Leapmotor Anti-Corruption: Self-Reporting Can Grant Immunity, Millions in Irregular Gains Already Surrendered

After more than a month, the internal anti-corruption self-inspection announcement from Leap Motor has sparked discussion on social media.

Several Leap employees confirmed to “21 Auto” that the company sent an all-staff email on February 9th encouraging employees to voluntarily turn in illegal gains within a one-month window for immunity from prosecution.

According to internal notices, during the window period, employees who proactively submit past illegal earnings to the company’s integrity account will have their previous violations forgiven. The notice also states that this is not condoning misconduct but providing employees who have made mistakes and are willing to correct them an opportunity to “let go of burdens and start anew.” They hope everyone will actively self-correct and turn back from the brink.

The company said that after March 10th, any unreported violations will be subject to penalties. The penalties are divided into six tiers based on the amount involved, with the lightest being a warning for amounts under 1,000 yuan; a demerit for 1,000 to 10,000 yuan; dismissal and public removal, along with the recovery of stocks and earnings for amounts over 10,000 yuan. For violations exceeding 30,000 yuan, and amounts over 1 million or 15 million yuan, Leap states they will refer the case to judicial authorities, and employees could face sentences of over 6 months, over 3 years, or even up to 10 years, with stocks and earnings also being reclaimed.

On February 9th, the self-inspection order was issued. On March 8th, Leap Motor Chairman Zhu Jiangming copied and reminded employees that “there are 2 days left,” and the system issued another reminder on March 10th.

Zhu Jiangming repeatedly emphasized the urgency of the window period. The notice shows that over ten million yuan in illegal gains have already been voluntarily surrendered.

Several Leap employees confirmed this news but stated that no senior executives have been taken away for corruption so far.

One employee said that since Leap was founded, the company has been strictly controlling budgets and cracking down on corruption. “This anti-corruption self-inspection order is a routine internal audit operation. I don’t understand why the announcement made a month ago is only now gaining traction.”

Another mid-to-senior level employee with many years at Leap told “21 Auto” that there have been no cases of senior management being dealt with for corruption since the company’s founding, and this time is no different. “As the company enters a new development stage, if corruption continues unchecked, its destructive power would be akin to a disastrous strategic mistake. The earlier the anti-corruption, the better for the company’s growth.”

Anti-corruption is an eternal theme every large company faces, especially in manufacturing industries with huge cash flows. NIO, Xpeng, Li Auto, Xiaomi, Great Wall, CATL, Volvo, and others have all strictly enforced anti-corruption internally, with many employees and even mid-to-high-level managers being investigated or taken into police custody.

This is no exception for Leap Motor, which manufactures over 65% of its parts in-house.

By 2025, Leap aims to top new energy vehicle sales with 596,600 units sold annually, surpassing Xiaomi Auto by nearly 200,000 units. Leap is also the only Chinese new car manufacturer in 2025 to deliver over 70,000 units in a single month.

This scale has brought significant revenue and profit. Despite lower revenue compared to NIO, Xpeng, and Li Auto, Leap has achieved full-year net profit turning positive at 540 million yuan. While its net profit is only half of Li Auto’s, its gross margin has begun to catch up with Li Auto and is 0.9 percentage points higher than NIO.

This impressive performance is attributed to simple, straightforward management and strict internal cost control.

Unlike other automakers, Leap does not have a core management hierarchy. Zhu Jiangming is the undisputed “Number One,” with more than ten senior executives reporting directly to him—departments such as electronics, electric drive, and batteries, which should belong to the vehicle division, are parallel to the vehicle division within Leap. The heads of these departments report directly to Zhu. “The purpose is to reduce matrix management and clarify responsibilities,” Zhu explained.

Zhu Jiangming holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Zhejiang University, not a finance background, but is very sensitive to financial matters. At the end of 2024, “21 Auto” interviewed Zhu, who said he reviews financial reports monthly, not only monitoring Leap’s own financial situation but also closely analyzing other automakers’ finances.

Zhu considers Leap’s balance sheet “very attractive,” citing cost control within reasonable ranges, continuous revenue growth, and manageable liabilities. In June 2025, Zhu told us his goal was to control overall labor costs so that total expenses would not exceed 1.5 times those of 2024.

Although Leap achieved profitability for the full year in 2025, its core profit sources remain unstable.

Out of the 63.4 billion yuan in annual revenue, parts sales, technology licensing, and collaborations with Stellantis and FAW contributed 7.82 billion yuan in free cash flow; meanwhile, services and other income contributed 2.72 billion yuan (including 1 billion yuan from carbon credits).

At the same time, company expenses are increasing. In Q4 2025, Leap’s sales expenses reached 1.3 billion yuan, exceeding the market expectation of 1.03 billion yuan and even surpassing R&D expenses for the quarter (1.19 billion yuan). This was the first time sales expenses exceeded R&D costs in Leap’s history.

With 2025 heavily reliant on non-vehicle businesses and vehicle gross margins still low, Leap faces significant pressure to sustain profitability in 2026.