Spain is experiencing a flood of Chinese brands in the automobile market. Manufacturers from this country have considered that Spain is a perfect country for their entry into the European market. Their reasons: key ports to unload cars and a customer who values the quality/price/equipment ratio above brand loyalty.
This is candy for Chinese companies. These brands have the challenge of winning over the customer with new models whose added value is, as a general rule, a very attractive price compared to the offer of Western vehicles, always with the same size, equipment and/or technology.
With all this in mind, the Chery Group has started in Spain with Omoda and Jaecooin addition to Ebro Although it is a brand with Spanish capital, it uses the models that arrive in kits to Barcelona to build its own cars in our country.
To these companies is now added Lepas. Chery will have a third own brand in Spain as a first step in an expansion that should continue throughout Europe soon. The objective is to put on the market a car that begins to target the premium market.
This is your plan.
What is Lepas and where does it come from?
Lepas will be the third brand of the Chery Group to arrive in our country and is the youngest company of the automobile conglomerate since it was created in 2024. It must be taken into account that Chery already sells the Omoda and Jaecoo brands in China but also Jetour, iCar or Exeed.
The name, they point out, is the mixture of “Leopard” and “Passion” and aims to position itself as an alternative company created specifically for Europe. It must be taken into account that Chery Group was founded in 1997 and has been exporting cars outside of China for more than 20 years. Its main market, until its arrival in Europe, was South America, but the objective is to continue expanding its borders in the coming years.
With this roadmap in mind, Lepas will position itself as a brand designed by and for Europe. Its cars will be Chinese but the brand assures that it is about “responding to new customer profiles in different markets”, so the differentiation with Omoda and Jaecoo should be evident in the next launches.
Omoda is, right now, the most youthful brand in Chery’s catalog. The conglomerate has positioned this company as an attractive bet for the most urban client, with a striking aesthetic and somewhat more aggressive or sporty shapes. Jaecoo is committed to the more rural market, with more or less mild offroad ambitions and a somewhat more country aesthetic.
Lepas will occupy a slightly more refined position. The shapes of their cars, we assume seeing their first launch, will be softer and less aggressive. Everything indicates that Chery wants to have in Lepas an alternative with a slightly more premium character than its two previous brands. We are not talking about fighting with Audi or Mercedes but we are talking about playing in a league superior to the general league, halfway between both worlds.
Lepas L8
Lepas L8, his first car
For now, the Lepas landing comes with the Lepas L8.
This car is an SUV 4.68 meters long, 1.87 meters wide and 1.69 meters high with a clear family vocation thanks to a trunk capacity of 507 liters.
As a plug-in hybrid, it promises a range of up to 1,300 kilometers following a scheme that is common in other models of the group: 1.5 TGDI engine with dedicated DHT hybrid transmission and offers 205 kW (279 HP) of power and 365 Nm of torque. The promised electric range is up to 100 kilometers supported by an 18.4 kWh battery.
Interior of the Lepas L8
The car is built on a multi-energy platform that allows plug-in hybrid versions to be put on the market, like this case, and completely electric or extended-range electric options. The latter is a type of car that works the vast majority of the time as an electric car and has a small gasoline tank to generate electricity and support electrical technology in case of emergency.
The interior of this Lepas L8 has a steering wheel similar to that of the Omoda 9 so we found soft plastics and attractive design of the steering wheel, with only two horizontal spokes. It has wireless charging for your mobile phone and a large vertical screen. It is a differentiation from the Omoda options, whose screen is horizontal. Some functions with physical buttons are also maintained, although the air conditioning is carried out on the screen.
The company points out that the car will arrive with more than 20 ADAS driving assistance systems, including adaptive cruise control, parking assistant (with remote parking) or “540º panoramic camera.”
In the future
In addition to this Lepas L8, the company’s roadmap involves continuing to send cars to our market. We are talking about the Lepas L4 and L6.
At the moment, we know very little about these two cars. Yes we have confirmed that the Lepas L4 is an urban SUVof about 4.30 meters that will help the company to lower the price of entry to the brand. We are not clear, however, what the technology will be and if it will be based on exclusively electric specifications or will add options with combustion engines. The little progress that the brand has made is that the car is already being manufactured in Wuhu, where the Chery Group headquarters is located.
As for the Lepas L6 we find ourselves in the same situation but this time we are talking about a compact SUV. We will know the details throughout the year.
If we talk about its launch. The company’s roadmap involves putting the first cars on the market at the end of this first half of 2026. Therefore, all the details of the Lepas L8 and the first contacts should arrive shortly before the summer. In the coming months we should know all the details of the new models.
The challenges that Lepas has ahead
So, what role does Lepas play in the Chery Group’s future strategy?
As we said, the Chery Group will position Lepas as a company that can play halfway between generalist and premium. At the moment, we do not know the prices of their new models but the Omoda 9 is a car that we can already find with that approach.
What Chinese companies are leaning towards is offer cars with a wide range of equipmenttypical of higher segments but at very competitive prices. Technology for technology, it is difficult to find Western brands that provide more equipment than the Chinese ones for price.
Lepas, if the company’s promises are fulfilled, is designed for a more European audience so it should result in somewhat more poised cars, with comfortable but tighter suspensions than other Chery Group models. Furthermore, everything indicates that it will fight for the quality of its interiors, with more padded surfaces that improve the perception of quality, something that has been lost in general European brands (and some premium ones) in recent years.
It remains to be seen if the Chery Group manages to create a clearly differentiated space for the brand. So far, the division between Omoda, Jaecoo and Ebro seems to be working well, with well-segmented audiences. Lepas has to carve out its own niche that seems to be in the most familiar proposals, with the aim of catching that customer a little disenchanted with traditional brands.
This offensive is having better support among plug-in hybrids. It is a technology in which Chinese brands do not have to pay tariffs and, therefore, they can play more with the price. This makes them truly competitive in an attractive type of car for those who do not dare to make the leap to an electric car or those who do not have a plug at home but want to save on a daily basis.
Lepas’ intention is, furthermore, provide added value to the customer. Last winter, the company already offered the press a small preview of its arrival in Europe. The intention is to use independent points of sale with a very careful customer experience. It will also have the after-sales network of the Chery Group, which has made a clear effort to sprinkle our country with new dealers and workshops, as well as to avoid bottlenecks in the arrival of new parts for repairs with a clear objective: to gain the trust of customers.
Photos | Lepas
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