Leapmotor put its new A05 on sale on August 10 at ¥59,800–¥89,800 (about $8,250–$12,380). It is an A0-class five-door electric hatchback that ships with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 cockpit chip as standard and offers optional LiDAR on the top trim — hardware that, a year ago, lived only in cars costing three times as much.
The spec sheet that shouldn’t exist at this price
The A05 measures 4,200 × 1,800 × 1,560 mm with a 2,605 mm wheelbase — a touch longer than the BYD Seagull it clearly targets. Two motor options: a 70 kW unit for the 405 km versions and a 90 kW unit for the 510 km versions, both front-mounted, paired with 39.8 kWh and 53 kWh LFP packs respectively.
The 510 km variant supports 2.5C charging — 30% to 80% in roughly 16 minutes. Leapmotor also lists a heat pump and 3.3 kW V2L discharge across the board. None of that is unusual in a ¥150,000 car. In a car that starts under ¥60,000, it is a statement.
The chip is the story
Every A05 gets the Snapdragon 8295 — the same flagship cockpit silicon found in vehicles a segment or two up the price ladder — driving an 8.88-inch cluster and a 14.6-inch 2.5K center screen, with 12 speakers and 256-color ambient lighting. For context, the BYD Seagull it competes with runs an entry-level chip and tops out at 405 km with no LiDAR option.
The top A05s trim adds an equivalent 128-line LiDAR and a Qualcomm 8650 driving chip rated at 200 TOPS, enabling high-speed NOA, urban NAP, and memory parking. A complete high-level assisted-driving stack inside ten grand is, today, close to unique in volume production.
Where it sits
| Model | Length / Wheelbase | Max CLTC | Cockpit chip | LiDAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leapmotor A05 | 4200 / 2605 mm | 510 km | 8295 (std) | Optional |
| BYD Seagull | 3780 / 2500 mm | 405 km | Entry-level | None |
| Geely Star Wish | 4135 / 2650 mm | ~410 km | Not disclosed | None |
The A05 is Leapmotor’s first A0-class pure-electric model on its LEAP architecture, built to chase the mainstream 50,000–80,000 yuan commuter market. It arrives weeks after the brand posted its first 100,000-unit delivery month in July, a run that has turned Leapmotor from a value challenger into a volume player.
The catch
The honest asterisk: Leapmotor’s brand strength and resale values are still a work in progress, and the long-term cost of packing this much hardware into a ¥60,000 car shows up in margins, not spec sheets. As a first car or a household’s second vehicle, though, the A05 redraws the line for what “a commuter” is allowed to be.
Author’s Take
This is what cost-down engineering at Chinese scale looks like. BYD wrote the playbook for putting flagship features in cheap cars; Leapmotor is now running the same play in the A0 segment, and the 8295-as-standard move is the tell. The risk for Western makers is not that China builds a better robot — it’s that it builds a good-enough one for a third of the price, and does it every quarter.
The Bottom Line
The A05 is less a car than a price anchor: ¥59,800 buys a 8295-powered, 405 km hatchback, and ¥89,800 buys LiDAR-backed urban NOA. If the early orders hold, Leapmotor just raised the floor for the entire entry-EV class — and everyone else’s 2027 budgets just got uncomfortable.
Sources & Further Reading
- Autohome (creator), “Leapmotor A05 launched: 8295 chip + LiDAR from ¥59,800,” Aug 10, 2026 — chejiahao.autohome.com.cn
- News18A / Netcom Auto, “Leapmotor A05 on sale: 8295 chip, 510 km, Laser Radar option,” Aug 10, 2026 — ev.news18a.com
- Sina Auto, “Leapmotor A05 price confirmed: ¥59,800 from, 8295 + LiDAR,” Aug 10, 2026 — sina.cn
- Related: July 2026 delivery report: Leapmotor hits 100K for the first time
- Related: BYD clears China’s new L2 driver-assist national standard
