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Chinese brand Leapmotor has slammed a major rival, labelling MG's MG4 XPower "undriveable" and vowing to produce a better performance EV in the B05 Ultra.
That's the word from Leapmotor's Alexis Cieslewicz, Head of Product Marketing in Europe, who is also working on the introduction of the brand's most performance-focused model to date, the B05 Ultra.
The just-launched B05, which will arrive in Australia later this year and produces 160kW and 240Nm, is the start of Leapmotor's sportier journey. In China, it has already been joined by an Ultra variant, which ups the outputs to 180kW and 320Nm.
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Leapmotor in Europe is already planning for more again, potentially further dialling up the power along with adding "extras" in its Ultra, which will arrive in the later stages of next year.
For perspective, the B05 in China and Europe are wildly different, with the Euro (and Australian) version being completely retuned by Alfa Romeo at its Balocco Proving Ground. The brand also changed the suspension mounting points to deliver a lower centre of gravity, creating what it says is a "different animal" to the Chinese version.
The same, and possibly more, will be done to the Ultra.
"It is not sure that it will be exactly the one you see in China. In the sense that it is Ultra and it should be Ultra," says Danilo Annese, the brand's Head of Commercial Operations in Europe.
"We are discussing that (Europe's Ultra) is not that car. It is not the Chinese car, (that) is a body kit. And we want to do it a little bit better than that. But the sky is the limit. Let's see what we can do."
When it comes to dialling up the power, though, Leapmotor issued a cautionary tale, shading a major rival by describing its 300kW performance hatch as "undriveable".
"I am also looking for a good compromise between power and control," Cieslewicz says. "Because we do not want to have something like the MG4 [XPower], which has 470 horsepower, but it is undriveable."
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