Leapmotor B10 Made in Europe to Dodge EU Tariffs

A Chinese SUV that now carries a European passport. Leapmotor has begun pre-production of its B10 compact electric SUV at Stellantis's Zaragoza plant in Spain, performing enough on-site manufacturing steps to reclassify the model as "Made in Europe" for customs purposes — and to escape the European Union's 30.7% duty on electric cars built in China.

The tariff math that changed the playbook

Since 30 October 2024, Brussels has layered countervailing duties on top of the standard 10% automotive import tax, pushing the total burden on Chinese-built EVs to 27% for BYD, 28.8% for Geely and 45.3% for SAIC. Leapmotor models shipped from Asia faced the same 30.7% wall. But customs origin follows where the value is added, not just where a car is designed. At Zaragoza — the same line that builds the Lancia Ypsilon, Opel Corsa and Peugeot 208 — Leapmotor now stamps, welds and paints the B10 body in Spain. Those body-in-white operations generate enough local content to clear the EU's European-origin rules, so the finished SUV enters the bloc as a domestic product rather than a Chinese import.

Other Chinese entrants have tried the same idea and fallen short. Chery in Spain, and GAC and Xpeng in Austria, assemble vehicles from kits shipped out of China but have not yet reached the European-content threshold that removes the surcharge. Leapmotor's bet is that owning the three heaviest manufacturing steps — not merely bolting a car together at the end — is what finally opens the tariff gate.

The Stellantis alliance did the heavy lifting

None of this would be possible without the October 2023 tie-up in which Stellantis invested roughly €1.5 billion for nearly 20% of Leapmotor and formed the joint venture Leapmotor International (51% Stellantis, 49% Leapmotor). That deal handed the Chinese brand something money alone could not quickly buy: a ready European factory and a distribution network already spanning the continent. "We have stamping, welding and painting activities in Zaragoza that generate enough local content to make the B10 a product manufactured in Europe," Danilo Annese, head of European sales operations for Leapmotor International, told Automotive News.

The commercial momentum is real. Launched in January, the B10 is already Leapmotor's second-best-selling model in Europe with 16,664 units, behind only the smaller T03 at 35,285. Range-extended (EREV) versions make up roughly half of B10 volume, with wide country gaps: about 90% of Italian sales are EREVs, while France — which penalizes plug-in hybrids with a weight tax — runs almost entirely on the electric version.

Will the savings reach the buyer?

Not obviously. Leapmotor is taking a cautious line, and shipping costs from China have climbed more than 50% since the Middle East conflict began in February, eating into the pricing assumptions behind the Zaragoza move. In Italy, where Leapmotor has sold nearly 40% of its European volume through July, the B10 electric starts at €29,900, with up to €4,000 in scrappage incentives for private buyers; the EREV carries the same base price but up to €5,000 in incentives. For now the tariff saving looks more like margin protection than a lower sticker price.

A template for the tariff wall

The EU's tariffs were meant to slow Chinese EVs at the border. Instead they pushed a fast-growing brand to build inside it. As Brussels drafts an Industrial Accelerator Act that could demand up to 70% local content for certain subsidies, Leapmotor's Zaragoza formula — lease an existing European plant, keep the costly body steps local, ship the rest as kits — may become the template other Chinese makers follow. The wall did not stop the cars. It changed where they are born.