Malaysians are no strangers to names with ambiguous or unconventional pronunciations in the car world (Prevé, Axia, eMas, QV-E, iCaur – can you think of any more?), but this has got to be the most discussed in recent times, chiefly because the brand name is also a Malay word, letter for letter.
When Chery launched its Lepas sub-brand at Auto Shanghai 2025, it said that because the name was a portmanteau of ‘leap’ and ‘passion’, ‘leap-pass’ was how you say it. However, subsequent videos released by the brand have yielded various different pronunciations from ‘lee-‘ to ‘lay-‘ to ‘lair-‘, the last one enunciated by Lepas Indonesia‘s vice country director in a YouTube short.
Of course, because the Indonesian language and ours share many similarities, the need to avoid referring to cockroaches is there. What does appear to be consistent globally is the second syllable’s pronunciation – ‘pas’ rhymes with ‘cars’ rather than ‘purse’ or ‘mass’.
To clear the confusion, at least in our country, Lepas Malaysia has clarified to us that the brand’s name is pronounced like the Malay word for ‘after’ or ‘let go’ – that is to say, exactly as it is spelt in Bahasa Melayu. For the benefit of non-speakers, ‘ler-pas’ is how you say it.
The company has also intimated to us that it’s targeting to launch the brand in the third quarter of this year. It has already signed up 20 dealers and aims to have at least 30 outlets by year-end. A Lepas-branded container was seen in Port Klang in February, and an uncamouflaged L4 was spotted taking part in a video shoot in Malaysia shortly after.
Lepas currently has three models – L4, L6 and L8, which are respectively B-, C- and D-segment SUVs analogous to Chery Tiggos Cross, 7 and 8. It was reported earlier that the L8 was among the models considered for Malaysia, but based on the models being featured on Lepas Malaysia’s social media pages, the L4 and L6 should be the focus currently.
Pure petrol, EV and PHEV powertrains can be specified for all of Lepas’ models – we saw at Auto China 2026 in Beijing the L4 EV, L6 EV and L6 PHEV, while the L8 is offered only as a PHEV in Indonesia. It’s likely that Malaysia could get more than one powertrain choice per model, just like it is with other Chery Group brands (Chery Tiggo Cross ICE/HEV, Chery Tiggo 7/8 ICE/PHEV, Jaecoo J7 ICE/PHEV, Omoda C9 ICE/PHEV).
Now you know how Lepas should be pronounced, are you excited to welcome the Mazda-rivalling brand into Malaysia? We’re suddenly reminded of Hyundai Motor America’s ‘It’s Hyundai, Like Sunday‘ campaigns in the late noughties, although you will no doubt question the accuracy of that approximation.
Lepas L4 EV at Auto China 2026 in Beijing
Lepas L6 EV at Auto China 2026 in Beijing
Lepas L6 PHEV at Auto China 2026 in Beijing
Lepas L4 EV official photos
Lepas L6 EV official photos
Lepas L6 PHEV official photos
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Lebong
Chery are just built to impress you (it’s hideous) on the showroom floor. No sauce behind that facade, no driving pleasure, no heritage, no proper human engineering. Pure marketing stunt. I’d rather buy a properly made car at the same price, even more, with less power. Buy a car with a soul, not a glorified iPad on wheels. 200K SUV buy a used 2019 Q7..
newme – Car brand named after a Chinese deity can sell here meh? Won’t mengelirukan the public?
agreed. same like the temu xiaomi air fryer which starts flaking off teflon in a few months. why do you think chery has to keep launching new BRANDS every six months or so to keep the malaysian public interested. we started with chery and then got omada and then jaecoo, jetour, icaur (really obvious they were trying to get as close to icar as possible) and then this lipas brand.
tldr; these chery cars and chinese cars in general are just disposable shitboxes that will go the way of the dodo in three years, and this lipas brand seems like it’ll be the worst offender being a car no one really likes with a different piece of plastic slapped on it
Pfft 2019 Q7. I prefer a horse, that has proper soul.
talking about design. I noticed most chery and even this Lipas car has bad proportion, car body so big and tall, the wheel small and thin…even omoda is like that
Oh I thought it was pronounced “Lipas”
Saya nak me”lepas”
Finally can get rid of traditional clunkers
Mcm mana kete ni boleh lepas masuk malaysia?
I only interested in L8, if not going to sell L8 here, guess I really have to lepas this brand…
U can write hundreds or article and produce thousands of video…Malaysian knows how to pronounce the nam ‘correctly’.
Potential buyers must be ready to fake laugh for the neverending ‘lipas’ jokes from friends and family
Lepas tu apa jadi?
Oggy & Jack
just pronounce like the frenchies, “Lerpah” where “s” is silent baru classier and not to be confused with our arthropods. Same for Jetour,”JayTu” another cherry sub-brand
Prefer Leepas though. Haha
Is a burden to carry bad name… I would know..
lepas ke tak?
PAS voters favourite car.