Leapmotor C10 Review 2025: Price, specs & boot space

If you're looking to buy a brand-new cheap electric car that's likely to be your first introduction in to EV If you’re looking for a roomy and well-equipped electric family SUV for a bargain price, the Leapmotor C10 will be a very tempting proposition. Few rivals offer such good value for money. The fact it is also nicely-built and has a good quality feel inside adds further to the appeal. 

The Leapmotor C10 doesn’t have the best EV range though, and its rapid charging speeds lag key rivals. There are several aspects of the software and technology that are irritating, too. Those expecting the sophistication and polish of more established brands might find the Leapmotor C10 a bit of a frustrating proposition. 

The Leapmotor C10 is an easy car to buy, as there is only one model to choose from. The single specification is paired with a single choice of electric motor and battery. All you need to do is pick the colour – there are five to choose from. 

The Leapmotor C10 is a rival to models such as the Kia EV3, Skoda Elroq, Volkswagen ID.4, Renault Scenic and Ford Explorer. It has a budget-priced Chinese-brand rival, the Skywell BE11, while the MGS5 EV is also technically a Chinese brand. 

The Leapmotor C10 is large enough to rival pricier machines such as the Tesla Model Y, Skoda Enyaq, Xpeng G6 and Nissan Ariya, and there’s also the Peugeot e-3008, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Volvo EX40. 

The Leapmotor C10 has a large and impressive-looking 14.6-inch touchscreen as standard. This HD system includes sat nav, with the ability to find nearby EV chargepoints while on the move. 

This feature is useful – and currently essential, as the Leapmotor C10 doesn’t yet offer Apple CarPlay or Android Auto smartphone connectivity. It is said to be coming soon, and existing owners will get it via an over-the-air (OTA) system update. The OTA tech allows other features to be added in the future, so the Leapmotor C10 can be improved over time. 

The system itself isn’t the most user-friendly. The menus lack familiarity and there seems to be a lot of wasted real estate on the screen. Perhaps this will see improvements over time. The Tesla-style steering wheel five-way buttons (they scroll up and down, click left and right, and can be pressed) are not very intuitive either

The Leapmotor C10 has an additional 10.25-inch instrument cluster. The text is a little small but it’s otherwise colourful. Some settings are controlled by the steering wheel buttons, but the logic wasn’t entirely clear to us. 

Because there are so few buttons, settings such as the door mirrors are adjusted through the infotainment screen, by using the steering wheel buttons. This is fiddly, but no worse than doing the same in a Volvo EX30 or Tesla Model Y. What always bewildered us during a week with the car was the reverse ‘up-down’ logic for the electric window switches – they operate counterintuitively. 

The Leapmotor C10 has a standard 12-speaker stereo with a “self-developed” amplifier and “7.1 surround sound”. Total output of 840W is punchy and there’s a choice of four soundscapes – Enjoy, Surround, Theatre and Dynamic. 

The Leapmotor C10 has two USB sockets for front seat passengers, both Type-A and Type-C. There’s a wireless charging pad too, and an additional two USB sockets (again, one Type-A and one Type-C) for those in the rear seats. 

Here’s where the Leapmotor C10 really surprises. For the price, it is a very well-finished car, with impressive levels of build quality and the use of some nice and high-quality materials. We like the suede-style trim on the top of the doors, for example, while the steering wheel’s soft synthetic leather is classy. 

On the outside, the Leapmotor C10 has deep paint quality and the shut lines for the panels are ultra-precise and even. It has the sort of clean-looking quality you’d associate with an Audi, which is impressive for a car of this price. 

The Leapmotor C10 has a 435-litre boot with the seats in place. This is a little smaller than many of its similarly-sized rivals, although still bigger than family hatchbacks such as the Volkswagen Golf. Oddly, although there’s an electric tailgate, we found it didn’t quite open high enough, so we occasionally bumped our head on it. Otherwise, the well-shaped space is easy to use. 

Wit the rear seats folded flat, the Leapmotor C10’s boot space expands to 1410 litres. It has a maximum depth of 1820mm, and is 1110mm wide. The firm has calculated it can take seven 20-inch suitcases with the seats up, and 15 of them with the rear seats folded. 

