Words: Richard Edwards
Published 19 August 2026
Leapmotor is doubling its New Zealand line-up, lifting its warranty from four years to six and tripling its dealer network, as the Chinese EV brand resets after a slow start in this market.
The B03X compact SUV opens at $37,990 plus on-road costs for the Life grade, with the better-equipped Design at $42,990. It offers up to 382km of WLTP range and can DC fast-charge from 30 to 80 per cent in 16 minutes. New Zealand is one of the first markets outside China and Europe to get the car.
Joining it is the B05 hatchback, with customer deliveries of both expected from late September or early October. A hot hatch version of the B05 has been confirmed for the second half of 2027, and the brand’s local distributor is not shy about the target.
“People could say it’s the new Golf GTI, or they might want to call it something else,” Auto Distribution Holdings chief executive Simon Rutherford says. “There isn’t really anything quite like it in the market, and that’s our advantage.”
The new models arrive with an unusually frank admission. Leapmotor has managed just 655 registrations since arriving in late 2024, and Rutherford told the Auckland launch the brand “deserves so much better than the performance we’ve been getting”. The distributor puts the patchy results down to supply rather than demand, with stock running dry entirely in March and shipping out of China still unpredictable.
That is despite the brand’s global rise. Leapmotor delivered more than 101,000 vehicles in July, its first six-figure month and double its result a year earlier, and ranked third in the world for EV sales in June behind only BYD and Tesla.
The fix, Rutherford says, is removing the reasons buyers hesitate. The warranty move is aimed squarely at that. “Our warranty was uncompetitive. We were at four years, Tesla had moved to five years. Let’s try and take away the things that are going to get in the way.”
Buyers will also find the brand easier to reach, with the dealer network growing from four stores to 12 from 1 September, covering around 80 per cent of the market, though gaps remain in West Auckland, Dunedin and Northland. A new brand campaign, designed to be “confronting” and built by Auckland agency 4AM, breaks this week.
The two newcomers take Leapmotor’s local range to four models, alongside the B10 and the C10 SUV, now offered in range-extender, all-wheel drive and long-range forms.
For the full story on the distributor’s strategy reset, read AutoTalk’s coverage.
