Leapmotor is open to appointing Australian dealers outside the Stellantis network as it looks to widen its local footprint.

Danilo Annese, Vice President of Commercial Operations Europe at Leapmotor International, speaking to CarSauce said the brand could broaden its dealer approach in Australia after using a similar model in Europe.

He stressed throughout that he was speaking from European experience and was not an expert on the Australian market.

"I think we have good dealer partners in Australia to sustain that," Annese said.

"I also think we could look outside our own Stellantis distribution network. That is probably one of the things most complex to do, but that can give results."

Annese said Europe remains built primarily on Stellantis-aligned retail points, but that a small number of outside partners has helped extend the brand's reach. Fewer than 10 per cent of his European dealers sit outside the Stellantis network, he said, and that mix has widened the brand's coverage in a way he believes Australia now needs.

He said the size of the country left room to add partners beyond the existing Stellantis-linked structure, and that those partners could potentially come from outside the Stellantis core dealer base.

Europe first, then Australia

The comments follow Annese's acknowledgement that Europe was deliberately prioritised. Leapmotor International moved quickly there because Stellantis recognised how fast Chinese brands were arriving, and around 95 per cent of the brand's global dealer count is now European. With that European structure stable at roughly 1000 dealers, Annese said the company would turn to other regions, naming Australia alongside Brazil and Mexico as large markets with room to grow.

He also acknowledged that rival brands have run product offensives on a different scale to Leapmotor's, and described the Australian market as a completely different animal to Europe.

Parts, breakdowns and the survival test

Asked how a new brand earns trust when not every Chinese entrant will survive, Annese named three things.

The first is attaching the brand to well-known dealer names, on the basis that an established distributor's reputation and existing customer base carry more weight than a new badge. In his words, a buyer reasons that if a respected local dealer took on Leapmotor, that dealer has already done their own assessment of the brand.

The second is parts availability, which he put at 98 to 99 per cent in Europe, hedging the exact figure as he gave it. He was blunt about why it matters.

"The breakdown will always happen. It happens to Leap, it happens to Jeep, it happens to anybody," he said.

"But he knows that when there is a breakdown, he has the same or better level of spare parts than a comparable legacy brand."

Annese said this is where Leapmotor separates itself from other Chinese entrants, and it is a point that matters in Australia, where support and resale confidence remain the main hesitations for buyers considering a newly arrived brand. Leapmotor has not disclosed an Australian parts fill rate.

The third pillar is keeping the offer simple and the model cycle stable. Annese argued that European buyers overwhelmingly finance or lease rather than pay cash, so a rapid succession of replacement models erodes residual values and breaks long-term trust.

OTA as the first line of repair

Annese said over-the-air updates resolve around 95 per cent of customer complaints, and quickly, describing that capability as something the company needs to leverage. He drew a firm line between issues software can reach and those it cannot, saying a hardware refresh is worth taking when it answers problems an update cannot fix.

That reasoning underpins the brand's model decisions. It is why Leapmotor International will skip the updated version of the B10 recently introduced in China, and why an evolution of the C10 expected early next year involves a piece of hardware plus accompanying software rather than a full mid-cycle facelift.

Range expansion and what happens next

Leapmotor is also counting on a broader model range to support growth here. CarSauce recently reported on the prospect of a hybrid B03X for Australia, with Annese saying demand from markets outside Europe could help justify that investment.

Leapmotor has not confirmed how many extra Australian outlets it wants, which groups it may approach, or when any non-Stellantis appointments could be made. If the approach is adopted locally, it could open a path for Australian dealer groups chasing new Chinese-brand franchises as the number of market entrants continues to grow.