Mahindra XUV700 vs Leapmotor B10

What's the difference?

The Mahindra XUV700 is a solid, well-rounded family SUV. It has a practical cabin with a usable third row and a punchy turbocharged powertrain. The Indian manufacturer needs to address a few things like interior quality and some ADAS calibration and there’s more work to do when it comes to ride and handling. But overall this seven-seat SUV represents exceptional value for money against some pricier rivals and should be on more consideration lists.

I’ll be a shame if the B10 doesn’t sell well, because it doesn’t suffer from many of the downfalls of its compatriots and its price is extremely competitive for what you get.

As a comfortable smallish SUV, it meets par, and it’s on the better side of tech when it comes to cars from China, and it doesn’t have any major on-road red flags.

You really wouldn’t be disappointed with this having paid $40K, just skip the base model and go for the Design.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The XUV700 is a reasonably handsome vehicle in the metal. It has a distinctive look that ensures it is immediately identifiable as a Mahindra. It is a clear evolution of the XUV500 it replaces, but far more coherent. 

It has a typical SUV shape but in profile the bonnet looks short and it has a big glasshouse with a kicked-up window line from the C-pillar back.

Front on the unique headlights surround an appealing six-bar grille with the cool Mahindra badge front and centre.

The rear features stretched and pinched tail-lights and the XUV700 sits up high on the road.

Inside the cabin is neat and the dash has an uncomplicated layout. It’s not the world’s most visually appealing interior but it doesn’t get anything wrong. Although the steering wheel feels a bit cheap.

The lovely dark grey interior is broken up with a light grey upper half and there’s stitching on the seats, dash and steering wheel. There are plenty of piano black inserts but it's not overdone. 

Right after we praise the B10 for its value, we need to talk about its looks. A slight drop in tone as the second Leapmotor to land in Australia looks an awful lot like the first, and it’s relatively bland.

It’s not ugly, but it’s not particularly inspiring and there’s not much character to this little electric SUV.

It’s got a very upright silhouette at the front with a slightly sloping roofline at the rear, so the overall shape is appealing, but the lack of distinct features makes the B10 an anonymous commuter for now, especially with its similarities to the C10.

You can tell them apart by the C10’s slightly larger size if they’re near each other, or the B10’s more in-line headlight bar, where the C10’s have a ‘droop’ at the sides.

The large section of black at the lower half of the front is also unappealing, though darker colours like the optional 'Starry Night Blue' or 'Dawn Purple' (both $990) blend into it better than standard 'Light White'.

To its credit, at least the B10 doesn’t fall victim to the design crutch of adding trim and plastic for no reason.

In terms of the specifics, the B10 is 4515mm long, 1885mm wide and 1665mm tall with a 2735mm wheelbase, making it quite the large small SUV.

Inside, the cabin looks and feels roomy thanks to the test car’s light interior, decent windows and the light from the sunroof, as well as the fact the EV powertrains are compact and generally don’t interfere with cabin space.

Materials aren’t all scratchy hard plastic, though it is dotted around, and the general look of the B10 inside feels more premium than its price would have you thinking, despite the simplicity of the layout and design.

The Mahindra boasts a versatile, practical cabin - not something all mid-size seven-seat SUVs can claim.

This grade has electric ‘smart’ door handles that pop out when the car is unlocked. They’re not super easy to grab and feel a little gimmicky. 

The sunroof has a solid power-operated blind, unlike an increasing number of models that come with a flimsy sheer blind or no blind at all, which is unimaginable in our hot Australian climate. Thank you, Mahindra! 

Another cool feature is the extendable sun-visors that are great at blocking out sun at the front or side, especially on longer drives.

A chunky rear centre headrest impedes rear visibility, but it is easily removed. However the rear outboard headrests are also big and that impacts vision out the large rear side windows.

Great to see Mahindra has retained physical controls for the air conditioning, although if you want to adjust anything digitally, you can via the central screen.

Sitting under that and the air vents are buttons for the reversing camera, hazard lights and other controls, then there’s a wireless phone charger, an extra little slot for your phone and two USB-A ports. No USB-C up front in the XUV700.

There’s decent storage up front with two compact, squarish cupholders in the console, a small central bin with a handy rubber key holder, while the glove box is a decent size and will fit more than just the manual.

Bottle storage in the front doors is excellent. The tall CarsGuide bottle fits easily and there’s extra storage for a bunch of other items. 

The front seats are on the firm side but the side bolstering is good, helping you feel nicely secured. The base makes you feel like you’re sitting on the car rather than in it. There’s not a great deal of adjustability - you can’t extend the under-thigh cushion - but the Mahindra has Mercedes-Benz-style controls on the door.

