China’s impressive production of EVs
Published on: Saturday, November 30, 2024
By: David Thien

China’s impressive production of EVs

THIRTY-three media professionals from the Belt and Road countries – Africa, South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania in July 2024 visited the Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Company Limited’s electric vehicle production plant. The programme wassponsored and arranged by the Ministry of Commerce of China, China Aid and Zhejiang Normal University.

Chinese automakers account for more than half of the electric vehicles (EVs) produced in the world. These companies build scale, cost advantages and expertise to be competitive in the market at a time when multiple trends – including decarbonization, artificial intelligence, rapid digitization and the acceleration of e-commerce – open up considerable opportunities.


Established in 2015 by Jiangming Zhu, Leapmotor is based in Zhejiang Province and the company sold its first vehicle in 2019. Leapmotor is the third largest New Energy Vehicle (NEV) startup in China, having sold over 400,000 EVs in China as of July 2024.

China’s EV market, by far the largest in the world, is poised to flourish. Many Chinese said their next vehicle purchase is likely to be an EV. Chinese consumers are overwhelmingly willing to consider a domestic model. In 2023 Stellantis acquired a 20 per cent stake in Leapmotor, and plans to sell Leapmotor vehicles in Europe. In the long term, vehicles meant for the European market will no longer be built in China but in Europe. It was proposed that the T03 will be built at the Stellantis plant in Tychy, Poland. That was before the EU decided to impose tariffs on imported China EVs.

Leapmotor and Stellantis founded a joint venture called Leapmotor International for the marketing of electric vehicles, including to Malaysia. The first deliveries are scheduled by 2025 to France, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
Leapmotor International will also launch sales in Turkey, the Middle East and Africa including Israel and French overseas territories, the Asia-Pacific region (Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia, India and Nepal) and South America (Brazil and Chile) soon.
Six new models will be introduced starting 2025, with T03 and C10 already launched. In the next three years, Leapmotor International will launch at least one new model every year. For example, Leapmotor C11 is powered by dual electric motors jointly rated at 400 kW (536 hp) and 720 N.m (73.4 kg.m; 531 lb.ft) of torque. The Leapmotor C11 has around 600 km (373 mi) of driving range.

Chinese automakers have a notable cost advantage due to lower labour rates, increased scale, government support and more favourable battery costs as many of the world’s EV batteries or components are sourced from China.

The cost of the Leapmotor T03 shown is a small electric plug-in hybrid city car is around 65,800-75,800 yuan (US$9,280 – US$10,691). It is equipped with a battery pack with a capacity of 36.5 kWh, and a 403 km (250 mi) cruising range.

In Malaysia, Leapmotor C10 EV was recently launched with 218 PS/320 Nm, 69.9 kWh battery, 424 km range, with price from RM149,000. Appearance-wise it was described as “Technology meets aesthetics for the C10 head lamps” in a poster.

The C10 for Malaysia is available only in single-motor rear-wheel drive guise, with the electric motor offering 218 PS (160 kW) and 320 Nm in the way of output to move the 1,980 kg offering from standstill to 100 km/h in 7.5 seconds all the way to a rated top speed of 170 km/h.


A lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery with a 69.9 kWh capacity offers the C10 up to 424 km of WLTP-rated travel (477 km, NEDC) on a single charge. As for charging, the unit can accept a maximum of 84 kW of DC fast charging, up from a 30 to 80 per cent state-of-charge (SoC) in about 30 minutes. With AC, the maximum rate is 6.6 kW, where 6.1 hours is needed to achieve the same SoC.

Measuring 4,739 mm long, 1,900 mm wide, 1,680 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 2,825 mm, the C10 is a D-segment vehicle size competing with Proton X90 and Chery Tiggo 8 Pro from a size viewpoint. While in the EV space, it will compete against models such as BYD Atto 3 and Proton eMas 7. The C10 offers 435 litres of boot volume with the rear seats up, and folding down the 60:40 rear bench increases this capacity to 1,410 litres.


Mechanical highlights include a specifically-tuned suspension unique to the C10 sold in export markets. In this case, dedicated chassis tuning for the SUV in its global form was carried out by Stellantis’ chassis tuning team at Balocco, Italy, where Maserati has its proving ground.
Since 2019 Leapmotor introduced its first domestically-made AI chip dubbed “Lingxin 01” co-developed with Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd designed for its autonomous vehicles featuring deep learning computing power.

