LEAP INTO THE KNOWN (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

The Leapmotor C10. This mid-sized crossover is an unfamiliar contender. But in EV form competes in a familiar genre backed by a familiar brand. Jonathan Crouch drives it.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 65

Chinese maker Leapmotor bounds into the UK market with this extraordinarily well priced D-segment upper mid-sized crossover, the C10, tested in this case as a full-EV. The money being asked here would normally get you something smaller and feebler of range. And there's plenty of technology and lots of standard equipment too. You can see why European conglomerate Stellantis decided to part-own the Leapmotor brand.

Backgroundword count: 165

Another month, another new Chinese EV maker. Except that this one, Leapmotor, is a bit different, part-owned by the Stellantis Group conglomerate that has so many brands in Europe. Stellantis knows that it'll take more than trade tariffs to hold back the invasion of Chinese auto makers into Western markets, so thought a clever approach would be to buy into one - a cool 11.5 billion euro stake that's given them 20% of the business. Which also gives the group access into some pretty useful EV technology - as we'll see. The result of all this is Leapmotor International, which launched in Europe with two electric models, the T03 small runabout; and our subject here, the C10, a mid-sized EV crossover aimed at the Tesla Model Y segment. Both will be sold at existing Stellantis dealerships around the UK. And both undercut European (and Chinese) rivals substantially on price. So here to some extent, we have the Chinese taking on the Chinese. Let battle commence.

Driving Experienceword count: 486

This C10 shares absolutely none of its engineering with anything the Stellantis Group has ever marketed before. Certainly not the full-electric version's 69.9kWh battery - the only one on offer if you want a full-EV. It's a battery that Leapmotor makes almost entirely itself and seems very proud of, despite the fact that its potential 263 mile drive range figure is very unremarkable by class standards. Or at least that's what it offers in the EV model. Leapmotor also has an alternative C10 variant you might like rather more, a range-extender REEV version that matches a smaller 28.4kWh battery to the same 218bhp e-motor and can more than double its electric counterpart's range - to over 590 miles. It's the pure EV variant though, that's our focus here. Just a single version is on offer with a rear-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor developing 215bhp. Acceleration is intentionally linear, so the car actually doesn't feel anything like as fast as the figures suggest it is - 62mph takes 7.5s en route to the usual very modest EV maximum (in this case, 106mph). The range extender model is a second slower but shares this EV's 320Nm torque figure, which allows for decent mid-range punch. Or at least there is in the more urgent of the provided drive modes, 'Sport'. But with this EV variant's relatively restricted range figure in mind, you won't want to be using that setting too frequently and in the other two main modes ('Comfort' and, of course, particularly in 'Eco'), the C10 feels far less eager. Within the modes menu, you can also select 'Custom', which allows you to set up powertrain, steering and brake regen settings as a one-touch option. Talking of brake regen, there are four levels of that provided - low, standard, high or 'one-pedal', the latter (annoyingly) requiring you to park up first before it will activate; hopefully, that'll be fixed at the mid-term update. What you don't have to activate is the useful 'freewheeling' function that automatically disengages the drive motor on flat or downhill sections of road where it isn't needed. We're reasonably certain that, in the hands of an experienced manufacturer, the rigid platform and low centre of gravity enabled by the 'cell-to-chassis' technology in play here could create a really excellent-handling EV of this size. But Leapmotor isn't an experienced manufacturer and, to be frank, that shows in this C10's drive dynamics, despite the fact that Stellantis apparently loaned the brand some Maserati engineers to help tune this car for Europe. Contrary to the promises of the 'cell-to-chassis' tech, there's plenty of body roll through the corners, mainly due to a very comfort-orientated suspension set-up; which would be fine if such suppleness led the C10 to be as floaty over urban bumps as it is at speed through fast corners. But it doesn't and you'll feel pot holes and speed humps more than you ought to.

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