The Australian Leapton Solar Panel Saga

Australians visiting a local Leapton Solar branded web site might come away from the experience believing the company is no longer operating here. That’s not the case.

But first …

Who Is Leapton Solar?

Leapton Energy is a Japanese firm manufacturing panels through its Chinese subsidiary, Leapton Solar. The company’s panels have been available in Australia for a few years – SQ’s Ronald wrote about the company back in 2020.

Since that time, Leapton solar panel reviews and ratings here on SQ from Australian owners have (generally) been pretty good. But SolarQuotes has only collected a couple of dozen customer ratings so far and the company isn’t currently listed as one of SQ’s recommended solar panel brands.

The Australian S**t Show

A month or so ago, an odd message started appearing on an Australian Leapton website, which had been an authorised online presence for the brand. It indicated some panels being sold in Australia hadn’t arrived here via Leapton Australia or its authorised importers.

In the absence of further information, this seemed to suggest these solar panels were “grey” (aka parallel) imports – and according to the message not eligible for local support or warranty coverage from that company.

But there was more to it. Leapton Energy in Japan contacted me, stating the company operating that website had Leapton’s logo and trademark authorisation terminated on July 11, 2022 – and provided copies of documents backing that claim.

Much more recently, the message on that (now unofficial) website has changed, stating:

“Leapton Australia Permanently Closed!”

… and some other details that Leapton in Japan isn’t particularly thrilled about.

What Australian Leapton Solar Panel Owners Need To Know

While the law-talkin’ folks duke things out and regardless of who was right or wrong in whatever happened behind the scenes in the lead-up to all this, here’s what Australian owners of Leapton Solar panels need to know. The following is based on information the parent company in Japan recently provided me:

• It has established its own company in Australia for after-sales service and warranty claims – Leapton Energy (Australia) Pty Ltd¹.
• The official Australian website is www.leaptonau.com
• The company’s registered address is 74 Moruya Drive, Port Macquarie NSW 2444.
• The phone number is 0408 885 065.
• The email address for support and warranty enquiries is [email protected].
• All Leapton panel support requests and warranty claims – including for solar panels imported by the previously authorised partner – will be handled by this local company.
• One Stop Warehouse has been the exclusive distributor of Leapton Solar’s 415W panels since around April 2022.

The firm seems eager to do the right thing by its Australian customers, and that’s encouraging – but this is a really messy state of affairs as it stands. The similarity between the names of the two companies involved creates confusion and a search on Leapton Solar still brings up the other company’s website first at the time of publishing.

The situation certainly doesn’t spark joy for Leapton Energy and I assume the company is keen to take control of the other website, or at least have it taken down, sooner rather than later.