The Lepas L6 will arrive in the UK at the back end of the year as a Hyundai Kona-rivalling crossover with hybrid and electric power.
Cousin to the hugely popular Jaecoo 7, the L6 will be Lepas's second UK model following the flagship L8, which will arrive this summer to rival the Mazda CX-5 and Toyota RAV4.
Lepas (whose name is a portmanteau of 'leopard', 'leap' and 'passion') is owned by Chinese giant Chery and has been created with a focus on the European market. It's a sibling brand to Omoda, Jaecoo and Chery.
The five-seat L6 will be offered with the choice of two powertrains, either plug-in hybrid or battery-electric.
The PHEV uses the same 204bhp powertrain as the Jaecoo 7, which became the UK’s best-selling car last month. This combines a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with an electric motor and 18.3kWh battery.
Lepas claims the PHEV is good for 700 miles of combined range, but it hasn't yet detailed how much of that is on the battery alone. For reference, the 7 offers 56 miles of electric-only range.
The electric L6 draws power from a new 67kWh battery pack, which gives it a range of 270 miles. It can be rapid-charged from 30-80% in 20 minutes.
This technology is a step up from its Jaecoo E5 and Omoda E5 electric cousins, which use a smaller 61kWh battery, have 257 miles of range and take 28 minutes to charge the same amount.
Lepas hasn't yet revealed what motors the L6 will use, but expect output to be similar to the E5's 208bhp.
No details on the L6's interior have been confirmed, but the larger L8 gives clues of what to expect. That features a portrait-oriented 13.2in infotainment touchscreen, an array of physical buttons for control climate functions and a wireless phone charger.
Lepas UK MD Ray Wang said the L6 “marks an exciting step for our brand in Europe and the UK market”.
Pricing and full UK trim specifications will be revealed closer to the car’s arrival in the last quarter of the year.
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How many Chinese car brands are there?, seems to be a new brand every other month, and what's the West doing in reply!
The west is responding, look at Renault with their recent model releases, and they will always have familiarity and recognition of brand names, although this doesn't hold much weight with 17-25 years who are much more open to newer brands.
I'm guessing the Chinese are at a similar stage to the UK, Europe and the US were some 80-90 years ago (or more) where lots of companies with the engineering ability created car/motoring brands and models, albeit the Chinese have had a help in hand from being able to draw upon established designs and engineering expertise from the west. Like those older brands, very few of these newer Chinese model will survive but those that do will probably end up dominating western markets just like Japan did and more recently KIA and Hyundai have done.