Leapmotor Reveals Robotics Plans, Major ADAS Upgrade Coming in September

Hangzhou-based electric-vehicle maker Leapmotor is planning to enter the robotics business and will unveil a major upgrade to its advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) in September, the company disclosed during its 2026 interim results conference call on August 24.

The company reported first-half revenue of 38.11 billion RMB (approx. $5.3 billion), up 57.2% from 24.25 billion RMB in the same period of 2025, driven primarily by increased vehicle deliveries. Net profit rose to 210 million RMB (approx. $29.2 million) from just 30 million RMB a year earlier — a jump of roughly 600%.

Leapmotor delivered 356,500 vehicles in the first six months of 2026, up 60.8% year on year, ranking fourth globally among new-energy passenger-car brands by sales. Export volume surged 372.6% to 96,300 units, already surpassing the entire 2025 export total and accounting for 27% of total H1 sales. In July, monthly deliveries topped 100,000 for the first time, reaching 101,300 units.

Robotics and Autonomous Driving on the Horizon

CFO Li Tengfei confirmed during the call that Leapmotor has added robotics to the business scope of a newly incorporated subsidiary and has "its own plan" for the sector. "We believe NEV manufacturers with full-stack in-house development capabilities are among the best positioned to build embodied robots," he said, adding that the company will announce "specific information about robotics in the near future."

On intelligent driving, Li previewed a September technology conference where Leapmotor will reveal a new ADAS product built on a fresh architecture. "Compared to our current system, the upgrade will represent a huge, leapfrog-level improvement," he said. The company attributed its relatively efficient R&D spending to a strategic shift late last year toward a physics-model-based approach, combined with a large fleet of vehicles now generating real-world driving data.

Leapmotor also confirmed it has layout across L2+, L3 and L4 technology, covering both intelligent-driving hardware and intelligent-chassis systems.

Overseas Targets Raised to 350,000–400,000 Units

For 2026, Leapmotor now expects overseas sales of around 200,000 units, comfortably above its original 150,000-unit challenge target. Next year's outlook is far more ambitious: the company set a new overseas-sales target of 350,000 to 400,000 units, with Europe remaining the largest market and significant growth expected in South America, Southeast Asia, Australia and Greater China.

The company is leveraging its partnership with Stellantis for localized production. The B10 model will begin local manufacturing at a Stellantis plant in Spain in October. First-year local output is expected to reach approximately 50,000 units as the two companies work through initial coordination, with the potential for higher volumes if favorable policy shifts emerge.

Profitability Pressure and 2027 Product Wave

Despite strong top-line growth, margin pressure remains. H1 gross margin came in at 11.7%, down 2.4 percentage points from a year earlier, weighed down by rising raw-material costs. The full-year net-profit target set at the beginning of the year was around 5 billion RMB (approx. $694 million), but Li acknowledged that reaching this figure has become very difficult; the company now expects annual net profit closer to 3 billion RMB (approx. $417 million) and gross margin around 13–14%, with整车毛利率 (complete-vehicle gross margin) at 10–11%.

Looking ahead to 2027, Li described it as "a very big product year" for Leapmotor. New model launches will outnumber those in 2026, with fresh products planned across both the D-series and C-series, including next-generation variants of existing lines. The company is now focused on optimizing the launch schedule to ensure each new model debuts at an optimal market moment.