New Delhi, July 3 -- 35,169 deliveries, up 110.6 percent year on year, also its second consecutive monthly record.

The back-to-back records are not coincidental. Both brands entered June carrying fresh model launches and software updates to their autonomous-driving and battery-management systems, and both have spent the better part of the past year converting technology investments into showroom traffic. Eric Han, a senior manager at Shanghai-based consultancy Suolei, said Leapmotor and Zeekr - alongside Xpeng, NIO and Xiaomi - had crossed a threshold that matters more than any single sales number. Their "technological advancement and fancy new models effectively spurred a sales jump," Han told the South China Morning Post. They represen...