Leapmotor opens R&D centre in Munich

Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Leapmotor has opened its first innovation center outside its home market. The Stellantis-backed company has now moved into offices in an office building in Parkstadt Schwabing, Munich. The focus of the location is on research and development as well as design.

Leapmotor muenchen innovationszentrum — Image: Leapmotor

With the opening of the Leapmotor Europe Innovation Centre, the company has entered a new phase of its international expansion. Previously, Leapmotor’s innovation centres were located only in the Chinese cities of Hangzhou and Shanghai. However, it remains unclear whether the Munich innovation centre is directly part of the Chinese group or belongs to the joint venture Leapmotor International with Stellantis.

Leapmotor plans to use its new Munich site to tailor its vehicles even more closely to the preferences of European customers. During the inauguration, the recently unveiled A10 model was showcased, which is set to arrive in Europe later this year under the designation B03X. The A10 is based on Leapmotor’s ‘Tech-Natural Aesthetics 2.0’ philosophy and is planned for introduction in nearly 40 countries.

Since partnering with Stellantis, exports have become significantly more important for Leapmotor. Of the 596,555 Leapmotor vehicles sold last year, 67,052 units were exported—helping the company achieve its first annual net profit.

The Leapmotor site in Munich is expected to remain relatively small. The building at Georg-Muche-Straße 4 in Parkstadt Schwabing, north of Munich, is a multi-tenant office facility where most occupants lease space on a floor-by-floor basis. An initial workforce of up to 100 employees is considered realistic.

Leapmotor is far from the first Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer to open an innovation centre in Munich. Previously, Nio, Xpeng, Xiaomi, and Li Auto have all established R&D and/or design centres in the city.

stellantis.com, cnevpost.com, weibo.com (Chinese)