenance-free for life, single car saves over 2,000 yuan in replacement costs.

Even more ambitious is, Leapmotor directly opens relevant patents to the entire industry. Calculate an account: if the entire industry uses them, over a million low-voltage batteries can be saved from scrapping every year, good for users, good for the environment.

Except for these technologies about to land, the scene also showed many reserves: fully self-developed embodied AI robots, 94% comprehensive efficiency three-level mixed transmission electric drive, self-developed all-solid-state LiDAR... but Zhu Jiangming's attitude is very clear, and also interesting: "Robots that can be walked are not a skill, robots that can make money are what can be presented."

This is very Leapmotor—over 11 years, it has never been the one shouting slogans the loudest, but the one working hard to make technology solid.

04

Technology Always Greater Than Sales Volume

Zhu Jiangming divides Leapmotor's 11 years into two segments: the first ten years are on foundation-laying, the next ten years will start building high-rise buildings. Back to the launch event theme "Confidence". What is a car company's confidence? Not the number of 100,000 vehicles monthly sales, not the overwhelming marketing, but holding core technologies in hand, standing on a solid manufacturing system, holding user trust in heart.

When the industry is frivolous, people who calm down to do underlying technology, short-term look slow, long-term walk the furthest.

Zhu Jiangming said one sentence at the climax of the Technology Day: "Technology always greater than sales volume, sales volume without technology support is unsustainable." Leapmotor proved one thing with 11 years: this technology road is hard, but if walked through, it is the hardest confidence.

Saying this words at Leapmotor's current node carries weight. Consecutive monthly sales broken 100,000 vehicles, ranking top three among China's new energy brands, top four among global new energy brand sales, products enter 45 countries and regions—looking from data, Leapmotor has passed the stage of needing to prove itself "can sell cars".

Zhu Jiangming has his eyes on further places: "The first ten years mainly doing foundation, building capabilities, the next ten years to accumulate wealth and make a big breakthrough. Enterprise without innovation has no future."

Interesting is, just around the Technology Day, Leapmotor simultaneously announced another set of numbers: First half of 2026 exports 96,300 vehicles, year-on-year growth 372.6%. Overseas market demand for hybrid products is still growing, and EU is tightening restrictions on China's plug-in hybrids.

Leapmotor's response is localization—leveraging Stellantis factories in Spain, Malaysia for production, rather than building from scratch. Zhu Jiangming's judgment on this is: "China already has many car companies built factories in Thailand, we hope Leapmotor does not go build factories, collaborate with them, able to utilize their factories is the best, reducing duplicate investment."

From "Uniqlo of the Car Circle" to "Apple of the Automotive Industry", what separates is not technology, is business model. Uniqlo good at making quality solid, bringing price down; Apple good at recombining existing technologies, changing product form. Leapmotor wants to do both things at once—build cars using Uniqlo's way, define second brand using Apple's logic.

As Zhu Jiangming said: "Technology and innovation are the confidence of enterprises facing the future, and also the core competitiveness."