TapTechNews May 14th - Zero Run Auto and European automotive giant Stellantis held a joint press conference today, announcing the official establishment of Leapmotor International.
Leapmotor International is a joint venture established by Stellantis and Zero Run Auto in a 51%:49% ratio, with Stellantis leading the joint venture and having comprehensive internal development capabilities.
At the press conference, Stellantis global CEO Don Wienshi announced:
Leapmotor International will start sales in Europe from September 2024, involving countries such as Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, and Portugal. The plan is to expand the European sales network to 200 stores by the end of the year and to 500 stores by 2026.
Starting in the fourth quarter of 2024, Leapmotor International will enter India and the Asia-Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia), the Middle East and Africa (Turkey, Israel, French overseas territories), and South America (Brazil, Chile);
From 2025 onwards, 6 new models will be successively launched;
The T03 and C10 models will be the first to be launched, and in the next three years, Leapmotor International will launch at least one new model every year.
Zero Run Auto CEO Zhu Jiangming stated that based on self-developed technology, they will launch 2-3 products annually in the Chinese market over the next three years.
On October 26th of last year, Zero Run Auto announced that Stellantis plans to invest approximately 15 billion euros (TapTechNews note: approximately 117.15 billion RMB) to acquire about 20% of Zero Run Auto's equity, and at the same time, the two parties plan to establish a joint venture named Leapmotor International. Apart from Greater China, this joint venture has the exclusive rights to export and sell products to all other global markets, as well as the exclusive rights to manufacture Zero Run Auto products locally.
According to the plan, this year Zero Run will enter overseas markets through exports. Stellantis officials have stated that the goal of Leapmotor International is to sell 500,000 vehicles outside the Chinese market by 2030.
Yesterday evening, Don Wienshi visited Zero Run Auto headquarters, met with Zhu Jiangming, and rode in the new Zero Run car - the mid-size SUV C16.