The Leapmotor T03 electric city car was already available for sale in France before the Stellantis/Leapmotor partnership. The importer who had made this bet found himself a little in the dark and decided to file a complaint against Stellantis.
It’s a real struggle between David and Goliath in the automobile version. In a letter addressed to the media, the importer SN Diffusion – EVE explains that he had set his sights on the Leapmotor T03 in 2020 during a trip to China. This car has many advantages to meet the needs of a French market still in its infancy on the offer of electric vehicles. But now, Didier Sirgue, the boss of SN Diffusion, is not going to be the only one to find an interest in this Chinese electric city car that he is importing into France. Carlos Tavares will take an interest in the vehicle during its exhibition by SN Diffusion at the 2022 Paris Motor Show.
The rest is a little better known. At the end of 2023, the giant Stellantis with its 14 brands will sign a partnership with Leapmotor, becoming the international reseller of the Chinese brand. Leapmotor thus becomes the 15e brand in the group’s catalog. SN diffusion is being ousted from the distribution of the brand, and has decided to launch legal proceedings.
A promising start, but quickly interrupted
The marketing of the Leapmotor T03 begins at the very end of 2022. The objectives set by the importer are ambitious: 1,500 examples and a vast network of resellers. Except that Didier Sirgue will fall on a bone from mid-2023 (well even several will follow one another): The ecological bonus is eliminated in France for Chinese electric cars, then a customs surcharge will be introduced at European level.
The model, which was sold for €25,990, will no longer be able to benefit from €4,000 in government aid (and up to €7,000 for certain customers). 510 examples of the Leapmotor T03 will have been registered in 2023, but without government assistance, the model immediately loses its appeal. 179 models will still be registered in the first half of 2024, before its import contract is terminated by the brand in China. This remains a much better result than what the importer obtained with the Seres brand.
A new lease of life for Leapmotor, but not for its importer
In addition to the end of the bonus, SN Diffusion should have felt that the tide was turning with Leapmotor. The Chinese brand has chosen to invest in a stand at the IAA Munich show in September 2023, proving that the brand has very concrete ambitions in Europe. The ax finally fell at the end of October with the signing of the partnership with Stellantis.
From this moment on, the importer is ignored by Leapmotor China, and Stellantis is not more talkative about what will happen to the network of resellers established. The situation seems compromised, but he will only have confirmation upon receipt of the letter terminating his contract on May 1, 2024.
But what to do in the face of the strike force of an automobile group like Stellantis. Without wanting to discredit the work carried out by SN Diffusion, Stellantis still offers another dimension for sales of the Leapmotor T03. The C10 and other models will also quickly complete the catalog.
We will nevertheless note in passing that the Leapmotor T03 goes from almost €26,000 under the SN Diffusion / EVE era to €19,500 under the Stellantis era. Its launch price is even €18,900 to taunt Dacia. Obviously, former resellers who may still have one or two models in stock must see red, but the customer is a big winner in the exchange. And it will certainly be even more so when it comes to after-sales service.
A legal action that will change nothing in the outcome
Didier Sirgue complains of having lost a lot: “ these are years of investment and a distribution network reduced to nothing. » It is difficult to imagine what the importer hopes to obtain from this legal procedure. The context would not have allowed Leapmotor to prosper in 2024 anyway.
It is true that Stellantis could have postponed its launch by a few months. The brand has just launched marketing at the end of September 2024. All it had to do was wait for the end of the SN/EVE contract, on January 15, 2025, to have free rein throughout Europe. But Carlos Tavares is not a man to waste time, patience is certainly not one of the qualities of the formidable business leader. Didier Sirgue, who knows him well, must know him better than anyone.
In the meantime, instead of regretting the Leapmotor affair, the boss of SN Diffusion would already have his work cut out for him trying to revive the Seres brand, which he also imports. Registrations fell from 230 in 2023 to just 28 for the first eight months of the year. We are not far from disaster. Anger is brewing among Seres resellers who have numerous grievances against the importer’s management and the lack of parts to ensure after-sales. Before wasting energy fighting against Goliath (Stellantis), perhaps there are other priorities. Especially since without wanting to bring the evil eye to the reseller, it is not excluded that Seres regains control of the brand’s activities in Europe. Moreover, at the Paris Motor Show, the Seres group will be present with the Aito brand.
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