Leapmotor C10 Review: Impressive Updates, But Still a Long Way to Go

Stop. Look. Learn.

That’s the best advice for anyone shopping in the bargain basement filled by Chinese electric cars.

There are far too many of these battery boxes with no history, no pedigree and – for now, at least – no future. If you’re not convinced, check resale pricing for anything but Tesla . . .

But the education goes both ways, as Chinese carmakers are using Australia as a test market – as Toyota and Nissan and Kia and Hyundai all did in the past – to polish their plan for global domination.

Which brings us to Leapmotor. And some fascinating comparisons.

The Leap technology company was founded in 2015 and sold its first motor vehicles in 2019. In case numbers are a problem, that was seven years ago.

In contrast, Mercedes-Benz was the world’s first carmaker and has just celebrated 140 years in the auto business.

The contrast between the brands, and their products, is as obvious as the pricing. But can Leapmotor bridge the gap?

Based on a week with the company’s updated C10, a compact mid-sized EV, it won’t be happening any time soon.

The Leapmotor C10 has dozens of competitors in Australia – and almost all are better.

It ticks the basic boxes for size and technology, but veers sharply away from the mainstream – and commonsense – in too many ways.

To unlock the C10 you must place a keycard at a specific place on the rear-view mirrors, and to ‘wake’ the car the same keycard must be on a specific spot in the centre console.

The switches for the electric windows operate in exactly the opposite direction to every other car I’ve driven. And let’s not get started on the stuff hidden in the giant touchscreen.

But …

In its favour, the C10 is priced from $45,888 in a line-up where the smaller B10 starts from $37,888 as either a hybrid or fully EV. It also has a huge amount of rear cabin space, which a mate told me would be ideal for Uber drivers.

The C10 has recently had a significant ‘over-the-air’ update this year, to tackle some obvious shortcomings. The first was the lack of any form of Apple or Android smartphone mirroring.

Leapmotor claims a major advance with an integrated 360-degree dashcam package, phone projection and global radio streaming, improved navigation and voice recognition, and digital key sharing.

Most importantly, because the C10 was rubbish at the start, it says ‘refined’ improvements to the driver-assist system and a memory setting so drivers can save their ADAS modes.

Compared with my first C10 drive, the car is more helpful and there were none of the obvious quality glitches including a front windscreen that was not sealed properly to the roof …

The steering was still prone to pulling on winding roads, where the ADAS was struggling with the edge of the road, but it was not going manic without any real cause on multi-lane highways.

The performance of the rear-wheel drive C10 is moderate for an electric car, dropping from a miserable 7.5-second 0-100km/h time to 6.2. The update for the C10, now called the Design, also extends its range to a claimed 510 kilometres with a new 800-volt system that provides faster charging. It also gets a larger 81.9 kilowatt-hour battery pack.

It’s quiet enough and rides smoothly, but gets messy in a simulated panic stop and is no fun at all on a driving road.

It has lots of standard ’stuff’, including 20-inch alloys and heated/cooled electric front seats, to satisfy people looking for ‘bells and whistles’.

The future of Leapmotor in Australia is obvious as Stellantis, the global umbrella company, has just killed just killed its Fiat brand in Australia and quietly predicts that it will outsell Jeep before too long.

It’s also extending the Leapmotor brand with hybrids and EVs in the affordable size-and-price groups, with much more to come.

So Leapmotor is making impressive moves in Australia, and its update of the C10 after less than 18 months proves the point. But it still has a long way to go.

LEAPMOTOR C10 BEV

Price: from $49,888
Position: mid-sized battery-electric SUV
Motor: single rear electric motor
Output: 220kW/360Nm
Battery: 81.9kWh
Gearbox: single-speed auto, rear-wheel drive
Range: 510km
Safety: 5-star ANCAP
The tick: yeah, nah.