Leapmotor has officially launched the Lafa 5 in China, entering the electric hatchback market with competitive pricing. The model’s limited-time starting price is RMB 92,800 ($13,100), representing a reduction of RMB 13,000, or 12.29 percent, from the pre-sales starting price of RMB 105,800.

Deliveries of the Lafa 5 will commence shortly, positioning it to compete in China against models including the Volkswagen ID.3, SAIC MG4, BYD (HKG: 1211, OTCMKTS: BYDDY) Dolphin, and Nio Inc’s (NYSE: NIO) Firefly EV.

Leapmotor offers five variants for the Lafa 5 — 515 Plus, 515 Pro, 515 Max, 605 Pro, and 605 Max — with the numbers indicating CLTC range.

Official starting prices for these variants are RMB 97,800, RMB 105,800, RMB 115,800, RMB 111,800, and RMB 121,800 respectively.

The company is offering a limited-time RMB 5,000 cash discount to customers purchasing the Lafa 5 by December 31, effectively lowering the starting prices to RMB 92,800, RMB 100,800, RMB 110,800, RMB 106,800, and RMB 116,800 respectively.

Leapmotor also allows customers purchasing the model today to receive an additional RMB 2,000 discount, the same as the pre-sales offer.

The company is also developing a higher-spec Lafa 5 Ultra version, slated for release next year. The Lafa 5 is a sporty rear-wheel-drive compact EV tuned by Stellantis’ European team.

Built on Leapmotor’s LEAP 3.5 architecture B platform, it measures 4,430 mm in length, 1,880 mm in width, and 1,520 mm in height, with a 2,735 mm wheelbase.

These dimensions surpass those of the Firefly EV, which measures 4,003 mm in length, 1,781 mm in width, and 1,557 mm in height, with a wheelbase of 2,615 mm.

Abu Dhabi peoples are all set to experience the driverless taxi service experience. The ride-sharing giant Uber and the autonomous vehicle specialist WeRide officially started offering fully driverless robotaxi rides to the public in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

As for the latest information, customers can now hail a car through the Uber app and climb into an EV with no one in the driver’s seat – no safety operator, no human supervision at all.

For those who really want to try the latest technology, there is even a dedicated “Autonomous” option in the app to boost the chances of getting a truly driverless experience.

These special self-driving electric cars are now driving around city streets. Many people said this would never happen, but now these cars are a normal part of modern cities.

Getting these cars on the road without drivers took a long time. The companies announced they would work together in September 2024. Three months later, they started giving rides in Abu Dhabi, but a safety person was always in the car. These test rides helped them collect information and make sure everything worked properly.

Running a fleet of self-driving electric cars takes a lot of work. Uber handles the main operations and helps riders with any problems, from when they book a ride until they get dropped off. WeRide focuses on testing and improving the self-driving technology.

Keeping a large group of electric cars running takes a lot of maintenance. A company called Tawasul Transport helps with this work. They clean the cars, check them regularly, manage the parking areas, and most importantly, charge the electric taxis so they can run all day and night.

Starting in the Middle East is just the beginning of a bigger plan. Uber and WeRide have already said they will expand beyond Abu Dhabi. Their next stop is Dubai.

The two companies plan to launch fully self-driving taxis in 15 more cities over the next five years. This will include several major cities in Europe, so these electric self-driving cars could be coming to your city soon.

Having robotaxis in the Middle East is a big deal for the car industry. It shows that self-driving electric car technology is safe and reliable enough to use in everyday life, not just for testing.

Elon Musk announced recently that Tesla is planning to “roughly double” its Robotaxi fleet in Austin next month. Just last month, Musk explicitly stated that Tesla aimed to have 500 Robotaxis in Austin by the end of the year. Now, “doubling” the current estimated fleet suggests the actual number will be closer to 60.

We have been closely tracking the rollout of the “Tesla Robotaxi” pilot in Austin, which launched back in June using Model Y vehicles.

Unlike the “Cybercab” unveiled in October, these vehicles are standard Model Ys equipped with Hardware 4, and critically, they are not driverless.

The service has been plagued by availability issues. As we reported recently, users in Austin are frequently met with “High Service Demand” messages, with wait times often exceeding 40 minutes. It’s not necessarily because there’s really “high demand”, but because Tesla’s ‘Robotaxi fleet” remains tiny.

In response to complaints about the service being “essentially unusable” due to lack of supply, Elon Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) late Tuesday to promise relief:

“The Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Austin should roughly double next month.”

For those frustrated by the wait times, more cars are certainly welcome. But for investors and analysts tracking Tesla’s autonomous driving promises, this announcement serves as a confirmation of a significant missed deadline.

How many Tesla Robotaxis are in Austin?

To understand why “doubling” is actually a disappointment, we have to look at what Musk promised just a few weeks ago.

During his appearance on the All-In Podcast, which aired on October 31, 2025, Musk was explicitly asked about the scale of the fleet. His answer was unambiguous:

“We’re scaling up the number of cars to… probably we’ll have a thousand cars or more in the Bay Area by the end of this year, probably 500 or more in the greater Austin area.”