CarBrandLogos archive · Leapmotor · 2019

LeapmotorS01

A two-door electric coupe as a startup's opening move, which went about as well as expected.

Photo: Jengtingchen · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Leapmotor history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Leapmotor S01, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Leapmotor was founded in 2015 by Zhu Jiangming, who had built Dahua Technology into a major surveillance equipment maker and brought that firm's electronics engineering culture with him. Where most Chinese EV startups began with an SUV or a small hatchback, Leapmotor's first product was a two-door coupe, which is a hard car to sell anywhere and a very hard one to sell as an unknown brand.

Leapmotor S01 002 · Jengtingchen · CC BY-SA 4.0

Design and engineering

The S01 was a compact four-seat coupe with a front motor driving the front wheels and a single-speed reduction drive, built in Hangzhou from 2019. Its selling points were technological rather than dynamic: facial recognition to unlock the car, fingerprint entry, and an interior built around screens. Sales were negligible, and production stopped in 2021.

In production

What it did establish was the company's habit of designing and building its own motors, controllers and electronics rather than buying them in, which later became Leapmotor's main competitive argument. The volume came from the cars that followed, and in 2023 Stellantis bought a stake in the company and took on distribution outside China.

At a glance