Leapmotor's electric hot hatch could be upgraded for global markets, but Australia isn’t locked in

Leapmotor is working on an export-market version of its hotter B05 Ultra electric hatchback, but the company says it's not guaranteed to be the same as the Chinese-market car.

Speaking at the international media launch of the regular B05 in Germany, Leapmotor International’s head of commercial operations for Europe, Danilo Annese, said the company is still discussing what form the hotter version should take.

“We are, we are discussing with Leap [China]. It’s, I am not sure that it will be exactly the one you see in China, in the sense that if it’s Ultra, it needs to be Ultra, in our view,” said Mr Annese.

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“Because you have a body pack, and you have other things, so we are working on the other things now to see what we can have as a package, and once we are ready, then we will bring the car in.

“Normally, the guys are fast, so I expect if things are going well, that will be mid next year.”

That would point to a possible European launch around the middle of 2027, though Mr Annese stressed his comments were primarily about Europe, not Australia.

“We can have a further deep dive with the experts that are more global than me later on, exactly. It’s not the same homologation, it’s not exactly the same of everything," he said.

The regular Leapmotor B05 is already confirmed for Australia, with the Volkswagen Golf-sized electric hatch due here in the second half of 2026.

In international Design specification, the B05 uses a rear-mounted electric motor producing 160kW and 240Nm, fed by a 67.1kWh battery. It has a claimed WLTP range of 482km, a 0-100km/h time of 6.7 seconds, and a maximum DC charging rate of 168kW.

The Chinese-market B05 Ultra, known domestically as the Lafa 5 Ultra, was revealed earlier this year with more aggressive styling, a 180kW/255Nm rear-mounted motor, and a claimed 0-100km/h time as quick as 5.9 seconds.

However, Leapmotor says simply exporting that version may not be enough.

Alexis Cieslewicz, the product marketing manager for Leapmotor Europe, said the Ultra had generated interest outside China, but still needed evaluation before any European launch.

“Since the Ultra has been presented in China, there’s a lot of interest, not only in Europe or some other countries, for example, and so we are evaluating the possibility to also bring it to Europe,” he said.

“But the point is that the Chinese version maybe is not perfect for European market, it needs some fine tuning and needs some further development, so we need to have more time for evaluation of bringing this car in Europe.”

Mr Annese was more direct on timing being late next year and the car needing to meet European and Australian consumer demands.

“So it’s [coming] 2027 but not at the beginning, let’s say, because the more you raise the bar on performance on any customer, not just European one, but also the Australian one, is demanding, this is why the Chinese Ultra does not play the game. So either we play in a certain way, we try, or we don’t,” he said.

When asked whether an export-market B05 Ultra could receive more power than the Chinese-market version, Mr Annese said it was possible, though not confirmed.

“When I look to the power, it could be more, okay? I don’t know, but it could be more," he said.

Mr Annese said the export-market Ultra being discussed was “not the Chinese car”, and that Leapmotor wanted to do more than simply apply the Chinese version’s styling package.

“We are discussing that this is, is not that car, it’s not the Chinese car, that’s mainly a body kit, and we want to do it a little bit better than that,” he said.

The standard B05 has already gone through a separate development program for Europe, with Leapmotor saying the car was co-developed with Stellantis’ global chassis team and specifically tuned for European driving expectations.

The B05 has rear-wheel drive, 50:50 weight distribution, MacPherson strut front suspension and multi-link rear suspension, while the Design grade rides on 19-inch wheels.

Leapmotor is using that European development program to separate its export-market cars from the Chinese domestic versions.

The company has also not confirmed whether the B05 Ultra would become part of a broader performance sub-brand.

When asked whether Ultra could become something similar to a Hyundai N division-style performance brand, Mr Cieslewicz said: “No, I think it’s a version of B05.”

“At the moment there are no talks of specific sub brand,” added Mr Annese.

“We want to be quite linear in the brand offer of Leapmotor.”

The regular B05 is expected to compete with cars such as the MG 4 when it reaches Australia, while the Ultra would go up against the MG4 XPower.

Final Australian pricing and specifications have not been confirmed, but the B05 will sit below the B10 small SUV in Leapmotor’s local lineup.

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