Startup Leapmotor eyes to be in profit by 2025

Chinese NEV startup Leapmotor is expected to in the green by 2025, as it started to see a positive gross margin from the third quarter of last year, said Chairman Zhu Jiangming on Thursday.

The Hong Kong-listed startup's gross margin stood at 1.2 percent in the third quarter that ended on Sept 30, 2023, on the back of strong revenue growth. In the previous quarter, the figure was negative 5.2 percent.

Leapmotor, established in late 2015, delivered over 144,000 vehicles in 2023, up 29 percent year-on-year. Its cumulative sales exceeded 300,000 units by the end of last year.

"For us, the goal for 2024 is to cut absolute losses. We will see still some losses this year but our goal is to be in profit in 2025," said Zhu.

Zhu made the remarks in an interview one day after it started presales of its new model C10 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, where the startup is headquartered.

The electric model, among other things, features chips from both Nvidia and Qualcomm and its Level 2 functions are not reliant on high-definition maps.

Within 24 hours, Leapmotor received over 15,500 orders for the model, which will hit the market soon.

Besides the C10, the startup will launch the C16 this year as well to further enrich its lineup composed of both electric vehicles and range-extended models.

Zhu said the year 2025 will be a big year for its products, with five or six models to hit the market.

Leapmotor, a partner of Stellantis, is planning to explore overseas markets as well. Zhu said the first model for the global market will be the C10, which will be first sold in Europe as well as Australia and New Zealand.

He did not give details in the interview on Thursday but said there will be "good news" in the aspect later this year.