As cliché as it sounds, it feels like barely a week goes past without a new brand from China either announcing its entry to the U.K. or bringing out a handful of cars for the masses to enjoy. Each comes with tales of huge numbers, plans for dealers in every corner of the country and promises of the sort of tech you’d only normally see attached to Tony Stark’s face.
Leapmotor has landed in the U.K. and Europe, with it comes the T03 city car, and the C10 SUV, though more are on the way. It used to be the case that Chinese cars were a bit cack, but as time’s gone on quite the opposite has become the norm. BYD and MG, for example, make cars that steal sales, rightfully, from the establishment. Those two come with some history, whereas Leapmotor seems to have come out of nowhere. The company has proven it can make a compelling cheap car in the T03. But in the high-stakes electric SUV game, is it good enough to scare VW and the rest?
(Full disclosure: Leapmotor invited me down to drive the new T03 at the launch event. The company gave me a charged-up C10 to drive and provided lunch when I got back.)
Leapmotor as a company has only been around for a decade. Like a fair few Chinese car firms, it started out as a tech business before moving into cars. In 2023 its work caught the eye of Stellantis, which bought a 21% stake in its Chinese business. In 2024, Stellantis and Leapmotor formed Leapmotor International, a way to get Leapmotor’s cars out to the rest of the world. Now, in early 2025, it has cars all over Europe, and is launching in the U.K. The big win here is that Leapmotor’s cars won’t be sold via soem cobbled-together dealer network, but in Stellantis showrooms all over the place. And, according to the man from Leapmotor, parts won’t be an issue as they’ve got loads in stock. You can buy with confidence, then.
Gallery: Leapmotor C10 First Drive
The C10 is, currently, the biggest car in the range. It’s a D Segment SUV, but is priced at £36,500 ($46,000)—C segment money. How the price is that low is somewhat baffling because it comes with… everything. Voice assistant, CarPlay, Android Auto, a 14.6-inch touch screen, heated seats, as much ADAS as you can handle, a respectable 15 cubic foot trunk, interior design that would make Volvo raise an eyebrow and more besides. It’s not the most exciting car to look at, but it does look good in green. There are no options barring your choice of color. You pay your money, you get your car. You get a lot of stuff for that money, and that’s before you get to the drivetrain.
Under the floor is a 70 kWh battery that feeds power to a 218-horsepower, 236-lb-ft rear-mounted motor that flings the C10 from 0-62 mph in 7.5 seconds and up to 106 mph. Leapmotor says it’ll do 263 miles (or 423 km, WLTP combined) on a charge, too, which means it can theoretically manage 3.8 miles per kWh. Unfortunately, WLTP estimates are usually optimistic. Fast charging doesn’t appear to be the C10’s forte, either. DC charging is capped at 84kW, netting you 30-80% SOC in 30 minutes, the company claims.
The price and toys will have a lot of consumers licking their lips. The drive is a different matter. Its steering works in that when you turn the wheel the car will change direction, but there’s little feedback communicating what’s going on under the front wheels. If you push the C10 a touch harder than usual it’ll lean like a 90s SUV in a terrible cop show, and then, if you push further, understeer like hell. Of course, it’s not a sports car, but even middle-of-the-road competitors do that sort of stuff better. The ride either doesn’t like the UK’s roads or is simply awful. It feels OK to start with, but the moment things get a little uneven you feel everything through your skeleton. It’d be fine on a Spanish motorway, but in England? It leaves a lot to be desired.
The C10’s ADAS systems are many, and… irritating. Intrusive active safety systems aren’t uncommon, of course, and you can go into a menu to turn them (and their associated bongs) off. However, the car’s Lane Keep Assist decided to stay on for quite a bit, even after I had deactivated it. In doing so, it was a touch aggressive in moving the wheel to put you where it thought you should be.
There are drive modes, of course, and with them comes various levels of energy regen and powertrain ferocity. When the C10 wants to recoup a lot of energy it doesn’t do so smoothly, seemingly grabbing the car to slow it down. You won’t want to try and change the modes on the move, as getting to them requires lots of stabs at the touch screen when you should be looking at the road. There’s no haptic feedback through it to let you know you’ve hit your mark either, so you either look at the screen, or at what’s ahead. Similarly, things like changing wing mirror angles, adjusting the temperature, and putting fog lights on is done via the screen.
On the upside, it feels decently brisk, so you can easily make an escape at the lights when someone asks ‘what’s that then?’ Leapmotor’s claimed efficiency wasn’t quite on the money on a cold winter day, though. It managed better than expected: A more than respectable 3.9 miles per kWh. The whole experience may not have been the best, but at least it didn’t use too much electricity in mixed driving.
Sadly, the drive being underwhelming wasn’t the most disappointing thing about the car. There’s a not very small list of pain points. Using voice commands was hit and miss. Activating it via a button on the wheel prompted the car to loudly proclaim “I’m coming,” which isn’t exactly what you’d expect as you’re cruising up the highway. Perhaps there are still some translation quirks going on, or perhaps an engineer found it funny.
Once it had, erm, arrived, it couldn’t get the hang of natural-language commands. “Change to sport mode” didn’t register, but “change the drive mode to sport” hit the mark. That sort of clunkiness is reminiscent of cars built a decade ago, not today.
Driving on a cold day meant the cabin needed to be warmed up, but for the majority of the time the vents burped out cold air despite the screen promising 26 degrees centigrade (79 degrees Fahrenheit). I suppose that’s one way to improve efficiency. Thankfully the heated seats worked nicely. Oh, and at one point, no matter how insistently it was pushed, the passenger door took some convincing to open. It took a few goes to work out that it was, in fact, a door. The homegrown GPS froze, too, refusing to update the remaining distance, though it did still give directions. Leapmotor’s interior looks very nice, but the materials all feel a bit odd. Not cheap, but not as premium as presented.
There are some neat surprises in there though. There’s a programmable switch in the roof to adjust various features in the car and a ‘nap’ function that’ll play calming sound effects for a spell. You can set routines to activate when certain parameters are met in the car to make your journeys easier, and the wonderfully HD touchscreen comes with a range of pretty backgrounds.
So you can see what they’re going for. Leapmotor is keen to position itself as a brand of great value. You get lots for your money—space, tech and range. But, as it stands, you won’t enjoy much of it. It all looks great, but when you start driving it, the whole experience falls apart. At $46,0000 it may well be an enticing proposition for some, but the same money can be spent on a car from an established brand that’s far more mature.
There may well be a huge network, and plenty of parts available, but as a product, it would be kind to call the C10 average. Maybe given time the company will update it, but right now it’s hard to recommend. Leapmotor may know a thing or two about cheap cars, but its only mainstream crossover leaves a lot to be desired. VW and co don’t have to worry about their moneymakers just yet.
