Target BYD Shark 6! Leapmotor lands in Australia and declares it is studying a pick-up truck as ambitious global expansion ramps up

January 23, 2025January 22, 2025 Bruce Newton 577 Views 0 Comments Leapmotor, Leapmotor C10, REEV

The Chinese brand Leapmotor has confirmed it is assessing whether to add a ute to its line-up, while a Toyota Landcruiser-style 4×4 off-roader could also be a potential candidate..

Leapmotor, which is now launching in Australia with the C10 electric mid-size SUV, is only weeks into a study of both pick-ups and commercial vans.

None of these vehicles are anywhere near a green-lighted program and if eventually signed off wouldn’t grace showrooms until close to the end of the decade.

The study of possible ute/pick-up truck (a ChatGPT render above illustrates this story) and commercial programs was confirmed to Australian media during an online interview by Leapmotor International’s head of product and market, Francesco Giacalone.

“It’s the advanced planning exercise we are doing,” he said. “Two weeks ago I got Leapmotor calling me saying ‘Francesco‘we need to assess globally the potential for Leapmotor to produce a pick-up truck and LCVs (light commercial vehicles)’.”

While Leapmotor has so far built only passenger cars and light-duty soft-roaders – and those types of vehicles fill its future model calendar out to 2028 – branching out into the 4×4 utes and off-roaders loved by Aussies, as well as vans, sounds entirely feasible.

For a start, Leapmotor doesn’t only build pure battery electric vehicles, but also range-extender petrol-electric plug-in hybrids.

That’s the same sort of powertrain as featured in the BYD Shark 6 ute, which is seen as particularly applicable to 4x4s because it alleviates the range limitations imposed by pure EVs.

The new C10 REEV (Range Extender Electric Vehicle) unveiled in Europe and expected to come to Australia late in 2025 claims a 145km electric-only WLTP range and a combined range of up to 950km.

The other factor is that Leapmotor International is a joint-venture between Leapmotor and Stellantis, the umbrella company that includes 4×4 expert Jeep and pick-up truck expert RAM among its brands.

How a 2029 Leapmotor 4x4 could look - according to ChatGPT. — How a 2029 Leapmotor 4×4 could look – according to ChatGPT.

Those two are already developing PHEVs and EVs and a bit of technology and expertise sharing with Leapmotor International would seem entirely feasible.

Expanding into pick-ups, SUVs and commercial vehicles would also help support the ambitious sales targets of Leapmotor International, which wants to be selling 500,000 vehicles annually outside China by 2030.

“I say ‘woah, it’s a jump’,” said Giacalone of the pick-up study request which came from China.

“But that tells you how those guys are open minded to enter any possible category and any possible product.

“I truly wake up every morning not knowing what I will find in my inbox in terms of new project and new requests.”

Giacalone described the pick-up and SUV as being at the stage of “potential assessment”.

“You start with what the consumer will need, where and what will be developed for that project.

“And then from there you start to look at the financials. Who will build it, how much you can sell it and then you start to narrow down the broad program equation.

“The advantage of Leapmotor is that it is honing and developing constantly a lot of technologies, so at the end there will be a lot of synergies between the product that exist and what can be created.

“That’s one of the advantages of course. Low hanging fruits will be in the commercial vehicle, more difficult will be the pick-up truck.

“But who knows. It’s not in the plan right now … but we are studying everything.”