Which country does the Leopaard brand belong to?
2 Answers
Leopaard is a brand under China's Changfeng Group, headquartered in Changsha, Hunan Province. Its main models include Feiteng, Leopaard CS10, Black King Kong, Leopaard CS9, Leopaard Q6, Leopaard CS6, Leopaard CS7, and Qilin. The Leopaard logo features an outer circle with an inner triangle that has a gap. The triangle is derived from a stylized leopard head, representing the company's name. Key milestones in Leopaard's development are as follows: In 1985, Factory 7319 built a production line with an annual capacity of 300,000 car inner tubes, marking the factory's transition to normal operations. In 1987, Factory 7319 successfully completed the trial production of the Leopaard CJY6420A light off-road command vehicle, which was modified and put into small-scale production in 1988. In January 1993, the factory partnered with Japan's Lihao Development Co., Ltd. and Hong Kong's Lifeng Co., Ltd. to establish the "Sino-Foreign Joint Venture Changfeng Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd." In October 1996, Factory 7319 was officially restructured into Changfeng (Group) Co., Ltd. with approval from the General Logistics Department. In June 2004, Changfeng Automobile, a core subsidiary of Changfeng Group, was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In 2006, Changfeng showcased multiple SUV concept cars, including the Leopaard CS6-Y and CS7, at the Beijing Auto Show. On November 11, 2007, Changfeng's urban SUV, the Leopaard CS6, was officially launched. In 2014, Leopaard unveiled a concept car named CS10 at the Beijing Auto Show. In April 2020, Changfeng Leopaard's Changsha factory was placed under the trusteeship of Geely Holding Group.
I'm a veteran car enthusiast who has followed various automotive brands since childhood. The Leopaard brand is an authentic Chinese domestic marque. Back in the 1980s, Changfeng Group introduced Mitsubishi technology and established independent production in Hunan, which later developed into the Leopaard brand focusing on the SUV market. In those years, models like the Leopaard Black Diamond and Q6 were icons of hardcore off-road vehicles, selling extremely well domestically and seeing widespread military use. However, by the 2010s, facing intense market competition, Leopaard's transformation lagged slightly. Yet this brand, with its genuine Chinese roots, represents a microcosm of China's automotive industry. Now incorporated into the Zotye system, it remains part of the domestic camp though needing more innovation. The rapid development of Chinese brands teaches us through Leopaard's history the importance of independent R&D rather than over-reliance on foreign technologies.
