(Yicai) Aug. 13 -- Leapmotor Technology has emerged from its “survival warning” phase, founder Zhu Jiangming has said, after global monthly sales topped 100,000 vehicles for the first time and it retained a top-three domestic sales spot among China’s electric carmakers for a third straight month.

Leapmotor has passed the “most frightening period,” Zhu said at a press conference to launch a new model, the A05, on Aug. 11. The Hangzhou-based company has now entered a “phase where I feel a bit happy,” Zhu noted.

That optimism marks a sharp change from just four months ago. Zhu issued the “survival warning” at the launch of the D19 in April. “The market capacity is only so big,” he said then. “Of the current 17 Chinese automakers, not all will survive. And the prerequisite for survival is not to lose money and to achieve scale.”

Since then Leapmotor's sales have grown thanks to new models. Last month, its global deliveries doubled from a year ago to 101,267, making Leapmotor China’s first electric vehicle startup to sell over 100,000 in a single month and putting it in direct competition with mainstream carmakers.

Industry observers attribute the surge to Leapmotor’s deep vertical integration, extensive in-house development and manufacturing, and aggressive cost-based pricing. But that explanation misses the bigger picture, according to Zhu, who argues that once sales reach a certain level the company can further dilute costs through standardized systems and common vehicle platforms.

Leapmotor has no intention of building factories simply to leave capacity idle, and will instead keep plants running at high utilization rates in line with its production roadmap, Senior Vice President Cao Li said. Thanks to platform-based and flexible production, the plants can seamlessly connect and share assembly lines, he pointed out.

While Leapmotor faces a tougher operating environment, including weaker industry-wide vehicle sales and higher raw material costs, Zhu said the company intends to keep pushing ahead and remains committed to meeting its full-year sales target.

The annual target is 1 million vehicles, including 100,000 to 150,000 abroad. It sold 457,800 in the seven months ended July 31, with 113,000 overseas. The company also targets a net profit of CNY5 billion (USD741.2 million) for 2026.

Stellantis owns 19 percent of Leapmotor. Together they set up Leapmotor International, in which the European auto giant has a 51 percent stake, to handle sales outside of the Chinese mainland.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev