Regular readers may already have come across the Leapmotor name on this site, with our review of the little T03 electric hatchback, but the Chinese brand is not stopping with one new product in Europe. No, the company backed by Franco-Italian giant Stellantis (owners of Peugeot, Fiat, Opel and others) is backing up its little city car with something completely different.
It’s called the C10, and it’s a mid-size SUV built to rival the Mercedes-Benz EQC, the electric Porsche Macan and the BMW iX3. It’s an ambitious sector for a new brand to take on, but Leapmotor and its European backers are clearly convinced the combination of competitive pricing and fresh thinking will give the C10 a shot alongside the mighty established marques.
For our first taste of the C10, we headed to Italy to find out whether Leapmotor and Stellantis really know what they’re doing, or whether the C10 is doomed to flop.
What does the new Leapmotor C10 look like?
If you’re looking at these pictures and thinking we’ve rehashed the Nio EL6 review, you could be forgiven, because the two cars look remarkably similar. The bumpers are a bit different, and the EL6 has the funny Lidar sensors on the roof, but otherwise the two are peas in a pod - certainly in terms of size, shape and cleanliness of design.
In isolation, the C10 doesn’t look bad at all. It’s modern and minimalist, and the lights and details all look fairly upmarket, allowing the Leapmotor to slide smoothly into a luxury hotel car park without arousing suspicion. But when you park it next to the Macans, EQCs and Q6 e-trons of this world, you realise there’s an issue. We’re already well aware of copying in the Chinese car market - just look at the old Landwind X7 that was not influenced by the Evoque in any way whatsoever - and the C10 has clearly been on the same diet, albeit to a lesser extent. There’s something very Cayenne-like about the boot, and the nose has something of the Smart about it.
A look inside the Leapmotor C10
If you thought the C10 looked like an EL6 from the outside, just wait until you see the cabin. Pretty much everything in there is identical, although the C10 doesn’t have the Nio’s weird high-tech ‘Nomi’ AI assistant with a rotating ‘head’ that follows you around the cabin. Thank heavens for that.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with the C10’s design per se. It’s clean, unassuming and minimalist, with just a massive central screen and a big digital instrument display. The centre console, meanwhile, has a central storage box and a wireless phone charging pad, plus some cupholders. But that’s about your lot.
Everything is controlled through the screen, which normally gets our backs up straight away, but the screen in question is generally pretty sharp and it doesn’t work too badly. Yes, there are ergonomic issues - we’ll go into those later - but it all feels suitably 21st Century in there.
And it seems well made, with materials that feel better than anything in a Tesla and construction standards that can match the likes of Mercedes-Benz. Admittedly, some might see those comparisons as damning the C10 with faint praise, and it’s true that the Genesis Electrified GV70 feels more robust (another car not offered on the Irish market as yet), but the point is that the C10 can compete with its rivals when it comes to cabin classiness, despite its low price point.
It can compete on cabin space, too, with a really roomy interior both for those in the front and the rear. Four adults will be perfectly happy in there, even if they’re all tall, and there is space for their luggage, too, even if the official boot capacity figure doesn’t look all that impressive.
The Leapmotor C10’s on-board technology
With a cabin that’s so barren, the C10 has to differentiate itself with technology, and that means you spend a lot of time interacting with the touchscreen. In fact, with almost no buttons whatsoever, the car is completely dependent on its central screen, and even the confusing steering wheel controls depend on touchscreen inputs before they’ll do what you want.
Such dependence on technology is a bit of a pain in the you-know-what - using a touchscreen is always more distracting than using a simple button - but at least the C10’s screen is pretty sharp, both in terms of its resolution and its responsiveness. A powerful processor helps, and relatively logical menus also make it more usable than it otherwise would be.
The digital instrument cluster is also very sharp and easy to read, although it isn’t as clever as some of the similar systems offered in other upmarket SUVs.
Cleverer, although perhaps not so reassuring, is the driver-facing camera in the cabin, which constantly monitors your face and eyes, warning you if you take your eyes off the road ahead or even yawn. It’s clever, but there’s some irony in a car complaining that you’re looking at its own touchscreen. And despite Leapmotor’s reassurances that it follows the rules in Europe, there will be some who are concerned about what data the C10 is collecting.
How much electric range does the Leapmotor C10 have?
The C10’s powertrain is generally fairly simple, with a massive, structurally integral battery built into the car’s floor and a 160kW electric motor driving the rear wheels. That means up to 218hp, which is enough for brisk acceleration, even if it isn’t especially rapid.
Some might prefer their SUV to come with all-wheel drive, and that’s an understandable position for anyone buying an SUV to deal with adverse weather, but let’s not forget the iX3 is rear-wheel drive, and it still sells well.
More important is how the car makes use of its battery, and the single-motor, rear-driven layout is intended to be efficient. Which is how the C10’s 69.9kWh battery is big enough to take it 422km on the official WLTP efficiency test. Admittedly, you probably won’t achieve that in the real world, but you should have no problem managing 350km or so, and that’s fairly competitive, particularly in such a value-orientated product.
Unfortunately, the charging system isn’t quite so competitive. The 6.6kW AC charging capacity is adequate for home charging, and Leapmotor says recharging the battery from 30 to 80 per cent will take about six hours, so you should be able to charge it up overnight using a domestic ‘wallbox’ charging unit. However, the 84kW maximum DC charging rate is a bit meagre among modern premium SUVs, and while a 30-minute charge to 80 per cent doesn’t sound that bad, that figure is measured from 30 per cent state of charge, whereas most rivals quote from 10 or 20 per cent.
Driving the Leapmotor C10
Despite its bulk, the Leapmotor C10 is a surprisingly easy car to drive, with a responsive electric motor providing silent and instant propulsion, while light steering and good visibility make it relatively manoeuvrable around town.
And it’s relatively comfortable, although the suspension feels a little short on sophistication, and a generally compliant ride is spoilt slightly by a flustered, fussy feel over broken surfaces. In some places, it really struggles to settle, in a way in which most European rivals would simply sort themselves out quickly.
That wouldn’t be so bad were the C10 really interesting to drive, but instead it’s a bland steer. It’s wholly competent, but there isn’t enough feel or engagement to match the likes of the iX3 or an Audi Q6 e-tron. In fact, it would struggle even to compete with a Skoda Enyaq when it comes to handling.
It is, however, quite refined, and over a smooth surface such as a motorway, it’s fairly comfortable. You could easily while away a long motorway drive without complaint, until it comes to charging, of course.
How safe is the Leapmotor C10?
As with the T03, Leapmotor has made it clear that it believes the C10 to be very safe indeed, but there’s no independent data to back that up as yet. No Leapmotor product - let alone the C10 - has ever been assessed by Euro NCAP, so we’ve no idea how it will perform on that front.
What we do know is that there’s plenty of safety technology on offer, from blind-spot monitoring to lane departure warning and from autonomous emergency braking to a parking camera, it’s all there.
How many child seats can you fit in a Leapmotor C10?
The C10 comes with two ISOFIX child seat mounting points on the rear bench, giving it the ability to carry two children with ease. There’s more than enough space back there even for bulky seats, and the mounting points are quite easily accessible. Having another on the front passenger seat would be a boon, but the C10 is on a par with most of its peers in that regard.
How much does the Leapmotor C10 cost in Ireland?
Leapmotor hasn’t not yet announced pricing for the C10 in Ireland, but the newcomer is expected to be significantly cheaper than both the electric Porsche Macan and the Audi Q6 e-tron, which start at around €89,000 and €75,000, respectively.
The reasons you’d buy a Leapmotor C10
The C10 is pretty dull alongside rivals from Porsche, BMW and Audi, but when it will likely cost thousands of euro less, does it have to be any more exciting? Were all other things equal, we’d never recommend the Leapmotor ahead of the more established products, but the promise of an ultra-low price tag will be difficult to ignore for those not swayed by badges and driving dynamics.
Ask us anything about the Leapmotor C10
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