The multimedia screen houses a lot of functions. If you tap the bottom of the screen the climate controls including seat heating pop up. There are more functions if you tap the top of the screen like sound, camera view and the like.

The multimedia screen homepage has tiles, one says ‘Fun in XUV700’ (for Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and radio) and the other says ‘Fun with XUV700’ (vehicle performance). 

Driver assist functions are accessible via the driver’s instrument display using the steering wheel-mounted controls and you can change the intensity of cruise control and lane keep assist or turn off functions like traffic sign recognition and smart pilot assist. 

There are a few cons up front. The indicator sound is awful and makes it feel cheap. There are some quality issues, like the flimsy panel to the lower right of the steering wheel that’s home to the auto stop-start. It feels like it’s going to fall off. And some of the fabrics don’t quite line up.

The device charger could do with a fan as my phone gets super hot charging on the pad, while the ‘Siri’ talk-to-text function of Apple CarPlay is patchy. 

In the second row, the legroom is decent and while there’s not acres of room I don’t feel cramped sitting behind my 183cm (six-foot) driving position. A tiny transmission tunnel means good centre seat legroom. There’s a lever on the front passenger seat back allowing rear passenger behind to move that seat forward.

Headroom is also decent without being ample. There’s about an inch between my head and the roofliner.

The window line is low enough for small children to see out but not so low you feel like you’re sitting on the car. 

The rear seating row is comfortable enough but the backrests - which recline - are flat. 

You’ll find rear knee-level air vents, one USB-C port (the only ‘C’ port in the car) and a pair of map pockets, a phone slot under the vents, a centre armrest with two cupholders and loads of door storage for big bottles and more.

For child seats, the two outboard seats have ISOFIX anchors and there are two top tethers as well.

Access to the third row is much easier than I expected for a mid-size seven seater. The passenger-side single outboard seat tumbles flat then up, leaving plenty of space to get into the rear. There’s even a grab handle to assist.

Headroom isn’t great back there for me, but again, I am six-foot tall. A kid will be fine. There’s a surprising amount of legroom and toeroom. 

Third-row occupants have access to cupholders and air vents on both sides, a fan speed dial, speakers and a 12-volt outlet that is also accessible from the boot when the seats are lowered.

The fact the curtain airbags cover the third row is a big tick. Overall, a solid third-row experience.

There’s a handy plastic lever on the rear of the seats to lower and raise the third row easily. They don’t quite fold flat into the boot floor so they sit up a little, but don’t intrude on boot space.

It looks like there is a cargo cover option but it wasn’t fitted to this example of the car. There are lots of hooks in the boot to hold bags, but note there is no power tailgate - it’s a manual operation in the Mahindra. 

You also get a temporary spare wheel housed externally on the underside of the car.

One thing I can’t tell you unfortunately is the boot volume. Mahindra doesn’t provide those figures. I can say that when all three rows are in place, there is not much room behind the third row. Just enough for three backpacks or a few bags of shopping in a row. When the third row is lowered, there’s ample luggage space.

Getting into the B10 requires a minor annoyance - unlocking and locking the car requires a keycard to be tapped on the drivers’ side mirror like you're scanning to access your floor in a hotel elevator.

There’s an app that adds a fair bit of functionality, but having to whip your phone out ahead of jumping in the car is also irritating.

Once you’re in, though, the space inside the B10 is well laid-out, even if much of its functionality is crammed into the big central touchscreen - it’s always ‘points off’ for a lack of physical buttons in this section of a review.

Once you’re used to it and have sorted out your personal settings on the multimedia software, it becomes more natural and less distracting, though Apple CarPlay and Android Auto would occasionally lag in the car on test.

The good news is they now exist for the brand in the B10, with the Leapmotor C10 still lacking the vital in-car mirroring tech.

The ergonomics and interior space work well, generally, with comfortable pews and good vision, plus decent spaces to keep things out of the way. The phone charger being in a very visible and accessible position might tempt some naughty screen-keen drivers, and being in the sun without a vent for cooling while charging means your phone will get proper hot.

The second row is extremely spacious, belying the fact this car is classified as a small SUV. Oodles of legroom and enough headroom for a tall adult means the B10 outguns rivals in terms of good options for parents (note the B10’s extremely strong 95 per cent child safety score from ANCAP, too) or anyone who needs to cart humans around regularly.

Behind the second row is a 490L boot, which becomes 1475L when the second row is folded down.

There’s space under the floor for cables and messy bits, but unfortunately no spare wheel, just a tyre repair kit, so more points off for that.

