The Chinese aren’t coming; they’re already here. MG, BYD, Xpeng, and Polestar – all wholly or substantially Chinese-owned – are already well-established in the Irish car market.
Sales of such brands are pretty decent, really. BYD is, in 2025, doing the best and is nearing a top-10 breakthrough. MG is also performing well and has the benefit of some legacy brand recognition. Xpeng is still at the building-up stage, while Polestar really ought to be doing better, but then a brand with one dealer outlet is perhaps fighting with a hand tied behind its back.
All have faced the same basic problem, though, and that’s recognition. Chinese brands are the current bogeyman for the European car industry, just as in the past, so too were the Korean brands and, before them, the Japanese brands. China’s astonishing industrial power and labour cost advantages certainly give such brands a leg up. Still, ultimately, they all have one big barrier to overcome – few, if any, Irish car buyers know who they are or what they’re about.
It’s a challenge faced by Leapmotor, a brand that claims to be only the second Chinese carmaker to build one million cars. Impressively, up to the beginning of 2024, it had only built 500,000 since the company was first incorporated in 2015. That second half-million was notched up in just 12 months, and by the end of 2026, Leapmotor expects to have made another million. That’s the strength of China’s manufacturing capability.
RM Block
But what is a Leapmotor? It possibly doesn’t help that the brand has launched here with diametrically opposed models – a cheap, sub-€20,000 city car called the T03, and a larger and more comfortable C10 SUV that rivals the likes of the Skoda Kodiaq and Hyundai Ioniq 5. The brand lineup will fill in quickly with an all-electric SUV to rival the Ford Explorer, and a battery hatchback with strong VW Golf overtones, both arriving imminently, and smaller models due by the end of 2026.
Both are well-priced and generously equipped – just as were the early waves of Datsuns and Toyotas in the 1970s and Hyundais and Kias in the 1990s — and Leapmotor Ireland has just announced a six-year, unlimited mileage warranty (with a separate eight-year, 160,000km warranty for the batteries) which should provide some reassurance to anyone taking the leap into an unknown badge.
How, though, to convince people to take that (forgive the pun) leap? James Brooks, who’s doubling up his managing director role at Leapmotor Ireland with the same role at Opel Ireland, both part of the vast Gowan Auto operation, reckons that the sheer speed of response when it comes to new product will help. “We signed the contract with Leapmotor on the 28th of May, and here we are, not even five months later. We’ve started building the dealer network, we have product on the ground.”
Brooks acknowledges that it’s a hard task to get Irish car buyers to consider something new. “There are lots of people out there who will only ever buy a Volkswagen, or a Peugeot, or a Ford, no matter what we do. Being on the EV side of the market gives us a chance, because people are making that big change for the first time.”
Leapmotor has one advantage, which is that it is, in part, European as well as Chinese. While the cars are all made in China – and Gianluca Tondo, Leapmotor’s European development boss confirmed that the company is not yet looking at a European factory – Stellantis Group, which of course also counts Peugeot, Citroen, Opel, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep and many more as parts of its stable, has a 21 per cent stake in Leapmotor’s global operations, and owns 52 per cent of Leapmotor Europe.
Which is why Leapmotor is part of the Gowan Auto group here in Ireland – Gowan, for many years the Peugeot importer (and sometimes the Citroen importer too), is now the Stellantis Group representative for Ireland, also managing the franchises for Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Opel, Fiat, and DS. This is Leapmotor’s big Irish advantage over its Chinese rivals, says Brooks.
“We don’t have to use the existing group of Stellantis brand dealers, but we know them and we know they have solid businesses,” he adds.
“If you take Brian Kenny, of Kenny Galway, he’s been in the business a long time. If Brian Kenny is happy to take on a Chinese brand, he’s been there for so many years, I think some people will say, ‘if it’s good enough for Brian, it’s good enough for me’.
“But beyond that, there have been brands that have disappeared from the Irish market. But what we are able to say to the dealer and the customer is that we have a big warehouse here, full of parts; that means we can support the brand.
“Gowan is not going to disappear, and I think if someone were to try setting up a new brand as a private importer, how many people would they need to recruit? We can do it here, simply by plugging into our existing systems and people and add value to it that way.”
Leapmotor’s ambitions for Ireland are certainly not small. Four dealers have already signed up, and four more are expected to do so by the end of this year. From an expected 800 sales next year, the brand wants to expand quickly to 3,000 by 2028.
[ Polestar opens a proper Irish dealership – is this the end of the agency model?Opens in new window ]
Incoming new models, starting with the roomy B10 electric SUV (expected to be priced between €30,000 and €35,000, significantly undercutting similarly sized rivals) and the B05 hatchback, will need to resonate with Irish buyers to achieve those sorts of numbers, as will future smaller cars.
The addition of “Reev” tech, which includes a petrol engine to act as a generator for the electric battery for long journeys, is expected to ease the path to potential success, as is the 3.9 per cent APR finance package for 2026 registrations.
“The Chinese are already here,” says Brooks. “When you walk around your house, almost everything you pick up is made in China. And I suppose there’s a bit of a wake-up call, and it’s going to be a challenge to the traditional manufacturers in Europe.
“This really is exciting for us to bring something totally different into the market. It’s not that we’re promising that we will do something in two years, three years, or four years. You know, we’re ready to go with the business right now. We start next week. We have the cars on site.”
