Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Leapmotor is stepping up its channel expansion. On the evening of Jan. 5, the company said it has recently opened 85 new stores. As of Jan. 4, 2026, its nationwide network crossed the 1,000-store mark to reach 1,068, building a wide-coverage, tightly coordinated sales and service system. The build-out both carries forward its 2025 market performance and is a key move to attack the 2026 goal of 1 million annual sales — part of a new-decade strategy to move "from following to leading."
Structured channel expansion: a 1,000-store network that completes the end-market footprint
The 85 newly added stores reflect a structured expansion based on user needs and market planning, while simultaneously strengthening full-chain capabilities across sales, deliveries and after-sales service.
Image source: Leapmotor (same below)
Starting Nov. 4, 2025, Leapmotor advanced three store formats in parallel to form a clear, complementary channel matrix. Of these, 23 Leapmotor Centers are located in core auto retail districts and serve as comprehensive terminals integrating sales, delivery and after-sales for one-stop buying and ownership; 58 Experience Centers sit in high-traffic venues such as malls and city showrooms and focus on brand presence and product demos; 4 Service Centers are placed in concentrated vehicle repair hubs, focusing on mechanical, body and paint work to fill geographic gaps in service coverage and lift professional standards at the terminal.
In aggregate, Leapmotor now operates 407 Leapmotor Centers, 543 Experience Centers and 118 Service Centers nationwide. Sales outlets cover 295 cities, while service outlets reach 200. The layout prioritizes channel operating efficiency: Experience Centers drive traffic and brand exposure; Leapmotor Centers handle customer conversion and end-to-end services; Service Centers safeguard the full ownership lifecycle. Together they create a closed-loop operating system that supports sales growth.
The pace of expansion is closely tied to market expectations and organizational capability. In a 10th-anniversary internal letter, founder and chairman Zhu Jiangming stressed that scale must be matched by stronger systems, with efficiency gains in marketing and retail as the core. A thousand-store network can efficiently absorb demand for a broader product lineup, and, by staying close to users at the terminal, capture precise feedback that in turn informs R&D and iterative upgrades — building a positive cycle across R&D, manufacturing, sales and service.
Technology and strategy as twin engines: from a profit breakthrough to a sprint at the million mark
The push to expand channels rests on Leapmotor's 2025 operating performance. Company data show it delivered 597,000 vehicles in 2025, up 103% year on year. On profitability, Leapmotor achieved a phase breakthrough, staying in the black for three consecutive quarters in 2025 with cumulative net profit of RMB 180 million. It is on track to meet its annual profit target — becoming, after Li Auto, the second profitable NEV startup, a validation of its business model.
Growth in both sales and earnings is anchored in Leapmotor's commitment to full-stack in-house R&D. Zhu underscored in his letter that this system-level capability is the company's core competitive edge, spanning its entire development cycle.
Today, more than 70% of core components by function are self-developed and produced, covering vehicle architecture, E/E architecture, the tri-electric system and autonomous driving chips. Self-developed/self-produced parts account for 65% of total vehicle cost. Leveraging that advantage, Leapmotor has brought key technologies into mass production, including the LEAP 3.5 central domain controller, an 800V high-voltage platform and the OneBox chassis braking system, while pushing high-end features such as lidar and high-compute chips down to volume models — true to its "good and affordable" positioning. New launches and refreshed models in 2025, including the B10, B01 and Lafa5, performed steadily, and the C10 topped 20,000 units in a single month, establishing itself as a mainstream choice in its segment and giving the channel expansion solid product backing.
Beyond technology and products, strategic collaboration is bolstering Leapmotor's scale-up. In late 2025, the company forged a partnership with FAW, which invested RMB 3.744 billion at a premium. Beyond capital ties, the two sides are cooperating across R&D, production and the supply chain. FAW's strengths in industrial layout, manufacturing systems and policy know-how complement Leapmotor's advantages in NEV core technologies and intelligent iteration, providing safeguards on capacity and supply chain stability as Leapmotor scales.
Leapmotor is also steadily advancing globalization. In 2025, it entered 35 new overseas markets, with more than 800 overseas stores. Overseas deliveries are poised to exceed 60,000 for the year, with monthly orders peaking above 10,000. That builds an overseas growth curve that dovetails with its domestic channel footprint.
Marking its 10-year milestone, Leapmotor set clear medium- to long-term goals. In his internal letter, Zhu said the company will push for 1 million annual sales in 2026, while establishing a new-decade target of 4 million a year under the "from follower to leader" strategy. To get there, Leapmotor mapped out four core thrusts: technological innovation, product quality, overseas expansion and organizational agility. As the vital link to users, a thousand-store network that keeps improving will be central to the 2026 push for 1 million.
Competition in China's NEV market will intensify further in 2026, and Leapmotor's channel build-out is tightly aligned with its technology and strategy. With the new Lafa5 fastback and the A10 — an intelligent model priced around RMB 100,000 — rolling out and beginning deliveries, and with the channel's ability to convert customers reinforcing the synergy from the FAW partnership, Leapmotor is steadily advancing its ambition to become a respected world-class automaker.
