In 2013, the Sino-Japanese joint venture GAC Toyota announced a plan to introduce a new brand electric cars Leahead to the domestic Chinese market.

[1][2] Leahead's next study was the urban hatchback i1 EV Concept presented in April 2015 at the Beijing Auto Show, closer in form to the future first production model.

[4] The car remained the only design offered under the Leahead brand and did not go into mass production except for a trial copy.

The i1 was an electric supermini hatchback based on the 5-door second generation Toyota Vitz and had a range of about 128 kilometres (80 mi).

[11] It was also sold as the Mitsubishi Eupheme Qizhi, Honda Everus Shirui, and Fiat Yuejie, though the iX4 was a pure EV while the others were plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.