Leapmotor C10 review

What, you’ve never heard of Leapmotor before? Get some wifi in that cave of yours. The Leapmotor C10 is half of the Chinese brand’s initial dual-pronged push into Europe: along with the T03 city car, it will eventually be joined by a host of other models as Leapmotor looks to gain a foothold outside of its domestic market.

Where, by the way, it’s growing astonishingly quickly. Founded in 2015, it’s already the third biggest electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle maker in China (!) and having shifted 145,000 units last year it’s aiming for 250k by the end of 2024. The half-million mark is the goal before the decade is out.

Achieving that means advancing into other territories. To do this, it has roped in Stellantis: the two firms have created a joint company - Leapmotor International, split 51:49 in favour of Stellantis - as a sort of insurance policy against the threat of tariffs. If Europe imposes some, Stellantis can dodge them by building Leapmotor’s cars in its own factories instead of importing them.

It’s a cunning ol’ plan. And the C10 is the poster child for it.

What’s it up against?

Good question. The C10 is a mid-size electric SUV so if you think along the lines of the Nissan Ariya, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and (related) Kia EV6, VW ID.4 and (also related) Skoda Enyaq, Toyota bZ4X, Peugeot e-3008 and Renault Scenic, you won’t be far off.

The C10 is longer than all of those, mind, so it’s got prodigious interior space on its side. For more on that, click on the Interior tab.

Leapmotor also has the Tesla Model Y on its radar, although that’s fractionally bigger. And significantly more expensive.

Why, how much is it gonna cost me?

£36,500. No more, no less, because only one spec is available in the UK and it gets everything Leapmotor can throw at it. That makes it usefully cheaper than pretty much all of its closest competitors. It’s an approach that MG has employed to great effect with the MG 4 and ZS recently. But that’s under a banner people recognise; Leapmotor doesn’t have any currency. Yet.

What’s its party piece?

The standout nugget of info that caught our eye before driving the C10 was that it can be converted into a ‘1.8-metre long and 1.2 metre wide double bed'. Huh? Turns out that means the front seats will recline all the way back, so if you unholster the headrests you can transform the cabin area into a makeshift… tent. The kind of thing you’d want to spend the night on? Not exactly, but it’s nice to have a gimmick to show off right?

It also has funky ambient lighting that you can set to pulse in time with whatever music you’ve got playing through the (impressive) 12-speaker audio system.

Stats, I need stats.

The C10 harbours a 69.9kWh battery for a claimed 260 miles of WLTP range. It’s powered by a single motor on the back axle - yep, it’s rear wheel drive - producing 215bhp and 236lb ft for 0-62mph in 7.5 seconds. So nothing that’s likely to break the internet (do people still say that?), but power delivery is smooth and linear and at no point does the Leapmotor struggle to keep up with traffic. For more on how it drives, hit the Driving tab.

One word of warning: while AC charging at 6.6kW (more than enough for an overnight top-up at home) is pretty common, DC rapid charging is capped at 84kW. This lags behind the class leaders, and means the C10 needs half an hour to go from 30 to 80 per cent capacity. Which means those visits to the service station will be that much less time or energy efficient.

There’s a fair amount to commend about the C10; it’s extremely roomy (but doesn’t feel massive on the road) and largely comfortable, the interior has been carried out well, and for the money there’s little else out there that offers the same level of value. If you’re the kind of person willing to take a chance on an unknown entity, Leapmotor’s new SUV might just reward you handsomely for your early faith in a newcomer.

Having said that, there are clearly things the company needs to work on. For a start the handling isn’t terribly sophisticated, the efficiency is merely average and we have our doubts about how the suspension will cope with the dire state of some of our roads. Let’s see.

And if the organisation of the tech doesn’t put you off, the invasive nature of the various driver assistance systems almost certainly will.