Stellantis and Leapmotor have inked a deal that will see local assembly of Leapmotor vehicles in Malaysia begin at Stellantis’ existing plant in Gurun, Kedah by the end of 2025. The initiative will begin with an initial investment of five million euros (RM24 million).
The first model that will come about under the programme will be the Leapmotor C10, which made its Malaysian debut in October last year. While production will first cater to the domestic market, the plan is to expand the brand’s presence within the ASEAN region and beyond through the initiative. Further Leapmotor models are also on the cards in the coming future, including the B10 five-seat SUV and C10 REEV.
According to Stellantis ASEAN MD Isaac Yeo, Malaysia is set to be a main manufacturing hub for Stellantis. “The plan is to expand our manufacturing footprint using Leapmotor first, eventually bringing in the B10, before then moving on to our branch of brands under the Stellantis label,” he said during the signing ceremony earlier today.
Yeo said that C10 production will adopt a semi-knocked down (SKD) approach when it begins at the end of this year, but would progress towards CKD as it looks toward exports. “The next step will be to bring in suppliers to do deep localisation for Leapmotor, and gradually from this year until 2030 we will be moving year by year into ASEAN exports. By 2026 and 2027, we will probably be exporting from here to other regions,” he said.
The company said Gurun, which presently has a build capacity of almost 60,000 units a year, was chosen because of its strategic location and established automotive infrastructure, which will enable efficient production scale-up and allow seamless distribution to neighbouring regional markets in line with the automaker’s ‘Built in ASEAN for ASEAN’ roadmap.
“The Gurun plant has become a cornerstone of Stellantis’ manufacturing presence in the region. We have proactively enhanced its capabilities to support EV assembly, and we are proud that Leapmotor will be the first locally-assembled electric vehicle to emerge from this plant. This marks a meaningful step forward not just for Stellantis, but for Malaysia’s role in the regional EV landscape,” Yeo said.
The company is also looking to introduce the C10 REEV here. “By next year we will hopefully be bringing in the C10 REEV. The issue is that the REEV is still classified as an ICE, so we are working with MITI and MIDA to see if we can localise that for Malaysia and also for the ASEAN market,” he explained.
Present at the signing ceremony was Leapmotor founder, chairman and CEO Zhu Jiangming, who said the project will accelerate Leapmotor’s expansion in the region. “We look forward to working with Stellantis Group to bring new technology and vitality to the transformation of Malaysia’s automotive industry, and to set a benchmark and model for opening up the entire Southeast Asian market for Leapmotor,” he said.
Leapmotor International CEO Xin Tianshu added that the collaboration also highlights the shared goal of Stellantis and Leapmotor to promote clean energy development in the local market.
Separately, we asked Xin if there were plans to add Android Auto and Apple CarPlay into the C10 when local production begins. “Yes, we do have a plan. At the moment we don’t have it, but we do plan to add AACP into the C10, very soon,” he told paultan.org.
The signing ceremony also saw a special appearance of the C10 REEV as well as the C11 and six-seater C16 in their REEV forms, the trio making up the Leapmotor ‘Roadtrip to Southeast Asia’ convoy that journeyed 3,000 km from China for this event.
GALLERY: Leapmotor C11 and C16 REEVs, LHD
GALLERY: Leapmotor C10 EV
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EVENTUALLY, which never came!, as proven by proton.
Wow..another high achievement of investment in Kedah by MB Sanusi…..according to himself.
At least market to Asean. Then what potong do?
Kena con. Sell all expensive cina car to market. So called rescue
No indication of selling price? You know how Malaysians are very sensitive about it, right?
Expensive car for its price, sales in Malaysia is piss poor as well. Charging turtle speed, software is crap and no roadmap for AACP. I wonder what is the justification for ckd.
Give you a like
Clearly mentioning SKD and CKD.
Not like some other brand, bluffing SKD as CKD, cheating public.
This whole ckd business benefits nobody. Time to put an end to it. Don’t make some people rich with the excuse of DevelOpinG the economy and CreatInG JoBs at the expense of everyone else
Imagine if everybody just buying CBU car, how much of money will flow to overseas? And I think RM will be weaken for long term. In my opinion, we should not give up CKD, instead, we should regulate properly, to encourage more local content and technology transfer. This will helps the industries development, not only automotive. Even though we cannot design the car by ourselves, at least for after-sales, we can use local parts, such as, tyre, glasses, etc. Instead of buying everything overseas. I dont expect we can conquer other markets, at least we dont let others conquer us. What we want to use, we make it ourselves.
Copy paste. DevelOpinG the economy and CreatInG JoBs at the expense of everyone else. How many of these 3rd rate parts manufacturer that rebrand china parts and label with malaysian brand become rich for nothing.
Agree, currently some maker indeed enjoying CKD tax rate with just simply SKD assembly. That’s why “regulate properly, to encourage more local content and technology transfer” is required.
If leapmotor pricing is competitive against top 3 EV namely byd, Tesla, Chery associated brand then hv chance to get a foothold here. I just hope the Gurun plant will be competitive and create an automotive assembly and manufacturing in north state. Nevermind it’s under PAS leadership… See the big picture.. it’s part of Malaysia
Honestlky eyeing on as 3 row suv c16, if they can get it touching 200k below for a REEV. Will sell decently as competing with cx-8, which is already 188k.
I honestly think CKD or SKD doesnt benefit us much in progresion to be a automobile player, more like an additional service. Till now, i dont think Malaysia can still independently produce alot of our machine parts which is critical for localisation.