Leapmotor Builds Its First European-Made Car as the B10 Rolls Off the Zaragoza Line

On October 16, the first production vehicle manufactured by Leapmotor in Europe — the B10 — rolled off the line at a factory in Zaragoza, Spain, ChinaEVHome reported on October 22. The milestone makes Leapmotor one of the first Chinese EV brands to start building cars inside Europe, a move that blunts tariff risk and the "made in China" stigma as the brand scales.

The numbers behind the move are explosive. Leapmotor’s European registrations reached 14,594 units in September, up 323.9% year on year, and 87,922 units in the first nine months — up 424.2%. Automotive News separately reported that Chery overtook BYD and MG in September as Chinese brands lifted their European market share to a record 14.6%, driven largely by plug-in hybrids and a summer export surge.

European production is becoming a standard play in the Chinese playbook: BYD’s Hungarian plant is ramping, Chery has Spanish manufacturing plans, and Leapmotor — partly owned by Stellantis — can lean on its European partner’s dealer and service network. For European incumbents watching their combined market share slide to 43.7%, the message is that the Chinese wave is no longer coming from across the ocean.