Leapmotor has jumped to sixth place among electric car brands in Spain after a 140% surge in registrations in the third quarter. With four models now in the top 30 and local production about to start in Zaragoza, the brand is shaking up the Spanish EV market.
Spain’s electric car market just got a jolt. Leapmotor, a Chinese brand that only arrived in October 2024, has shot up to sixth place after a 140% jump in registrations in the third quarter of 2026. The latest Observatorio ElecTrips data, based on DGT microdata, shows Leapmotor now trails Renault by just 69 units. Toyota has already been left behind in the electric rankings.
It’s not just speed. Leapmotor now has four models in Spain’s top 30. In September, the B10 led with 486 units. The B05 and T03 each added 290, and the B03X brought in 231. The B10, once the brand’s main seller, now makes up only a third of sales. The lineup is spreading out fast.
According to El Periódico de Aragón, Stellantis and Leapmotor have scheduled an official event on October 16 at the Figueruelas plant to mark the start of series production of the B10 in Spain.
The pace has changed. Early in 2026, Leapmotor’s registrations were just 16 to 18 percent of BYD’s monthly totals. That gap shrank quickly after May. By September, Leapmotor hit 1,412 units—62 percent of BYD’s 2,290. The third quarter was the real shift. Leapmotor jumped from 1,164 registrations in Q2 to 2,791 in Q3. BYD stayed flat, just over 5,100 per quarter.
Private buyers are driving Leapmotor’s rise. In September, 86% of its registrations went to individuals. BYD’s share was 80%. This pattern has held all year. The brand is connecting with regular drivers, not just fleets or rentals.
So far, every Leapmotor B10 sold in Spain has come from Jinhua, China. The Figueruelas plant near Zaragoza has only built pre-series cars for staff training and line setup. That’s about to change. Series production starts in mid-October. The plan: 40,000 cars a year and about 500 jobs tied to the B10. The B05 and B03X are set to join in 2027. Leapmotor wants four models rolling out of the Spanish plant.
According to Europa Press, Leapmotor delivered 310,052 vehicles worldwide in the third quarter of 2026, marking a 78.34% year-on-year increase and achieving over 100,000 units per month for three consecutive months. This global momentum is seen as a key driver behind the brand's rapid expansion in Europe.
BYD is falling behind on local production. Its Szeged plant in Hungary has hit repeated delays. Series production is now pushed to late 2026. Test runs with the Dolphin Surf started earlier this year, but there’s still no date for full output.
Leapmotor’s growth is fast, but BYD still leads by a wide margin. From January to September, BYD registered 14,231 electric vehicles in Spain, up 46.1%. Leapmotor stands at 4,597. To catch up by year-end, Leapmotor would need to outsell BYD by more than 3,200 units per month. That’s a tall order. Even in September, its best month, Leapmotor was still 878 units behind.
Some of Leapmotor’s recent numbers are boosted by new models like the B05 and B03X. Launch months often bring a spike. Aggressive discounts have helped too, but those deals rarely last.
The real fight for 2026 is elsewhere. Tesla has 13,485 electric registrations so far, just 746 behind BYD. That race is tight. Leapmotor isn’t in that battle yet. Its focus is on building a base for the future. The impact of local production in Figueruelas should start to show in the numbers from November.
Spain’s electric car market is changing fast. New brands are shaking up the order. Leapmotor’s surge matches the bigger trend of electrified vehicles gaining ground, as reported earlier in Galicia. But Leapmotor’s rise, powered by private buyers and soon by local manufacturing, marks a new phase. The real test comes as discounts fade and rivals ramp up their own production. For now, Leapmotor has forced its way into the spotlight. The Spanish market is watching. Is this a flash, or the start of something bigger?
