Leapmotor C10 2026 review: Design REEV long-term | Part 3

It’s time to say goodbye to my Leapmotor C10 REEV, which has been my family transport for the past three months or so.

And if you’re thinking about putting one of these on your shortlist, then read on, because I’m going to tell you what I liked, and what I didn’t about life with the Leapmotor.

Read More About Leapmotor C10

• Leapmotor C10 2026 review: Design REEV long-term | Part 1
• Leapmotor C10 2026 review: Design REEV long-term | Part 2
• Game-changing update for Chinese SUV

So, let’s take a closer look, shall we?

So, the things I like. Let’s kick off with the design. I'm surprised not everyone agrees with me on this, but I like the way this C10 looks. And that’s because I see it as a bit like a haircut.

This is, basically the automotive equivalent of a bloke asking for a short back and sides. You’re not going to walk out of the hairdresser turning heads. But equally, you’re not going to look back at photos of yourself 10 years from now and think ‘a top bun with an urban mullet – what the hell I was thinking?’.

This is simple, straightforward car design that is clean and likely to age well.

And that’s true in the cabin, too, where the C10 offers a simple, screen-forward design language that doesn’t inspire but doesn’t offend.

Some cars you just know are going to look like real fashion choices within a few years, but I don’t think that’s the case here. 

What do I like number two? The space. There’s a lot of it. The C10 maximises its dimensions in the back seat and in the boot, which has been incredibly valuable given we now have a 18-month old for whom we always have to pack heavy, whether we're going to the shops or for a weekend away.

The back seat is the real superpower of the C10 REEV, which uses its 4.7m in length and 1.9m in width to maximise space for the rear riders.

I’m 175cm, and I had heaps of knee and headroom, but the real test for us is always our baby’s massive child seat. In some cars, the room is too tight so the front of the child seat pushes into the back of the passenger seat. But that’s not the case in this, with the front seat rider able to get comfy with room to spare.

The boot is decent, too, with 546 litres on offer with the rear seats in place and 1375L with them folded flat. I wish there was a better dedicated charger storage area, though. There is some space under the boot floor, but the charger doesn't sit flush, so it pushes the floor up. 

What do I like number three? The powertrain is clever, even if it doesn’t deliver the fuel savings I was hoping for.

This is a REEV, or Range Extender Electric Vehicle. And this one pairs a rear-mounted electric motor with a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that acts as a mobile power generator for the C10’s 28.4kWh lithium iron phosphate battery.

In simple terms, it drives like an EV, but when charge is low the engine kicks in to provide power to the battery, with a bunch of drive modes that control when and how the battery is recharged.

Okay, so onto the bad stuff. And by far the single biggest annoyance is the fact it all feels needlessly complicated and frustratingly slow.

That begins with the credit-card-style key, which may well be the worst system I've ever encountered. To unlock and start the car, you need to hold it against the driver's wing mirror. And you need to do the same everytime you get out to turn the car off and lock it.

Now, I want you to imagine getting out of the car, grabbing a baby from the back seat, groceries from the boot, and then having to carry both back to the driver's door mirror where you then fumble for the key card to turn off the car. It’s ferociously annoying. And, because there’s no push-button start, you need to rest the keycard on the wireless phone charger to select a gear, too.

Yes, there’s a phone app and a passcode system that means you can circumvent the card. But I found the app’s proximity lock and unlock to be woefully hit-and-miss and the passcode entry system is slow and clunky. And because it can take ages for the screen to wake up, you can find yourself sitting there for ages waiting to be able to enter the code to start the car.

That system is emblematic of my Leapmotor C10 REEV experience. Everything is complicated. Everything lives within the screen menus and everything is slower than it should be.

Number two on my don’t like list. It’s not as efficient as expected. I’ve tried charging lots, driving gently, and I cover lots of long-distances and I can’t get the fuel use to be as good as a regular hybrid SUV. There are four driving modes available – 'EV+', 'EV-normal', 'Fuel mode', 'Power+' – all of which control when the petrol engine should kick in.

Over my final 670km with the car, I averaged around 6.9L/100km. That's not horrific for a car this size – especially given it sips the cheapest E10 fuel – but it's also not as good as you might find in something like a RAV4 Hybrid, which you would also never need to plug in.

If you plug it in every night and use that EV mode as much as possible, that number will plummet. But that felt like a lot of work, especially given the 28.4kWh battery will only give you around 100km or so of pure-EV driving.

The final item on my don’t-like list? It just doesn’t feel polished enough to compete in Australia. I know that sounds harsh, but I like the smaller Leapmotor B10, so I know the brand can do it. The C10 REEV, for me, just isn’t it.

The truth is the C10 found a way to annoy me in some way on just about every trip, whether it was how long it took for the reversing camera screen to wake up, or the proximity unlocking deciding when to work and when not to, or the phantom honking of the horn when it incorrectly thought there was still a baby in our baby seat.

In a time filled with affordable newcomer brands in Australia, there are just a few too many quirks aboard the C10 REEV for me.