- Leapmotor’s first-half net profit rose to 210 million yuan ($30.95 million), marking its second consecutive half-year of profitability.
- Rising deliveries lifted revenue and gross profit, but gross margin, operating cash flow and free cash flow all declined year-on-year.
Leapmotor (HKEX: 9863) said its first-half net profit surged 600% year-on-year to 210 million yuan ($30.95 million), marking its second consecutive half-year of profitability. Net profit was 30 million yuan in the same period last year.
The automaker, backed by Stellantis NV (NYSE: STLA), said Monday that first-half revenue rose 57.2% year-on-year to 38.11 billion yuan, mainly driven by increased deliveries of vehicles and spare parts.
Leapmotor delivered 356,487 vehicles in the first half, up 60.8% year-on-year. The company said it ranked first among China’s emerging auto brands by sales.
However, the sales expansion has yet to fully translate into stronger earnings quality.
First-half gross profit rose 29.7% year-on-year to 4.45 billion yuan, but gross margin narrowed to 11.7% from 14.1%. Leapmotor attributed the decline to rising raw material costs and changes in its vehicle product mix.
Gross margin reached 12.6% in the second quarter, up 3.2 percentage points from the first quarter, indicating that profitability had begun to recover sequentially.
Excluding share-based payments, first-half non-IFRS adjusted net profit fell 18.2% year-on-year to 270 million yuan. That suggests the sharp increase in reported net profit partly reflected lower share-based payment expenses.
Net cash generated from operating activities was 2.17 billion yuan, down 24.1% year-on-year. Leapmotor said advance inventory stocking increased procurement spending.
Free cash flow fell 83.7% to 140 million yuan from 860 million yuan in the same period last year.
As of the end of June, Leapmotor’s cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, time deposits and certain financial assets totaled 38.59 billion yuan.
Research and development expenses rose 22.8% year-on-year to 2.32 billion yuan. Selling expenses increased 41.1% to 1.99 billion yuan, mainly due to greater advertising and promotional activity and an increase in sales personnel.
Overseas markets are emerging as an important second growth driver. First-half exports surged 372.6% year-on-year to 96,294 vehicles, accounting for 27.0% of total sales and already exceeding the full-year 2025 figure.
Leapmotor management said during the earnings call that overseas sales could reach about 200,000 vehicles in 2026. It is targeting 350,000 to 400,000 overseas sales in 2027 and aims to reach the upper end of that range.
Meanwhile, achieving the full-year sales target of 1,000,000 vehicles will require a faster delivery pace.
Leapmotor delivered 457,754 vehicles in the first 7 months of the year, completing 45.8% of its full-year target. That means it needs average monthly deliveries of about 108,449 vehicles over the remaining 5 months, above July’s record of 101,267.
The company is relying on new models including the A10, D19 and A05 to narrow the gap. The D19 delivered 10,043 units in July, while the 100,000th A10 rolled off the production line 135 days after the model’s launch.
In assisted driving, Leapmotor said city navigation assistance is now available across its A, B, C and D series.
The company plans to roll out nationwide city navigation assistance to models based on the LEAP3.0 architecture in the third quarter and introduce a new-architecture assisted-driving solution in September.
An executive said Leapmotor will make efforts across multiple areas in the second half to get as close as possible to its sales target.
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