Leapmotor A05. Credit: Leapmotor
- Typhoon Dolphin made landfall twice in Zhejiang on August 9, packing maximum winds of 42 meters per second near its center.
- Leapmotor’s A05 launch event will now be held at 6:30 pm Beijing Time on August 11 in Hangzhou.
Leapmotor (HKEX: 9863) has pushed back the launch event for its compact electric vehicle (EV), the A05, by one day, after Typhoon Dolphin hit Zhejiang province, where the company is headquartered.
The event, originally set for August 10, will now be held at 6:30 pm Beijing Time on August 11 in Hangzhou, senior vice president Cao Li said on Weibo on Monday.
Typhoon Dolphin made landfall on the coast of Yuhuan city in Zhejiang at around 5:30 pm Beijing Time on August 9, with maximum winds of 42 meters per second near its center. It made a second landfall in Wenzhou about an hour later.
China’s National Meteorological Center issued its second red typhoon alert of the year on August 9. The China Meteorological Administration raised its emergency response for major meteorological disasters to the second-highest level.
Dolphin is the first typhoon on record to form near the International Date Line and make landfall in China at tropical storm intensity or above. It traveled more than 6,000 kilometers before landfall and had a lifespan of more than 15 days.
Leapmotor is not the only automaker to reschedule. Freelander, the brand jointly built by Chery (HKEX: 9973) and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), last week postponed the pre-sales event for its first model, the Freelander 8, to August 14 from August 10.
That event was originally set to be held in Changshu, Jiangsu province. “Safety always comes first,” Freelander global CMO Zhou Wen said on Weibo on August 6.
The A05 is critical for Leapmotor. The Stellantis NV (NYSE: STLA)-backed automaker delivered 101,267 vehicles globally in July, topping 100,000 in a single month for the first time and up 102.01% year-on-year.
Still, its deliveries in the first seven months totaled 457,754 units, or about 46% of its 2026 target of 1 million. It would need to average more than 108,000 deliveries a month over the remaining five months to hit that goal.
The A05 opened for pre-orders on July 27, with no pricing information disclosed. Customers can place an order with a 99 yuan ($15) deposit and receive 5,000 exclusive energy points.
The model measures 4,200 millimeters long, 1,800 millimeters wide and 1,560 millimeters tall, with a wheelbase of 2,605 millimeters. While classified as a sedan in China, it is in fact a compact hatchback.
The A05 offers battery packs of 39.8 kWh and 53 kWh, giving CLTC ranges of 405 kilometers and 510 kilometers respectively.
The cabin is one of its selling points. The car comes standard with a Qualcomm 8295 chip, an 8.88-inch instrument cluster and a 14.6-inch center screen, plus a 12-speaker audio system that supports microphone-free karaoke.
The A05 comes in seven colors and features a floating roof, semi-hidden door handles and smiley-face taillights. LiDAR is optional.
It is the second model on Leapmotor’s A platform after the A10 small SUV (sport utility vehicle), and will take on the BYD (HKEX: 1211) Dolphin and the Geely Auto (HKEX: 0175) Xingyuan.
For reference, the A10 went on sale in March at prices ranging from 65,800 yuan to 86,800 yuan, and set a record with 26,804 units sold in June.
The A10 is Leapmotor’s fastest model to reach the 100,000-unit production milestone.
($1 = 6.7904 yuan)