Talking about the price may well be us highlighting the Leapmotor B10’s strongest point right up top, because you can get into one for less than $40K, drive-away, before the end of March 2026.

While regular pricing for the B10 starts from $37,888, before on-road costs, for the base Style and $40,888 for the kitted-out Design LR, Leapmotor has a limited-time deal starting from $38,990, drive-away, for the B10 Style and $41,990 for the Design LR. LR for Long Range, by the way.

That runs until the end of March, 2026, but even its standard pricing is impressive for what you get.

The entry-grade B10 Style comes with plenty of kit, including an 8.8-inch LCD driver display and large 14.6-inch central multimedia touchscreen, a wireless phone charger, auto climate control, a panoramic sunroof with retractable shade, heated mirrors, auto LED headlights, a set of 18-inch wheels, surround-view parking cameras with dashcam recorder capability, over-the-air (OTA) updates and Level 2 advanced driver assistance (ADAS).

That’s a list of inclusions that can, on paper, rival much more expensive models.

The Design LR, for not much more money, adds heated and ventilated synthetic leather seats with electric adjustment (six-way for the driver, four-way for the passenger), a heated steering wheel, a 12-speaker sound system, ambient lighting, a power tailgate, tinted privacy glass, LED tail-lights and auto folding mirrors.

You’d hate to be in the product planning team of a legacy manufacturer trying to put together a competitive spec for a small electric SUV to sell in Australia against that.

Even other small electric SUVs from China come with much smaller batteries or fewer features around the $40K mark, like the MG S5 EV Essence RWD with its 49kWh battery ($42,990 D/A) or the base Geely EX5 Complete FWD ($40,990 BOC) and the higher Inspire variant is $4000 more.

The XUV700 is powered by what Mahindra calls its ‘mStallion’ 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine delivering 149kW of power and 380Nm of torque. These are solid outputs and the only petrol-powered mainstream rivals that come close to those figures are the Kia Sportage/Hyundai Tucson mechanical twins, with their 1.6-litre turbo punching out 169kW/350Nm.

The Mahindra’s engine is paired with a six-speed automatic transmission driving the front wheels only, so no all-wheel-drive option here.

There’s only one powertrain option for the Leapmotor B10, a single, rear-mounted electric motor that produces 160kW and 240Nm, which makes the electric SUV good for a claimed 0-100km/h time of 8.0 seconds in both variants.

Top speed is a claimed 170km/h, also regardless of the variant.

The XUV700 is only available with that petrol engine so no fuel-saving hybrid or plug-in hybrid options for now.

It’s also on the thirsty side with an official combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle fuel use figure of 8.3 litres per 100 kilometres. That’s more than petrol versions of the Mitsubishi Outlander and Nissan X-Trail.

After a week of mixed but mostly urban driving, the trip computer showed an average of 8.5L/100km, but my own calculation based on real-world use at the fuel pump came out at 11L, so a bit of a discrepancy there.

Leapmotor claims the B10 will, from its LFP battery of either 56.2kWh for the Style or 67.1kWh for the Design LR, draw 17.2kWh/100km or 17.3kWh/100km, respectively under WLTP testing.

The result is the Style offering up a 361km WLTP-tested driving range, and the Design LR a more useful 434km.

While we were unable to properly confirm this claim on the launch, the trip computer after a mix of highway driving and more spirited back-road testing displayed a figure of 13.5kWh/100km, while the previous 1447km of driving had reportedly measured in at 14.7kWh.

Charging from 30 to 80 per cent takes approximately 20 minutes regardless of spec and battery size. The smaller battery can be charged via DC fast-charging at a maximum 140kW, and the larger at 168kW. Both max out at 11kW under AC charging.

On the road the Mahindra has some clear pros and cons. Overall, it’s a more polished performer than you might expect.

The turbocharged engine sounds good when pushed and is a punchy unit, delivering linear acceleration and getting to speed quickly, mostly without fuss. The 235/60R18 MRF Wanderer tyres have a tendency to chirp when accelerating hard and the XUV700 would benefit from higher quality rubber.

The six-speed auto transmission works well with the engine, delivering smooth shifts but it can hold gears on downhill runs.

Ride quality is a mixed bag. Those tyres have a high sidewall but you’ll feel bumps like road and bridge joins, while speed bumps aren't so smooth, either. The ride is on the firmer side but it’s no dealbreaker. 

It’s a little top-heavy when cornering, so there is lateral movement in the car. A good reminder this is a family SUV, not a hot hatch.