Leapmotor also vertically integrates high margin components by developing and building its own components such as electric traction motors, vehicle CPU, and LED lighting.
The visiting journalists were shown the Leap 3.0 Central Integrated Vehicle Architecture chassis and battery setup which is of the fourth generation of safe power storage without fire outbreak risk in case of collision or breakage. In the walkabout above the busy production lines, photography or videography of the process was not permitted.
The core values of the company were described by the spokesperson escorting the visitors are “customer-centricity, integrity, accountability, efficiency, and innovation. Leapmotor’s mission is to deliver the finest smart mobility experience to all customers. Its vision is to become a respected World-Class intelligent electric vehicle company with the slogan of delivering ‘Beyond Your Expectation’.”

She said: “Leapmotor is a technology-driven intelligent EV company with a full suite of R&D capabilities.
“By embracing a win-win cooperation concept, adopting a customer-centric attitude, and pursuing global benefits, Leapmotor will continue to innovate and contribute to sustainable global mobility.
“By upholding a user-centric value proposition, our company is devoted to elevating the full lifecycle experience for vehicle owners. Guided by value maximization, we promise to deliver exceptional products and services.
“Leapmotor strives to master core technologies, create global influence, and establish a reputable corporate image as our company is committed to delivering high-quality intelligent EV products and services.”

Leapmotor is actively shaping the future of sustainable and innovative transportation aiming to be the industry’s leading mass-produced Cell-to-Chassis technology with in-house developed components accounting for 60 per cent of the total vehicle, including electric powertrain and intelligent systems.
It boasts of having the industry’s first high-efficiency three-in-one oil-cooling electric drive with the industry’s first ‘Four-Domain-in-One Central Integrated E/E Software Architecture’. The C10 utilises a NFC card key, which has to be placed on the centre console for the vehicle to be started.
The Central Domain Control System was touted as one set of integrated controllers to control all core modules, which is equivalent to the function of 14 such control boxes of other automobile manufacturers. Its SCU integrates seat electrical adjustment, anti-pitch, ventilation, memory available for 20-way adjustment, 2-channel heating and 4-channel fan speed control with in-house developed smart algorithms.

Its BCMB integrates rear lamp control, rear door lock, rear wiper, lock, charger port/filler cap lock and rear row seat heating and 4 ultrasonic radar detection. HPC is developed based on the NXP S32G platform, 7-core high performance MCU, security level ASILD.
The infotainment system is developed based on the Qualcomm 8295 platform, with 5nm process technology, and the maximum computing power is 30TOPS. It features a 840 watt, 12-speaker surround sound audio system that has been fully-developed in-house by Leapmotor as well as satellite navigation, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
The C10 is equipped with seven airbags, rear parking sensors and a 360-degree camera. It also features a Level 2 ADAS suite with 12 high-precision sensors offering 17 related functions including adaptive cruise control, intelligent speed assist, traffic jam assist, forward collision warning, AEB, lane departure warning, lane keeping assist and emergency lane keeping. However, unlike China, there’s no Lidar on the global C10.

The Leapmotor C10 comes with a six-year/150,000k m warranty, and an eight-year/160,000 km Battery warranty, whichever comes first. Service intervals are fixed at one-year or 20,000 km, whichever comes first.

Ultimately in buying an EV, you are buying mobility with a smart AI computer system with different EV companies offering their own applications software programmes.
Journalists noted that today Chinese firms produce 72 per cent of the world’s solar modules, 69 per cent of its lithium batteries and 45 per cent of its wind turbines. Compared with its 10 per cent of global combustion cars, its 30-40 per cent in EVs suggests it could potentially become a dominant force in the global EV revolution.
Chinese EVs have increasing competitiveness in driving range (+75 per cent), powertrain efficiency (80 per cent + battery-to-wheel efficiency), battery energy density (180kw/kg+ on battery pack), cost (c.10 per cent cost cut y/y) and even intelligence features. This is a result of government industry policies, efficient supply chain, and more and more tech-savvy customers, and those who want to end pollution.

Chinese brands are winning appeal on the strength of exterior and interior styling; components that enhance user experience; and advanced technology, including safety and connected-vehicle features. This has propelled Chinese brands from their long-held position of being laggards in their home market (the world’s biggest) to now owning more than half of the market share in China.

Of the roughly 90 million light vehicles expected to be sold in 2024, only 17 million will be electric and a majority will be sold in China.
The key to fuelling global demand is a willingness to address the hurdles prospective car buyers say stand in the way of them opting for an EV. These include battery range, vehicle cost, and – most of all – concerns about charging infrastructure. Journalists noted that charging infrastructure is well developed in China, as evident in Jinhua where they attended training sessions at Zhejiang Normal University, in Hangzhou where they attended lectures at the Communication University of Zhejiang, and in Shanghai where they visited some prominent landmarks and historical museums.