Leapmotor is launching the Lafa 5 Ultra at the Beijing Auto Show on April 24, and the target is specific: buyers under 150,000 yuan who want sport-trim aesthetics and full intelligent driving without shopping in a premium brand's lineup. The base Lafa 5 has been on sale since November 2025 at 92,800 yuan ($13,580 USD). The Ultra lifts the performance, the equipment, and presumably the price point.
What Ultra Adds
The most visible change is aerodynamic: front splitter, winged side skirts, rear diffuser, 19-inch wheels, and matte dark-gray brake calipers. Frameless doors and flush side windows give the profile a coupe-like quality without abandoning rear headroom. Blacked-out badging completes the package.
Under the skin, the motor output steps up from 160 kW to 180 kW. That's not a dramatic number on its own, but it changes the character of the vehicle enough for Leapmotor to market it as a distinct tier rather than an options package.
The computing platform runs dual SA8295 and 8650 chips alongside a LiDAR sensor, enabling full nationwide urban NOA without HD map dependency — the same capability that Leapmotor has been deploying across its range through 2025 and 2026.
Eight-Point Massage in a Sub-150k Vehicle
The Lafa 5 Ultra includes an eight-point front seat massage system. That might sound like an odd detail to lead with in a sub-150,000 yuan compact EV, but Leapmotor's pitch is exactly that: family buyers are spending their entire budget, and they want comfort features that would normally require spending twice as much. Eight-point massage, LiDAR-based urban NOA, and sport aero in the same vehicle, at this price, is the proposition.
Leapmotor's Trajectory
The company delivered 50,029 vehicles in March 2026, a 34.87% year-over-year increase. The one-million-vehicle target for 2026 is ambitious — it would represent roughly a 4x increase from 2024 output — but the trajectory is pointing in the right direction.
Leapmotor's European ambition adds context. The brand entered the continent through its joint venture with Stellantis, using an asset-light distribution model that bypasses the capital-intensive challenges of building a dealer network from scratch. The Lafa 5 Ultra, once it launches domestically, is a likely candidate for that expansion.
The Beijing debut on April 24 will confirm pricing and final specifications. Based on the base Lafa 5's positioning at 92,800 yuan, the Ultra version is expected to slot somewhere in the 110,000–130,000 yuan range, keeping it well within the stated sub-150,000 yuan target.
