Leapmotor C10 Reviews

The Leapmotor C10 REEV has entered the Chesto family garage, and it’s a model I’m pretty interested in. Well, its powertrain specifically. And that’s because I suspect I’m a lot like most of you; all aboard the EV train, right up until we find ourselves too far from the bright lights of the city.See, an EV mostly makes perfect sense for our little urban family, and when I have one through the garage I generally charge it once a week, if that. The suburbs are an EV’s best friend, and we can take seemingly limitless short hops before needing to top up.I say ‘mostly’, because (and this is just a hard fact of EV ownership, so don’t shoot the messenger in the comments) they are indisputably more annoying than their ICE-powered counterparts on really long trips.We duck off down the NSW South Coast every now and again – about 2.5 hours from our place in Sydney – and it’s on these adventures that I sometimes forget the ease of EV life in the city and begin cursing the lack of regional charging infrastructure, and pondering why my wife doesn’t enjoy spending her holidays sipping bad coffee in a service station forecourt while we wait to top up.The C10 REEV, though, promises to fix that. I’ve got the fancy Design variant (currently $47,990, drive-away, but usually $47,888, before on-road costs). And the REEV bit — or Range Extender Electric Vehicle — refers to the fact its rear-mounted electric motor is supplemented by 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. I have driven my C10 with a near-flat battery, and it keeps moving – albeit very gingerly at first as the battery recharges. And I’ve driven it with no fuel, surviving just on battery power. And both work, suggesting it really does offer a pretty comprehensive safety net for those motoring incompetents like myself who insist, against all odds, that we’ll make it to the next fuel station/public charger before we run out of juice.Leapmotor reckons that, with battery and tank topped up, you can expect a combined driving range of 1150km, albeit according to the more lenient NEDC testing protocol. Still, my car has promised a range of about 1000km via its on-board computer.There is a catch, though, and that is that you need to treat it like an EV and keep it topped up, because otherwise you’ll be using a lot of fuel. My test car’s on-board computer says over the last 2613km the REEV has averaged 7.3L/100km of fuel, which is worse than a good conventional hybrid. Get real lazy with the electrons and things are tougher still — I’ve seen 12.3L/100km pop up, which is almost dual-cab ute country.Still, the Leapmotor shouldn’t be punished for its owner’s laziness. It says EV in the title, so plug it in judiciously and you should see those numbers plummet, which is exactly what I’m doing from here out, so stay tuned for the next dispatch.What Leapmotor should be punished for, though, is the worst keyless entry system I have ever encountered. Mostly because it’s not keyless, and you can barely enter.The brand provides a credit-card-style fob which has no buttons. Easy enough, you think, because the proximity lock and unlock must be flawless. Um, nope. It doesn’t have that. Instead, you need to hold the card against a small square on the driver’s mirror to unlock the car as well as lock and switch off the vehicle. I discovered the latter when I got a call from my neighbour at 10pm asking me why my car was lighting up the street like a UFO landing.Now, to fully understand my hatred of this system, you need to know a little more about my life. We have a 14-month-old son, and so my relationship with Woolworths and Chemist Warehouse is at VIP level. And when we get back from the shops, I need to grab my son from his seat, grab the groceries from the boot, then carry both to the driver's door, dig around in my pocket for the card, and then lock the door. And then the same in reverse when we try to leave the house. It would be tricky if I had three arms, and it's near impossible with just the two I've got.Happily, Leapmotor does have an app that you will be downloading immediately, allowing you to lock and unlock the car remotely, as well as pre-cool the cabin.With all of that sorted, the C10 REEV has slipped pretty comfortably into our family life. There’s enough backseat space to comfortably fit my son’s baby seat, and the boot will swallow a pram with space to spare for shopping and all the other stuff we now require.So far on the road the Leapmotor has proven pretty easy living, too, with the power (158kW, down slightly on the all-EV version of the C10) ample for getting up and moving. Comfort over athletic capability is the order of the day, though, with some floatiness to the ride. The brake pedal also takes some getting used to. Presumably there’s some internal tussle over how the regenerative braking should respond to my foot, but the pedal can at times feel worryingly spongy, then overly grabby.But I think I’ve now got the getting-to-know-you stuff in hand, so we push on into month two to see how this relationship develops. And it could be important – if I make my wife sit by a dusty charger somewhere too many more times, it might well be my only relationship.Acquired: January 2026Distance travelled this month: 650kmOdometer: 2613kmAverage fuel consumption this month: 7.3L/100km

