REVIEW | Leapmotor C10 - Too Good to be True
Stellantis backed Chinese brand set for UK launch
‘If something seems too good to be true, it usually is,’ is an expression often dragged out by parents who know better, well-meaning friends advising against interesting deals on eBay, or people on the internet trying to give a well-meaning warning. The Leapmotor C10 is a deal that’s too good to be true. At least the one I drove was.
Leapmotor’s premise is a solid one. The Chinese firm started producing cars comparatively recently, doing so at a low cost to the consumer, but offering plenty of handy tech in the process. Stellantis saw what it was up to and liked its vibe, buying a stake in the Chinese business, then setting up a joint venture (51:49 in Stellantis’ favour) with its new chum, Leapmotor International, to sell its cars in other bits of the world. In very little time, Leapmotor has gone from obscure outside of China to partnering with one of the world’s largest companies. It’s all rather impressive stuff. Leapmotor will formally launch in the UK in March 2025 with two models - the ‘gets-away-with-being-a-bit-naff-because-it’s-cheap’ tiny T03, and its much bigger sibling, the C10. Each will come with full Stellantis support - meaning a solid parts distribution business, and a four year warranty.
The Positives
Leapmotor (amid lots of ‘take a leap’ puns - the ad guys kinda had to) will be making much of the word ‘value.’ There’s a reason for that - its cars will be cheap to buy. The C10’s £36,500 pricetag belies its size. For C segment money you get a D segment car that offers LOTS of good stuff on paper. 263 miles (WLTP combined) of range from a 70kWh battery, promising a decent max efficiency of 3.8 miles per kWh. Topping up the battery is a tricky point - it can take 84kW chargers at most, which will get you from 30-80% state of charge in 30 minutes. 0-62mph takes 7.5 seconds, and it’ll manage 106mph if you want to lose your licence.
There’s acres of space in the back for passengers to stretch out, and while the boot isn’t world beating at 435 litres, there’s still enough room to sate most people. You get a huge 14.6-inch infotainment screen that has things like a nap function, its own nav, routines, CarPlay, Android Auto… lots, basically. There’s a digital instrument binnacle, too. At first glance, the interior looks pretty cool as well - minimalist with no sharp edges. As there’s only one trim, the only thing that might up the bill is a different colour.
The not so positives…
How is it all too good to be true then? A promise of excellence is one thing, delivering it is another. Leapmotor, while practised at building cars cheaply, hasn’t built the C10 particularly well.
To give it its dues - it’s brisk off the line, and over a longer than average journey it managed 3.9 miles per kWh. On a cold day, beating that theoretical number is a very good thing. It looks ok, too. You won’t find yourself looking back at it in the car park, but it’s not ugly either. It’s from there that things get a little messy.
Kicking off with the basics, the C10’s sat nav stopped updating itself some way through the drive. This may be because it’s an early car, or it might be because it’s not a very good system. Either or, it’s a pretty basic thing in 2025.
How is the ride?
Its ride is almost OK. Initially it’s smooth, but the moment things start getting rough your spine knows about it. If you’re going to spend your time in the C10 on Britain’s patchwork roads, you’ll end up hating its springs.
While your spine is getting a workout, your forearms won’t be all that bothered. The steering is light but also incredibly numb. It works in that turning it moves the front wheels, but there’s little to tell you what’s going on down there. Corner hard and the C10 will lean more than you’d expect, and if you push harder you’ll understeer as well. There are drive modes to choose from, though getting to them via the touch screen takes more button presses than most will be comfortable with on the move. Sport makes things a bit more urgent, normal’s just fine, and eco is there to up range as much as possible. You can try and get the C10’s voice assistant to change the mode for you, but, unlike many rivals, contextual commands confuse it to the point of having to spell out what you want. ‘Switch the driving mode to the sport setting’ is more likely to get you what you want than ‘turn on sport mode.’ Oh, and when you press the button on the ‘wheel to make it work it loudly says “I’m coming.” Good for it, I guess.
Chilly days and touchscreen issues
Driving on a cold day meant the heater needed to be pressed into service. The heated seats and ‘wheel were just peachy, but even though the car’s heater was set to 26 degrees it didn’t seem to fancy burping out any warm air for way longer than is acceptable. No matter how many times the temperature was upped, it stayed resolutely chilly until the latter end of my time with the car.
Plenty of important things are run through its touch screen, which is very shiny but offers no haptic feedback so you can’t tell if you’ve hit the button you want to hit without looking away from the road and at the screen. When you’re groping around trying to turn fog lights on in a pea souper of a day, you probably want eyes on the asphalt, not the centre console. Speaking of - the C10’s aesthetic is very cool. It’s neatly designed, minimalist, and looks great. The materials Leapmotor’s used in there, though, don’t match up. Something that looks like it should be Alcantara is actually oddly plasticy, for example.
The list, sadly, gets longer - the ADAS software loves a bong. Turning it off is the work of a touchscreen prod, but my test car didn’t want to turn the lane keep assist deactivated.
Closing thoughts
The smaller Leapmotor gets away with not being a paragon of excellence because it’s cheap. The bigger one can’t be given the same leeway. For £36,500 you can head to an established manufacturer and grab a similarly-sized family EV with a year or two on the clock and not have to worry about materials being odd, unproven touch interfaces, handling woes, and overexcited voice assistants. Perhaps my test car was an early duff one, but even with Stellantis’ backing and all the promises that come with, the C10 isn’t going to trip off my tongue if anyone asks what they should do with exactly £36,500. If you’re in a Stellantis dealer to have a look at one, maybe have a closer look at what else is in the showroom first. This deal is too good to be true.
words: Alex Goy
pictures: Leapmotor - Stellantis
