Leapmotor reveals LEAP 5.0 vehicle platform, second brand due in Q4 2027
Leapmotor used its Technology Day in Huzhou to show off LEAP 5.0, a new whole-vehicle platform that will also underpin a second brand arriving in late 2027.
- More than 19%
- 65%
- Q4 2027
What Happened
Leapmotor's 2026 Technology Day took place in Huzhou, in Zhejiang province, China, on September 17, 2026, and the company used the occasion to reveal a new whole-vehicle platform, LEAP 5.0. Zhu Jiangming, the company's founder, chairman and chief executive, said a second brand is planned, with the first cars reaching customers in the final three months of 2027. That brand will debut with LEAP 5.0 on board, he said.
Leapmotor holds a two-day technology showcase in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, and presents LEAP 5.0.
The planned second Leapmotor brand is due to start deliveries, with LEAP 5.0 as its first architecture.
- Clover 5.0, a centrally integrated electronic and electrical architecture
- 48-volt power distribution across the whole vehicle, plus automotive Ethernet
- CTC 3.0, which merges high- and low-voltage battery functions and does away with the usual separate low-voltage battery
- An MM-i multi-mode hybrid electric drive
- LWM, the company's world model, running an end-to-end intelligent driving system
More than 19percent
LEAP 5.0 frees up passenger room by integrating the air-conditioning module and placing the powertrain at the rear.
Zhu tied the platform to cost control as well as packaging. He said the company holds 65 percent of a vehicle's cost inside its own operations through full-domain development and deep self-manufacturing. The layout, which packs components tightly to save space, is meant to create what Leapmotor describes as a third mobile space. The second brand will be the first to use the architecture when deliveries begin in late 2027.
Why this matters
Leapmotor is making two commitments at once: a new vehicle platform and a second brand that will launch on it. For buyers and rivals, the points to watch are the cabin-space gain the company claims for the platform and its statement that it keeps most of a vehicle's cost in-house. No prices or specific models were announced.
Terms in This Story
- electronic and electrical (E/E) architecture
- The set of computers, wiring and power links that connect a vehicle's systems and govern how they exchange information.
- 48-volt power distribution
- A low-voltage electrical standard higher than the traditional 12-volt setup, letting a car run more powerful onboard electronics with lighter wiring.
- CTC
- A battery approach in which cells are built directly into the vehicle's structural floor instead of being assembled into a separate pack.
- end-to-end
- A machine-learning design in which a single neural network turns raw sensor input straight into driving commands, instead of following hand-written rules.
A brief summary; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.