Leapmotor hit the Aussie new-car market in early 2025. One of what feels like a never-ending wave of new challenger brands arriving from China in the last 18 months.And its C10 is yet another option in the crowded mid-size SUV segment, in this case offered in petrol-electric hybrid and pure-electric form.Its sharp pricing and generous spec were marked as big pluses in our first drive reviews. As was its space-efficiency and comfy drive characteristics.But another unifying theme was its relatively unrefined ADAS crash-avoidance systems. Which, to its credit, the brand has addressed head-on with an over-the-air software update.Timely then, to get behind the wheel and see if that high-tech tweak has made a discernible difference to an already solid package.At $49,888, before on-road costs, the top-spec C10 Design grade we’re testing here undercuts the Tesla Model Y RWD Single motor ($58,900, BOC) by the best part of $10K and puts the heat on other electric SUVs in its orbit like the Cupra Tavascan ($60,990), Kia EV5 Air 2wd Long Range ($61,170) and VW ID.4 Pro RWD ($59,990).  And that price includes a heap of standard features like 20-inch alloy wheels, a (fixed) panoramic glass roof (with power sunshade), dual-zone climate control air, electric front seats (heated and ventilated), 12-speaker audio, a power tailgate, synthetic leather seat trim and multi-colour (interior) ambient lighting.There’s also adaptive cruise, built-in sat nav, a 360-degree camera view, a heated steering wheel and heaps more. Impressive for a car sitting under the $50,000 threshold.Not too many straight edges on the C10 with curves and soft character lines the order of the day in terms of exterior design.While the flush-fit door handles deliver obvious aero benefits, the way they flip out and hinge from the front gets a black mark from me. They’re an ergonomic miss that force you to twist your wrist at an awkward angle to more or less push the door open. The entire handle pulling out parallel to the body is always a better solution.The cabin is minimalist to the max. Virtually no physical buttons and the 10.25-inch instrument cluster and 14.6-inch central screen are the only standouts in a sea of smooth, mid-grey surfaces. If you like Tesla’s cabin design ethos you’ll be onboard with the C10. But before you even get inside, access is weird. For a start, the ‘key’ is a sizeable plastic card which needs to be held against the driver’s side exterior mirror to lock or unlock the car, which obviously isn’t ideal if you want to open up the boot or passenger side doors.Owners have access to a smartphone app which includes a proximity unlocking function, but even that sounds overly complex just to get in the car. That said, the interior is super spacious for a car just over 4.7m long with a 2825mm wheelbase. Lots of breathing room up front and sitting behind the driver’s seat, set to my 183cm position, I have hectares of leg, head and shoulder room.There are cupholders all over the place, map pockets, big bins in the doors as well as a lidded cubby between the front seats and another storage area underneath the ‘flying buttress’ centre console.There are multiple USB-C and USB-A jacks, a wireless phone charger and 12-volt power for other devices, but, shock, horror… no Android Auto or Apple CarPlay functionality. That’ll be a deal-breaker for some.Boot space is handy at 581L with the 60/40 split-fold rear seat upright and 1410L with it lowered but another black mark goes against the lack of a physical spare tyre. A repair/inflator kit is your only option, which isn’t good enough.Outputs from the rear-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor, powered by a 69.9 LFP battery, are 160kW/320Nm and Leapmotor quotes a WLTP range of “up to 425km”.Maximum DC charge rate is a relatively modest 84kW for a claimed 30-80 per cent charge time of “approximately 30 minutes”. AC charge rate is 11.0kW and V2L (Vehicle to Load) functionality is a welcome addition.Official WLTP energy consumption is 18.5kWh/100km and during our week with the car we saw a dash-indicated figure of 13.4kWh/100km, which is excellent for a roughly 2.0-tonne SUV.Claimed 0-100km/h acceleration is 7.5 seconds and the C10 feels sharp with the ability to effortlessly negotiate city and suburban traffic.   Steering weight is adjustable through ‘Light’, ‘Standard’ and ‘Sport’ settings, although none of them add any meaningful road feel to the equation. Ride comfort, however, is terrific and all signs of the previous, overly assertive ADAS crash-avoidance systems are gone. Lane keeping, lane centering, even the over-speed warning, deliver subtle inputs and only when required.The C10 BEV is also quiet (even for an EV) with the 245/45 Dunlop e.Sport Maxx rubber remaining low-key with wind noise minimal, even at freeway speeds.The C10 is covered by a six-year/150,000km warranty, which is competitive and includes roadside assist for the duration, while the drive battery is covered for eight years/160,000km.Service is recommended every 12 months/20,000km which is more frequent than some pure-electric competitors (typically at two years/40,000km). And capped-price servicing is available for five years at $2000, or $400 per service, which is on the high side for an EV, even in this class.Crash-avoidance safety systems include auto emergency braking (AEB) front and rear, blind-spot monitoring, lane keeping assist, lane departure warning, rear cross-traffic alert, driver fatigue monitoring and tyre pressure monitoring.There are seven airbags onboard, including a front centre bag, three child seat top tether points across the rear seat (as well as ISOFIX anchors on the two outer positions) and multi-collision brake to minimise the chances of subsequent impacts after an initial crash. The C10 scored a maximum five-star ANCAP assessment from testing in 2024.

When is an EV no longer an EV? Leapmotor's new C10 REEV gains a petrol engine that acts purely as a generator, like the defunct Holden Volt and BMW i3 REx. It goes up against fierce plug-in hybrid rivals like the BYD Sealion 6, Chery Tiggo 7 PHEV, Jaecoo J7 SHS and the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV.

The Stellantis-backed Chinese start-up, Leapmotor, is going for the booming plug-in hybrid electric vehicle segment in Australia with the C10 REEV. But unlike its mid-sized SUV PHEV rivals, this one is an EV-first proposition, offering impressive range, high equipment levels and a compellingly low price. Plus, regular over-the-air updates promise to improve it with age. Sounds too good to be true?

Leapmotor has hit our shores after a $2.5b investment from Jeep parent company Stellantis and the first cab off the rank is the C10, which is an electric mid-size SUV. It enters a saturated market, does it have what it takes to stand out?

The Leapmotor C10's top-spec Design grade adds an array of trimmings although represents largely the same value offering as the base Style. With a launch price of $51,500 drive-away (or $49,888 before on-roads) the C10 Design still undercuts most of its mid-size electric rivals, bar the BYD Atto 3 which is a half-size smaller.

The entry-level Leapmotor C10 Style arrives with a headline drive-away price-tag of just $47,500.

Electric car price parity is already here, but would you pick this Chinese newcomer over a mid-spec Toyota RAV4?

A Tesla Model Y-sized electric SUV that's a good $10K cheaper than the Musk-mobile? That's the Leapmotor C10 promise, with the newcomer Chinese brand (now backed by auto giant Stellantis) looking to shake up the Australian EV market when it arrives in November. But does it live up to that promise?