Leapmotor B05 review

Our first experience of the B05 was out on German roads, with product marketing boss Alexis Cieslewicz explaining before we got in the car that it “aims to bring back the emotion for everyday driving” that has been lost in this age of everything being an SUV.

So, is it an emotional experience?

Well, it certainly isn’t upsetting. The B05 was apparently tuned by Stellantis engineers at Balocco, but it still prioritises a soft, comfortable ride over any sportiness. We rather like that. It’s well damped and controls its body weight well over bumps too, meaning there isn’t much of that secondary bounce that afflicts some softly sprung EVs. For reference, it uses a MacPherson strut up front and multi-link suspension at the rear.

It’s also reasonably refined, with road noise well suppressed and wind noise kept mostly at bay by the swoopy styling. For reference, the B05 tips the scales at 1,837kg.

What is it like when the road gets twisty?

There’s a decent weight to the brake pedal as you slow for a corner, but the steering is overly light and completely lacking in feel even in its heftiest ‘sport’ setting. You don’t get too much roll through bends, but there’s a sense that the B05 doesn’t make the most of its rear-wheel drive architecture. There’s a fair bit of understeer on a dry road, and it only really feels playful when you boot the throttle on properly loose surfaces.

But it’s an EV, so it must feel quick?

It only has 215bhp, but Leapmotor has still equipped the B05 with Launch Control. Stick its adjustable ‘Acceleration Mode’ into sport, left foot on the brake, right foot on the throttle and then let go of the brake pedal. Usually, an EV would at least gently usher you back into your seat, but the B05 seems to take a moment to think before it glides away gently. It’s pleasant, but certainly doesn’t feel rapid. The 0-62mph time is quoted as 6.7 seconds, but off the line it feels slower. There is a bit more punch if you give it some throttle while already on the move, though.

Is it efficient?

On our first couple of drives, we saw 4.0 miles per kWh and then 4.9 miles per kWh. Impressive. Those were both in favourable conditions for an EV, but we were also running the air conditioning and occasionally driving, erm… enthusiastically. Efficiency another benefit of the B05 being a lower-slung hatch rather than a crossover.

There’s plenty of adaptability in this regard too, with three levels of regen and then a separate one-pedal drive mode. Unfortunately, you can only cycle through these modes on the central touchscreen. No paddles behind the steering wheel here.

Anything else I need to know?

On the first few B05s off the boat from China, the active safety systems were far too eager to intervene. The lane assist system couldn’t cope with narrow country roads and frequently activated its emergency warnings as it nudged us left and right. Leapmotor set up multiple driver profiles with different settings to show us that up to eight different drivers could save and quickly access their preferred settings, but even so we struggled to turn off the lane assist. Only afterwards was it explained to us that this is linked to the driver distraction warning, which needs to be switched off first elsewhere in the fiddly touchscreen menu. Hopefully an over-the-air update improves this for the first European customers.

There’s also no on/off button. Instead, you get an NFC card and an app, but we found it tricky to know if the car was actually off and locked. Leapmotor says that it’s listening to customer feedback and will soon introduce physical keys. Hurrah!