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By Jonathan Crouch

The Leapmotor T03 might be the best small electric car you've never heard of. Jonathan Crouch drives it.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 36

At last, there are small electric cars priced comparably to combustion ones, though the EVs in question are only from bargain or emerging brands. One such is the car we look at here, the Leapmotor T03.

Backgroundword count: 166

Unlike some other Chinese brands, Leapmotor prioritises value above all else, but doesn't deliver it in its EVs with drawbacks like overly feeble performance, basic equipment levels and pathetic driving range. Perfect proof of that comes with this car, the Leapmotor T03. As you might guess from this Chinese model's friendly look, there's a surprising amount of European-ness here. Both from the car, which is built in the old Fiat 500 factory in Tychy, Poland; and from the brand that sells it, Leapmotor International, which is partly owned by Western auto conglomerate Stellantis, whose various brand showrooms will be used to sell the T03. Leapmotor was formed in China as recently as 2016 (by Zhu Jiangming, an electrical engineer with no previous automotive experience), but has grown rapidly, already selling a quarter of a million cars globally and expecting to double that figure by 2030. Providing of course that models like the T03 attract a wide audience. And this car might. Let's take a closer look.

Driving Experienceword count: 235

Just one powertrain is on offer, with a 93bhp motor that embarrasses the 64bhp you get from a comparable Dacia Spring; hence a 0-62mph time of 12.7s that's a second faster than that Romanian model. More significantly, this Leapmotor's 37.3kWh battery is bigger too, offering a 165 mile range. The comparable Spring has a 26.8kWh battery with a mere 140 mile range. The T03 has quite a lot of motor wine at under 20mph, but it's fine once you get going and there are three powertrain modes ('Eco', 'Standard' and 'Sport'). And three steering settings ('Comfort', 'Standard' and 'Sport') the lightest of which is very light indeed. You can really jink around the urban traffic, parking could hardly be easier and the turning circle (9.7m) is very tight. Expect quite a lot of wind noise at highway speeds, but obviously, this Leapmotor isn't really intended for much out-of-town use (the top speed is 80mph), thought it's more 'proper-car-like' on the highway than you might expect. One annoying feature is that you have to actually stop and park up to turn the rather intrusive ADAS camera safety features off. There are three levels of brake regeneration - 'Eco', 'Standard' and 'Sport'. 'Sport' is the fiercest and in this setting, you can almost enjoy 'one-pedal' driving where it's hardly ever necessary to use the actual brake pedal to slow the car, unless you're coming to a stop.

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