- The Leapmotor B10 secured over 15,010 pre-orders one hour after the start of pre-sales, with the LiDAR-equipped variants accounting for 73 percent of the total.
- The official launch of the B10 will be in April, and Leapmotor is targeting monthly sales of at least 40,000 B-series models.
Leapmotor (HKG: 9863), the Chinese new energy vehicle (NEV) maker backed by Stellantis NV (NYSE: STLA), has begun pre-sales of the B10 SUV (sport utility vehicle), bringing LiDAR to a lower-priced model.
Leapmotor announced the start of pre-sales of the B10, the first model in its B-series, at an event today, with a starting price of RMB 109,800 ($15,130).
The all-electric B10 is available for pre-sales in five variants, including three with a CLTC range of 510 kilometers, with starting prices of RMB 109,800, RMB 119,800, and RMB 129,800, respectively.
The other two variants have a range of 600 kilometers and start at RMB 129,800 and RMB 139,800 respectively.
Leapmotor calls the two highest-priced variants of both the 510-km and 510-km versions the smart driving Edition, and both are equipped with an ATX LiDAR provided by Hesai (NASDAQ: HSAI).
Hesai is also the LiDAR supplier for Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI), one of Leapmotor's main competitors.
Leapmotor said the B10 is the first in the EV industry to feature LiDAR in a product priced as low as RMB 130,000, resulting in more powerful and intelligent driving capabilities.
The official launch of the B10 will be in April, and customers who pre-order the model now can get up to RMB 8,800 in perks.
Shortly after the model started accepting pre-orders, Leapmotor announced on Weibo that the B10 received over 15,010 pre-orders in its first hour, with the LiDAR-equipped variants accounting for 73 percent of the total.
The B10 is a compact SUV and is Leapmotor's first built on the Leap 3.5 architecture.
The model measures 4,515 mm in length, 1,885 mm in width and 1,655 mm in height and has a wheelbase of 2,735 mm.
It is powered by a rear-mounted single electric motor, with the entry variant having an electric motor with a peak power of 132 kW and peak torque of 175 Nm, which allows the vehicle to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 9.3 seconds.
The other variants have a peak power of 160 kW and a peak torque of 240 Nm, allowing the vehicle to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.8 seconds.
The three variants with a range of 510 kilometers are powered by a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery pack with a capacity of 56.2 kWh, while the two variants with a range of 600 kilometers are powered by an LFP battery pack with a capacity of 67.1 kWh.
With DC fast charging, the B10 can be charged from 30 percent to 80 percent in about 20 minutes.
The model's LiDAR-equipped variants uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 cockpit chip and the smart driving chip is the Qualcomm 8650.
The other variants use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 cockpit chip and the smart driving chip is not mentioned.
After the B10's pre-sale launch event, Leapmotor management said in an interview that the company is targeting monthly sales of at least 40,000 units for the B-series models, surpassing the C-series.
Leapmotor currently delivers the T03, C01, C10, C11, and C16 in China, with all but the T03 available in both battery electric vehicle (BEV) and extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) variants.
It delivered 25,287 vehicles in February, up 285 percent from 6,566 in the same month last year, and essentially flat from 25,170 in January, according to data released by the company on March 1.
In January-February, Leapmotor delivered 50,457 units, up 167.78 percent from 18,843 in the same period last year.
Leapmotor is targeting full-year deliveries of 500,000 vehicles by 2025, it previously said.
($1 = RMB 7.2577)
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