Leapmotor C10 (2024 - ) Electric review

While the savings in running costs for electric cars are well established purchase prices still look chunky when compared with petrol, diesel or hybrid equivalents. Or did, until cars like the Leapmotor C10 arrived. Put simply this is a big, practical and family-friendly electric SUV that won’t cost any more to buy, lease or finance than any combustion-engined equivalent and blessed with modern styling and features that feel a cut above some of its budget equivalents from the likes of MG, BYD or others. You still need to be able to charge from home to really score the benefits, but even without that the C10 could save you a chunk in running costs through cheaper tax, free entry to the London Congestion Zone (until the end of 2025, at least) and other incentives. That starting price also ducks the more expensive VED/’road tax’ penalty for cars costing over £40,000, which comes into force in April 2025 and will hit many of its more mainstream rivals unless calls for an exemption for electric models are heeded.

Too early to say, given Leapmotor is a very fresh face and hasn’t been selling cars long enough to establish a reputation here. Leapmotor puts great faith in its in-house R&D resources, and if there were any serious concerns it would likely have already shown given the intense competition it faces in its home Chinese market. But we’ll have to see. The support of being sold through the established Stellantis network alongside its other brands does help confidence levels, though a longer warranty than the three-year one currently offered might have helped, especially when MG is confident enough to offer seven years on its unashamedly budget alternatives.

Top marks to Leapmotor for the amount of safety tech and driver assistance systems the C10 includes as standard, favourites like blind spot alerts and rear cross traffic warnings that many charge extra for included. But points deducted for the predictable cost-saving purge of buttons and switches in favour of burying vital controls like lights and mirror adjustment layers deep in a fiddly touch-screen menu. Leapmotor is simply following industry trends here but it’s no less annoying for it, the need to take eyes off the road and fiddle around in the menus to find something as critical as fog lights undoing a lot of the good work that’s been done of late with vehicle safety. We weren’t too impressed with the sometimes erratic interventions from the lane-keeping either, these and the constant bonging from the speed limit alerts and driver distraction monitoring irritations all too familiar in many modern cars. As on the T03 we tested at the same time we also had some worrying rolls backwards when the hill hold released on a gradient, suggesting some fine tuning of the system is required.

Interior styling is as bland as the exterior, and there’s little to surprise or delight hard plastics and other materials used in the cabin either. This obviously doesn’t directly impact comfort, but it does have a part to play in general wellbeing and the C10 needs more than multi-coloured ambient lighting to create a feelgood factor. Front seats get ventilation and heating as standard, which is nice. But the soft foam will have your spine sagging into the backrests, and this lack of support would be an issue on longer journeys. In better news there is at least tons of space inside the C10, validating its claims as a family-friendly vehicle. A flat floor in the back helps make all three seats viable, the boot should be big enough for most situations and there’s a small storage compartment up front where you can keep mucky charging cables away from your luggage. Excellent refinement and suspension geared more towards comfort than carving the corners like a hot hatch also feel more appropriate to the C10’s intended use.

Screen-based instruments behind the wheel and a larger display in the centre are pretty much the industry standard these days, Leapmotor’s promise of an intuitive smartphone-esque interface falling a little short given the fiddly interface. Nor can you currently run your phone apps through CarPlay or Android Auto, meaning for now you’ll just have to get used to the built-in system. It is at least fully connected and Leapmotor says it can – and is – rolling out regular over the air updates as it learns what customers want, that phone connectivity likely high on the to-do list. If we can log our request on that score we’d also ask for bigger fonts and a less confusing menu structure, please. If it’s possible to correct the ‘back to front’ operation of the power window switches that would be nice, too. A model line-up based around a single, generously equipped trim level simplifies the buying process and includes a thumping 12-speaker stereo, power-adjustable front seats, 20-inch wheels, a panoramic roof, power tailgate, heated steering wheel and 360-degree camera. All you need to do is choose your colour, our vote going for the rather smart looking metallic green.

It’s refreshing to hear an electric car manufacturer talking about performance in real-world terms rather than pointless, supercar beating acceleration times that do little more than have passengers reaching for the sick bag. Bravo for that, the 218 horsepower from the rear-mounted motor comparable with many equivalents, entry level versions of the VW ID.4 and related Skoda Enyaq included. While most of our test was on urban roads and we didn’t get a chance to try it on the motorway or elsewhere the C10 would seem to have enough performance to be getting on with and the slick calibration between throttle pedal and motor, the predictable regenerative braking and the efficiency we scored would all back up Leapmotor’s boasts for its electric tech. So, if not the sharpest steer or last word in driving thrills the C10 is smooth, quiet, easy to drive and everything you might hope for from an electric family SUV in that sense. Claimed official range of 261 miles is OK if not spectacular, with many rivals now boasting over 300 miles while charging speeds are middle of the road when plugged into a public fast charger. At this price, though, none of that would be a deal breaker.