Leapmotor to build cars in Europe soon, but the UK won’t get them
Leapmotor needs to build cars in Europe to avoid tariffs on Chinese made cars, and is even considering buying a factory in Spain
Leapmotor will begin building cars in Spain next month as a way to avoid tariffs imposed on Chinese EVs by the EU, however, customers in the UK will not be receiving cars made in Europe for now. Instead, they’ll continue to get ones made in China.
During an exclusive interview with Auto Express, Leapmotor UK boss Damien Dally explained that because the UK doesn’t impose any levies on Chinese-made cars, the brand must focus its new Spanish production on the markets in Europe that are subject to them.
The EU’s tariffs are currently up to 35.3 per cent on electric cars made by some Chinese manufacturers, on top of the standard 10 per cent import duty, designed to protect local carmakers against cheap, state-subsidised imports. Being built in Europe could also make Leapmotor’s cars now eligible for various incentives.
The Leapmotor B10 electric family SUV is Leapmotor’s best-selling model in the UK at the moment, and will be the first one it produces at the Zaragoza plant in northeastern Spain run by the brand’s part-owner, Stellantis.
“That's not to say that we will never get cars from Spain or Europe,” Dally added, “because they can quickly react in the same way as they've done.” He left the door open for the UK to receive European-built cars by remarking about the flexibility and speed Leapmotor is capable of when it shares a plant with Stellantis, which we’ve already seen it do.
The Leapmotor T03 electric city car was briefly produced at Stellantis’ plant in Tychy, Poland, from June 2024 to April 2025, but production stopped due to political pressure from China. Either way, this made Leapmotor one of the first Chinese brands to build cars in Europe – something rivals Chery and Geely will begin doing soon, borrowing production lines from Nissan and Ford, respectively.
Leapmotor is likely to build other models in Europe, and could make an even bigger commitment to its future here. The brand’s European sales and marketing director Francesco Giacalone revealed to us that it’s considering buying, not just borrowing, Stellantis’ plant in Madrid, where the Citroen C4 and C4 X are currently built.
Why is Leapmotor building cars in Europe now?
As well as avoiding tariffs and making its cars eligible for grants or other incentives in various European countries, Giacalone told us the rising costs of bringing cars over from China was another motivator to start manufacturing here.
Due to the Iraq war and other recent tensions, the cost of space on a cargo ship has grown by 150 per cent, he said. “Bringing a car over from China has started to become expensive, so rightfully, we started planning our European operations a couple of years ago, and we are now about to start.
“Most important, we have built a sub-level of tier one suppliers that are capable of satisfying our needs based on Chinese specification, but fully produced in Europe. That will help Leapmotor in the future to introduce additional models or different ones; already having suppliers that are capable of working according to Leapmotor standards.”
The sales and marketing boss also told us Leapmotor had two main criteria for building cars in Europe. Firstly, “assuming that we have the capacity in the Stellantis plant, which is the case right now, it was quality fully compliant with what is produced in China.” The second was time, “because when in China you develop a car and start production in just 18 to 20 months, you don't want to change your way of working”.
“You don't want to open a plant somewhere and then all of a sudden your SOP [start of production] time, because of the supplier network, becomes 36 months. You totally lose your competitive advantage.”
Giacalone added building cars in Europe should give customers more ability to choose what they want and Leapmotor the ability to react better to market demands, compared to now when the company has to order cars from China based on its own predictions.
Despite only arriving in the UK in spring 2025, Leapmotor has sold more cars here than Fiat so far this year, and nearly as many as Lexus. In June, the brand achieved a 1 per cent share of all new cars sales, and 3 per cent of the electric car market.
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