‘Chinese Leapmotor has started production in Poland’

The Polish production of Leapmotor models did not come completely out of the blue. Leapmotor is partly owned by the Stellantis group, which previously announced that Leapmotor would take the leap into Europe. We were also able to share with you the rumor that Leapmotor would start building cars for the European market in Poland. We now hear via Reuters and Jefferies analysts that (pre-)production has now started in Tychy, Poland. This would be a cautious test series before mass production starts in September. The fact that a Leapmotor T03 with a Polish license plate has already been spotted gives a good indication that this is the plan.

Yes: of all the models from the portfolio of this young brand, the choice would have been the T03. At 3.62 meters it is even shorter than a Dacia Spring, but is technologically up to date with, among other things, adaptive cruise control and active lane assistant. A 39 kWh battery provides a range of more than 400 kilometers in China, but in Europe it is good for 280 WLTP kilometers.

The Tychy factory has been the place where the conventional Fiat 500 has been rolling off the production line since 2007. This model can still be found on Fiat’s website, but this will change very soon. Fiat initially planned to eventually completely replace the 500 with the fully electric and completely new 500e, but recently changed its mind. The new model, intended purely as an EV, will still have a combustion engine under the hood, because the model would not be able to attract enough buyers with pure electric power. Fiat is currently building the new 500 in Italy, which would free up production space in Poland for Leapmotor products.

With European production, Leapmotor would outsmart many competitors, because there is a threat of a hefty import tax on cars built in China. In any case, Stellantis would be wise to reserve factories outside Italy as much as possible for products with a non-Italian brand name. If Italian products are built outside Italy, this quickly causes trouble with the authorities.