Electric vehicle maker Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Co., which uses chips from Qualcomm Inc. and Nvidia Corp., said it would be able to ride out any escalation in US curbs on the flow of advanced chips to China.
While most semiconductors that are used in the auto sector don’t currently face US export restrictions, China’s growing technological prowess has sparked concern in Washington and the White House has sought to limit the flow of chips to its geopolitical rival. President Donald Trump’s administration is now sketching out tougher versions of semiconductor curbs and pressuring key allies to escalate their restrictions on China’s chip industry, Bloomberg News has reported.
“It doesn’t even make sense,” given that restrictions could instead encourage China to develop its domestic technology faster, Leapmotor co-President Michael Wu said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday. While he predicts only a small chance that chip curbs would hit the EV sector, Leapmotor will be “fully-prepared one one way or another,” he said.
While the EV sector has so far escaped major fallout from the chip curbs, the industry is front and center of trade tensions between Europe and China. The European Union has imposed hefty tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, prompting a number of firms to look at stepping up their presence in the region.
Wu confirmed Chinese media reports that Leapmotor is exploring the potential for a collaboration with Ferrari NV after Chief Executive Officer Benedetto Vigna visited Leapmotor’s Hangzhou headquarters in February. “We did have a good interaction,” said Wu, though he said discussions are still preliminary.
Leapmotor’s biggest partnership is a joint venture with Stellantis NV, which will see the latter use its international sales and distribution network and European production facilities to sell Leapmotor cars globally.
There’s been no change to the relationship, which Wu described as “working very well,” since the resignation of Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. Chairman John Elkann visited Leapmotor in February, and the two companies are launching cars in Europe, South America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, Wu said.
The company is looking to narrow the gap with top autonomous driving players such as Telsa Inc. and Xpeng Inc., with Wu saying Leapmotor is set to make advanced driver-assistance features standard in its vehicles in May. The company recently launched its B10 electric sports utility vehicle, equipped with a new driver assistance platform, to target the mass market.
Leapmotor is on track to achieve full-year profitability through its scale and cost management, according to Wu. It turned profitable for the first time in the fourth quarter and its full-year loss narrowed by 33% to 2.82 billion yuan .
With assistance from Rebecca Choong Wilkins and Annabelle Droulers.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
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