Updates with background

BEIJING, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Leapmotor 9863.HK, the Chinese partner of Stellantis STLAM.MI, on Tuesday launched a new electric vehicle with smart driving technology priced under 150,000 yuan ($20,535), a day after BYD slashed the entry price for such smart EVs.

Leapmotor said it would launch pre-sale of its B10 on March 10, its first electric vehicle model that will be equipped with lidar and urban traffic smart driving capability.

China's BYD on Monday started offering advanced autonomous driving features on most of its models including ones priced as low as $9,555, far undercutting competitors such as Tesla TSLA.O in a move analysts say is set to start a new price war.

($1 = 7.3045 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Liz Lee; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

((liz.lee@thomsonreuters.com;))