(Yicai) Nov. 13 -- Leapmotor is on track to beat its sales target this year and plans to double this goal next year. Buoyed by this robust growth, the firm is likely to start making money ahead of schedule, according to the chief executive officer of the Chinese electric car manufacturer.

Leapmotor is set to surpass its sales target of 250,000 units for this year, and has set itself the bold goal of reaching 500,000 units in 2025, of which 10 percent will be sold overseas, Zhu Jiangming, who is also chairman of the company, said at a presser yesterday.

Sales in October more than doubled to 38,177 units, setting a new monthly high, Leapmotor said. The Hangzhou-based company logged a strong performance in the first 10 months, with sales reaching 210,000 units.

Thanks to this impressive growth, Leapmotor is likely to achieve profitability before the previously estimated timeline of the second half of next year, Zhu said.

Leapmotor’s shipments almost doubled in the third-quarter, soaring 94.4 percent year on year, to 86,200 autos, according to its latest earnings report released on Nov. 11. Revenue surged 74.3 percent to CNY9.8 billion (USD1.3 billion). Its net losses narrowed 30.3 percent year on year and 42.5 percent from the previous quarter to CNY690 million (USD95.5 million).

Leapmotor currently operates two factories in Jinhua with an annual production capacity of 40,000 units, but to meet rapidly growing demand, the carmaker has plans to boost its yearly output to one million units by early 2026.

To achieve this, Leapmotor is constructing a new factory in Hangzhou, which should be ready in the first half next year. And plans are underway to build a third factory in Jinhua, which should come online by the end of next year or early 2026.

Leapmotor is also actively expanding its overseas footprint and had linked arms with 339 dealerships in Europe capable of providing after-sales service as of the end of October. The company aims to sell between 8,000 and 12,000 vehicles in the European market this year.

The cost of exporting electric vehicles from China to Europe, though, has jumped by over EUR1,000 (USD1,061) per vehicle due to the additional import tariffs recently imposed by the European Union, Zhu said. This makes it difficult for China-made vehicles to maintain a competitive edge in the region. To counter this, Leapmotor plans to leverage its partnership with Dutch auto giant Stellantis to accelerate production in Europe through existing manufacturing facilities.

South America and Australia are also promising markets for future growth, Zhu said. In addition, the company plans to expand into the Asia-Pacific region, Middle East, Africa and South America and will establish over 500 local sales outlets.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor