How nature-inspired surfacing defines the Lepas design language

As the youngest brand in the Chery Group, Lepas has arrived in the UK with ambitions to establish a distinct identity of its own. Following appearances at Milan Design Week and the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the marque joins Omoda, Jaecoo and Chery UK as the fourth addition to the group's UK portfolio. 

Central to that ambition is design. Lepas aims to fuse speed, power and elegance together into one visual language. This philosophy is implemented in every surface, detail and proportion of Lepas’ vehicles. On the L8 – Lepas’ UK launch model – it’s most evident in the distinctive leopard-eye LED headlights and strong shoulder line, which gives the vehicle a recognisable road presence.

Lepas' design operation is led by global chief designer Ivan Dulanovic, and spans studios in Wuhu, home to the company's headquarters, and Shanghai. While Dulanovic has ambitions to establish a European design studio, he says it is still "too early" to reveal further details. 

Dulanovic began his career studying industrial design in Serbia before deciding to pursue automotive design, moving to Italy after graduating to attend Scuola Politecnica di Design. There, he worked closely with Lamborghini and Audi, gaining valuable exposure to senior designers and design leadership from both brands – experience that continues to influence his work today.

A visit to Italdesign's clay modelling studio proved another defining moment. There, Dulanovic met one of his favourite designers, Filippo Perini, who subsequently invited him to join the studio. During his two years at Italdesign, he worked across sports cars, passenger vehicles and projects for Chinese manufacturers, sparking an interest in China's rapidly evolving automotive industry. Joining Chery later confirmed what he had long heard about the pace of development. 

Speaking to Car Design News, Dulanovic expands on Lepas’ design philosophy, aerodynamic importance and team structure. 

CDN: As the name suggests, Lepas takes its design inspiration from the leopard. Tell us more about how this idea came to be, and how we can see this through the design? 

Ivan Dulanovic: The design philosophy of Lepas is powerful, natural energy. So we had to find one symbol for the sake of clarity and also communication with our customers. The eyes of our car and the shoulder lines draw inspiration directly from the eyes of the leopard – every Lepas car will have these features. 

We have a very clear design DNA and we know where we’re heading. We’re not designing cars for designers or even ourselves, but for customers who don’t know much about design. So, when they see these leopard eyes, I don’t even have to explain the design thought behind it. It’s pretty effective. 

CDN: How autonomously does the Lepas design studio work from the larger Chery group? 

ID: The brand is young and before it came to be, we were part of the international studio. Now we have separated and Lepas is made up of less than 20 designers – including exterior, interior, CMF, strategy etc. We are operating independently, but we have the support from the Chery corporation when needed. For example, if there’s an important project or an emergency, we can use resources from the larger Chery Group. It’s very effective as we are competing in the global market, so speed is a very important aspect. Also, as a small brand, it’s important to be attached to a bigger division. 

CDN: With Lepas taking inspiration from leopard aesthetics, does this mean that aerodynamics and surfacing make up an important part of your design process? 

ID: We are inspired by nature, and nature has very logical shapes and forms – with the leopard being one of them. Because of this, it’s easier for us to tackle aerodynamics as all our forms are elegant. Air flows around the car much more easily compared to a very edgy design. As a result, it’s less of a challenge but we do take a lot of care when it comes to proportions. For example, with the L8, the sleek greenhouse really helps the aerodynamics of the car – we have it positioned at roughly around 150 degrees. Looking from the top, the shapes are round and all our cars have side intakes to guide the air through the car. 

CDN: Would you agree that Lepas is the most design-forward out of the Chery portfolio? 

ID: You can say that Lepas is really pushing design through that is confident, elegant and stylish – it plays a big role. 

CDN: So how do you strike a balance between utilising what the Chery Group has to offer, but also making the brand stand out independently? 

ID: As a designer, my job is to increase this difference between brands as we go into the future, because Lepas is a young brand. We can guarantee that in the future, we will have much more differentiation between all the brands through the design DNA. Time is a very important ingredient in design, so with this time we will develop further through new models and concept cars to differentiate between the other brands. 

There are so many brands nowadays, especially compared to 20 years ago. We have big competition and much more to deal with. 

CDN: For you personally, how has the transition been from working with European brands to Chinese brands? 

ID: It’s an exciting opportunity. I already worked in Europe; I was educated in Europe and in Europe things are a little chill and slow – which is fine. I wanted to experience how the Chinese companies are doing it. I have to say, I’m impressed and I love it. The speed is a very important strategic element as we have a lot of competition – but China is the number one player in hardware. This is the place to be as a designer. 

CDN: Are you finding that, in the Chinese working culture, the relationship between designers and engineers is closely linked? 

ID: I always like to work very closely with the engineers, but I will work in the future to improve this further. As a foreigner, it takes a little bit more time to become associated with engineers because engineers typically like to keep to themselves. I really would like to push to have an extremely good relationship between these two teams because I recognise the importance.