The Paris Motor Show has opened with a noticeably fuller floor than in recent editions, and the dominant story is the sheer scale of Chinese manufacturer presence. Brands including Avatr, Leapmotor and Li Auto are using the event to signal European ambitions, raising immediate questions about how well their large, heavy and heavily equipped models will translate to European roads and buyer expectations.
Avatr, a marque new to European buyers, has confirmed it will enter the region with two models and has set out a three-year plan to add four more. The brand positions itself around what it calls emotional luxury, arguing that premium status now depends less on physical surroundings and more on how a driver feels. Its stand in Paris features the Vision Xpectra concept, designed in Germany and previously shown in China, alongside the world premiere of the T09 study, which previews a large electric SUV and a new design direction.
The first two Avatr models confirmed for Europe are the 06T and the 07L. The 06T is a 4.94-metre electric estate comparable in size to a Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer, offered with electric powertrains and as a range-extender plug-in hybrid. Battery options run from 73kWh and 87kWh for the EVs to 31kWh and 45kWh for the EREVs, with electric outputs spanning 343bhp to nearly 970bhp and the plug-ins delivering between 314bhp and 503bhp.
The 07L measures 4.91 metres, longer than the 4.83-metre 07 that Avatr has not specifically earmarked for Europe, and sits on a three-metre wheelbase. It too will be available as an EV and an EREV. In China the plug-in uses a 39kWh or 52kWh battery, while the electric version carries an 82kWh pack. The range-extender variant pairs a 314bhp rear motor with an optional 178bhp front motor for four-wheel drive, and Avatr quotes up to 325km of electric range on the CLTC cycle. The electric 07L comes as a 415bhp rear-wheel-drive model or a three-motor, four-wheel-drive version producing 968bhp, with a maximum CLTC range of 725km.
Avatr's route to market is notable. The company was originally conceived as a partnership between Nio and Changan, but that arrangement collapsed. Changan found a new partner in battery supplier CATL, and technology giant Huawei is also involved. Avatr says it will work with existing importers and dealer groups when it launches in Spain and Norway in 2027, a cautious approach that looks sensible given Nio's current difficulties in Europe.
Alongside Avatr, Leapmotor is pressing ahead with rapid expansion. The company sold 1,297 cars in the Netherlands last year and 3,219 in the first nine months of this year, more than two and a half times as many, with almost half of those being the B10. The wider rollout of the B05, an electric C-segment hatchback priced against cheaper B-segment cars, has yet to begin, but Leapmotor is already adding the B03 to its Dutch line-up.
The B05 is 17 centimetres larger than a Volkswagen ID.3 Neo yet starts at €26,995, only about €1,000 more than the considerably smaller Volkswagen ID. Polo. The B03 undercuts the B05 further, sharpening a value proposition that European incumbents will find uncomfortable as Chinese brands move from novelty to volume.