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Author | Chai Xuchen
Editor | Zhou Zhiyu
The first quarter is traditionally a low season, with most new forces still hovering between 30,000 and 40,000 units.
Leapmotor, however, saw its delivery volume return to a high point in March, recording 50,029 units. Cumulative deliveries for the first quarter exceeded 110,000 units, reclaiming its position on the throne of the new forces.
Breaking it down, the C and B series have gradually established a solid foothold, the A series has got off to a flying start, the flagship D series is poised for launch, and overseas sales hit a historical high of 40,000 units in a single quarter. It was the simultaneous advancement of product lines, supply chains, and overseas expansion channels that supported these figures.
At a time when industry differentiation is becoming increasingly apparent, this stable upward trajectory has become a rarity. From a longer-term perspective, Leapmotor's growth certainty did not start just now; it has been gradually accumulated through strategic execution over the past year.
Since August 2024, Chairman Zhu Jiangming and core shareholder Fu Liquan have increased their holdings multiple times, with a cumulative amount approaching 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars over a span of more than half a year. The underlying message is that the company has reached a new cyclical milestone, and management is willing to back it with substantial capital.
It appears that Leapmotor is running smoothly and steadily in the second half of the race. However, Zhu Jiangming told Wall Street News that the domestic market cannot accommodate the 17 (existing) car companies, and the elimination round continues. All Leapmotor can do is try its best not to fall behind and ensure it doesn't leave the table first.
<h2>Reclaiming the &#34;50,000&#34; High Ground</h2>
Having passed the traditional low season of February, Leapmotor's delivery volume in March returned to the 50,000-unit high ground, representing a month-on-month increase of approximately 80% and a year-on-year growth of 35%. In terms of volume, Leapmotor remains in the first tier of the new forces.
It is worth noting that in the first quarter of this year, Leapmotor's monthly delivery volumes fluctuated, with 32,059 units in January and 28,067 units in February, and it was even overtaken by Xiaomi Auto in January.
In just two months, Leapmotor completed its bottoming out and rebound. It didn't need a price war, nor did it rely on a single model to sustain volume; the B and C series recovered across the board, and the A10 became an instant hit upon its launch, setting a record for the fastest time to reach 10,000 firm orders in Leapmotor's history.
On March 30, Zhu Jiangming shared the order data for the previous weekend on his Moments: 4,394 firm orders on Saturday and 4,692 on Sunday, totaling more than 9,000 units over two days.
These are not mere expressions of intent, but actual firm orders, which are essentially equivalent to delivery data. More than 9,000 firm orders in a single weekend signifies that Leapmotor's sales will enter a phase of explosive growth starting in April.
Channel insiders analyze that if production capacity can keep pace, Leapmotor's delivery volume in April will return to more than 60,000 vehicles.
And this is only the beginning. Next, Leapmotor will move aggressively to capture market share across multiple price points. The Lafa5-Ultra version and the high-end D19 model will both be launched in the second quarter, and the A05, the second model in the A series, is also imminent.
According to what Zhu Jiangming told Wall Street News, Leapmotor will release a new car every month in the first half of the year, followed by two more models from the C and B series. The new car releases for this year will be completed in the first half, &#34;just like a train schedule, where the release and arrival of each model are planned.&#34;
Delivery volumes and product planning are only half the story; the more noteworthy figures come from overseas.
In the first quarter, Leapmotor's exports exceeded 40,000 units, equivalent to 60% of the total for the entire previous year, setting a new historical high. Zhu Jiangming stated frankly that this &#34;far exceeded our expectations.&#34; In the interview, Zhu followed up by setting an overseas sales KPI of 150,000 units for this year, more than double last year's figure.
The domestic market is already a zero-sum game, and incremental space overseas is becoming a key indicator for measuring the stamina of a new energy vehicle (NEV) company. Leapmotor has clearly moved past the testing phase and has begun to enter the channel of large-scale international expansion.
With new car volume combined with the overseas peak season, Leapmotor's second-quarter sales are highly likely to see both year-on-year and month-on-month increases.
Where does the resilience come from for a brand once questioned by the market on &#34;how far a low-end volume strategy can go&#34;? It is not based on a single hit, but on a system that is currently taking shape.
<h2>Systematic Operations Take Shape</h2>
Leapmotor's growth over the past few years has a distinct characteristic: the closer it moves to mainstream price points, the more its product competitiveness becomes an advantage. The C11 established a stable reputation in the 150,000-yuan segment, the C10 has seen steady shipments in the family market, and the B series provides scale elasticity in the 100,000-yuan range.
The change this year, however, is that products are no longer being pushed along single lines but have formed a matrix. The addition of the A10 and D19 has fully opened up this matrix for the first time. This change is not a common phenomenon among Chinese NEV companies, but it is often the key to determining who can enter the next stage of competition.
There is a widespread anxiety in the current NEV industry: the half-life of the &#34;new car effect&#34; is getting shorter and shorter. When a new car is launched, its popularity might only last two to three months, after which the next new car is needed to take over. Consequently, the entire industry has been swept into a &#34;new product race&#34;—constantly releasing new cars, constantly creating buzz, and constantly using marketing budgets to maintain exposure.
A senior executive from a new force pointed out to Wall Street News that the problem with this model is that it builds a company's growth on the premise of &#34;always having something new to release.&#34; Once the rhythm of new car releases is interrupted, sales immediately drop.