Steering is overly light and a bit too sharp for this sort of vehicle. There’s nothing wrong with dull or slower steering in a family car because it’s less responsive if you accidentally turn the wheel when distracted by shenanigans in the back seat.

The brakes are also quite sensitive. Just a tap of the foot and you’re coming to a full stop.

A bit of road and wind noise creeps into the cabin, so it’s not the most hushed interior, but it’s not too dramatic.

Other points include a decent turning circle, making it more nimble than you might think in tight parking spots, and poor-quality, low-definition lane watch camera display. Also the remote lock and unlock is temperamental. You need to double check it’s locked.

The Leapmotor B10 was developed with testing at Stellantis’ European proving ground in Italy. This is because despite Leapmotor being its own brand within China, its international operations are a joint-venture between itself and Stellantis.

There are some on-paper shreds of evidence for this, a rear-wheel drive layout and a claimed 50/50 weight distribution help, but get the B10 on the road and it’s clear this isn’t a car that’s relying entirely on price, a long list of features and some showroom shine to sell.

After the initial familiarisation that comes with many new electric cars, particularly from China, the Leapmotor B10 becomes easy to settle into a rhythm with, especially if you turn off some of its more intrusive ADAS features like lane-keep, driver monitoring and speed limit warning. The latter can sometimes get a limit wrong, and though the B10’s chimes aren’t audibly overbearing, they are persistent.

While the B10 doesn’t excel in any areas on the road, it doesn’t fall down significantly in any either.

Its suspension soaks up bumps relatively well, and despite some vibrations on rougher roads the B10 is pretty comfortable. The tyres it rides on as standard, however, are rather noisy, so if there’s an opportunity to swap out the Linglong defaults to something better, we’d advise it.

The tyres also squeal rather quickly when cornering, not necessarily because the B10 is about to let go, but just because the weight of the car appears to be pushing on the front outside tyre in cornering.

The B10 holds up better than\ a family car really needs to in dynamic driving, but we wouldn’t be doing mountain runs or track days in one. 

There’s a little body roll in corners, but not nearly as much as has been in other models riding on the apparently soft suspension preferred in China.

The steering, braking and acceleration all have a mild vagueness to them, but once you’re honed in they’re all predictable. The steering can be adjusted for weight, and its lightest setting is too light, while the acceleration feels lethargic in its lowest setting and too aggressive in its highest.

There’s not a lot of regenerative braking strength, but it’s enough to help regulate speed once you’re used to how mildly it comes in - again, depending on your preferences and settings.

The good news here is that the B10 is easy to drive, and only very serious road bumps on fast corners unsettled it on test - the kind you’d expect to upset any car.

The Leapmotor B10 was bestowed a five-star ANCAP rating in early February 2026 under the body’s most recent criteria.

There are seven airbags, including an important centre airbag, plus the B10 boasts 17 ADAS systems with 12 cameras and sensors helping monitor the road, surroundings and the driver.

As mentioned, those systems can be a little intrusive sometimes, but less than other new models from brands new to Australia.

The B10’s list of safety features includes multi-collision braking, collision sensors, an emergency data recorder, the aforementioned dashcam-style surround-view recording system, belt pretensioners, plus all the elements of the ADAS suite Leapmotor calls 'Leap Pilot'.

This includes adaptive cruise and lane centring, lane departure warning and emergency intervention, collision avoidance and warnings, blind-spot detection, rear cross-traffic alert and brake, speed assist, and driver monitoring and distracted driver warnings.

For baby capsules and child seats there are three top tethers across the second row with ISOFIX anchors on the two outer positions.

Mahindra covers the XUV700 with a seven-year or 150,000km warranty which is generous but doesn’t match Kia’s seven-year, unlimited-kilometre term. It also includes seven years of free roadside assistance.

The servicing schedule has a few quirks. There’s a free service at 1500km or one month of ownership, then the next service is at 12 months or 10,000km, whichever occurs first. After that the term is every 12 months or 15,000km, so it’s a little confusing.

There’s four years of capped-price servicing that averages out to about $445 per service. That’s roughly $100 more on average per service than a petrol Mitsubishi Outlander.

The B10’s post-purchase prospects are generally solid, though Leapmotor’s six-year, 160,000km warranty is an area where it falls short of rivals which are offering longer, unlimited kilometre warranties.

The battery is covered for eight years or 180,000km, whichever comes first, which is pretty par for an EV.

Servicing is capped-price for the first eight years, with each service costing $370 on average. The eight-year span makes it pretty appealing, per 12-month interval or every 20,000km.

There are currently 20 dealers across the country, though more are coming, while Leapmotor also offers eight years of roadside service.