Leapmotor has taken a somewhat different path.
According to cost-performance ranking data from Jielan Road, Leapmotor has six models in the TOP 5 in the most competitive 100,000 to 150,000-yuan price range. Among them, the B and C series have been on the market for a considerable time yet still occupy leading positions in their market segments.
They have not been abandoned by users as time passed since their launch; instead, they have continued to accumulate reputation and sales, becoming evergreen products. This shows that Leapmotor's products have formed a systematic differentiation effect.
An industry insider told Wall Street News that evergreen products are much harder to create than blockbusters. &#34;A blockbuster can be achieved through precise product definition, an outstanding launch event, and a wave of intensive marketing. But keeping a car highly popular six months or a year after its launch depends on the accumulated reputation of product quality, sales and service satisfaction, and most fundamentally, whether the value-for-money really stands the test of time.&#34;
The industry often says that &#34;internet-famous products are hard to sustain,&#34; and Leapmotor's path is exactly the opposite. In Zhu Jiangming's eyes, Leapmotor has never been a company that &#34;gambles&#34; on growth with blockbusters; instead, it relies on a steady upward product curve and stable cost reduction through its self-developed system.
In the early stages, this model means heavier asset investment and longer payback periods, but once it works, the cost advantages it brings are structural—not by squeezing supplier profits to lower prices, but by lowering costs through the R&amp;D and manufacturing processes themselves.
This explains why Leapmotor can launch six cars simultaneously in the extremely competitive 100,000 to 150,000-yuan price range, with each maintaining a competitive quality-to-price ratio. It's not about losing money to gain publicity, but rather that after technological investment reaches a certain stage, cost advantages begin to be released in the form of a product matrix.
When a car company can maintain a steady state for multiple models over the long term, its growth model naturally becomes more cycle-resistant. In today's industry where a new car can become outdated in three months, this is more valuable than any single-month blockbuster.
<h2>Marching Towards the Million-Unit Club</h2>
The Chinese NEV industry has shown clear differentiation since 2026: leading companies are breaking through upward with intelligent capabilities, mid-sized companies are competing for the main market through cost efficiency, and brands in the middle are wavering between seeking stability and scale.
Leapmotor has historically been in the upper-middle position—sizeable in scale but yet to form an irreversible industry standing. This year, that status may reach a turning point.
Looking at Leapmotor's data over the past three years, it has been hovering at the threshold of &#34;stable growth&#34; and &#34;scale leap.&#34; The product matrix has gradually formed, the cost structure has been continuously optimized, and overseas sales have moved from a testing phase into a scale period, but these factors had not previously joined forces at the same point in time. This year is different: all key variables have begun to tilt in the same direction at once.
The A10 is entering its volume expansion phase, the D19 has reached its release milestone, the B/C series are maintaining a steady output, the overseas market is entering its seasonal peak, and full-stack self-research continues to compress cost margins. The 50,000 units in March are the result of these conditions aligning for the first time.
This year, Leapmotor no longer relies on a single model, but on a matrix. It no longer relies solely on the domestic market, but on parallel domestic and international operations. This growth method may not look aggressive, but it is healthier and better suited for entering the threshold of a million-unit scale.
One million units is not just a sales goal, but the threshold for a company to enter the &#34;million-unit annual shipment&#34; club, and there are actually not many companies in China that can stand near this threshold for the long term. In fact, management has already begun placing their bets.
On April 1, Leapmotor announced that Zhu Jiangming and core shareholder Fu Liquan had recently increased their holdings again, spending 230 million Hong Kong dollars to add 5.08 million shares. Since August 2024, the cumulative increase by the two has approached 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars. In an information-asymmetric capital market, this is usually interpreted as insiders believing the company's current stock price undervalues its intrinsic value.
Of course, achieving the million-unit goal still faces obvious challenges. Whether production capacity can keep up, whether the speed of channel penetration and overseas expansion can match the needs of sales growth, whether the D series' attempt to move the brand upward can truly be established... none of these questions can be answered with certainty in advance and will require actual data from the next three quarters to verify.
Zhu Jiangming is clearly aware of this. He told Wall Street News frankly that there are about 17 car manufacturers in China, but the domestic market cannot accommodate so many players. Leapmotor must maintain a clear understanding at all times: to avoid being eliminated and to stay at the table, it must be serious, extremely hardworking, and diligent, improving a little bit every year.
Fortunately, Leapmotor's certainty has become increasingly evident; it has passed the stage where it most needed to prove to the market that it &#34;can survive.&#34; The first-quarter data indicates that its product system, cost structure, and globalization capabilities have formed a relatively solid foundation.
The foundation for growth has been established; next, it remains to be seen how Leapmotor maintains this momentum and further uses scale to trade for a further upgrade of the brand.
Zhu Jiangming is right: the number of people at the table will only decrease, and only those who remain are qualified to talk about the next step.

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- In the first quarter, Leap Motor successfully delivered 50,029 vehicles in March, totaling over 110,000 for the quarter, securing its position as a leading new energy vehicle maker.  
- The company's strategy involves a diverse product matrix, including the A10 and D19 models, contributing to its robust export performance of over 40,000 vehicles.  
- CEO Zhu Jiangming emphasizes that while competition is fierce, Leap Motor's sustainable growth relies on a well-established product system and solid cost structure, aiming to reach the million-unit sales threshold.

Leapmotor Reclaims the Throne of the New Forces