The Leapmotor C10 also has a total of 26 storage spaces inside. There are 10 in the first row, 10 more in the second row, and six in the boot. While our car wasn’t fitted with a load cover, the company promises one is coming soon. If you’re buying a secondhand Leapmotor C10, it’ll be worth checking if there’s one fitted or not. 

The Leapmotor C10 offers a single electric motor choice. It produces 2108PS and 320Nm of torque, and drives the rear wheels. 0-62mph takes a swift-sounding 7.5 seconds, and good traction from the rear wheels helps you zip out of side roads. 

Oddly though, our Leapmotor C10 test car often felt much slower than these figures suggest. That’s because it seemed to keep defaulting to ‘Eco’ mode each time we started it up. This cuts the amount of available power and leads to very lethargic-feeling acceleration. Only by switching to ‘Comfort’ or ‘Sport’ mode did we feel the full benefit of the decent acceleration ability. 

The Leapmotor C10 has DC rapid charge capability, but the maximum speed is a very slow 84kW. This means that you’ll be waiting for an hour and 15 minutes even at an ultra-fast public charger. Other rivals charge much more quickly.  

The Leapmotor C10 has a 69.9kWh battery, which gives a range of 261 miles. This is fairly average by class standards and we found that in the real world, the range is lower. Efficiency seemed average, but more irritating was the car’s overly aggressive low battery warnings. It started loudly bleeping and urging us to charge with a healthy 52 miles of range still remaining. As the range reduced, the warnings became more insistent – and infuriatingly, when we got below 10 miles of range, the distance remaining readout disappeared entirely, leaving us uncertain if the car would simply cut out on the motorway or not. 

The Leapmotor C10 impresses in terms of refinement. In town, it is very smooth and serene, with low all-round noise levels. The mandatory low speed noise alert system is probably the loudest aspect. The interior remains quiet and refined at motorway speeds too, with wind and road noise admirably subdued for what is a mainstream model. 

The worst aspect of the Leapmotor C10’s refinement is all the bleeping from its safety assist systems. They begin within seconds of driving off, with different tones, different loudness and often no indication on the driver display of what they’re actually warning you about. Your passengers are likely to quickly mention this, so insistent are all the various noises, which really spoil the car’s overall refinement. 

The Leapmotor C10 has high safety standards according to Euro NCAP. The independent testing body gave it a five-star rating in 2024. It scored 89% for adult occupant protection, 85% for child occupant, 77% for vulnerable road users and 76% for safety assist. 

The Leapmotor C10’s suite of L2 ADAS driver assistance tech is said to include 12 “high-precision sensors” that deliver a total of 17 driver-assist safety aids. It’s an admirable array that seemed to please the Euro NCAP assessors during testing. 

The reality is that while they boost theoretical safety, they are a nightmare in the real world. Over-intrusive, annoying and seemingly random in the warnings they issue, owners will quickly learn to turn off as many of the safety aids as they can, negating the whole purpose of them being fitted. 

The Leapmotor C10 may well have a commendably comprehensive suite of safety assist tech, but it feels like it’s not been configured for UK road conditions, and will drive you to distraction unless you disable key functions each time you drive. 

The Leapmotor C10 has a four-year warranty, rather than the usual three-year warranty offered by many competitors. However, it is still limited to 60,000 miles, meaning that higher-mileage drivers won’t be able to take full advantage of its 48-month warranty. 

The Leapmotor C10’s battery has an eight-year warranty.

The Leapmotor C10 has a surprisingly high insurance group rating of 41. This is way higher than a Skoda Enyaq, which starts from group 27, or a Renault Scenic E-Tech, which starts from group 28. Even the high-performance BMW M340i has a lower insurance group rating. 

The Leapmotor C10’s high insurance group is probably because Leapmotor is an unknown brand in the UK. Car insurers won’t have much information on how much it costs to repair, nor how secure it is from thieves. Until insurers get more information, it is likely to be an expensive car to insure. 

As a zero-emissions electric SUV, the Leapmotor C10 has a first-year tax rate of just £10. After that, it goes up to the standard £195 a year rate.

Because the Leapmotor C10 costs less than £40,000, it isn’t impacted by the Expensive Car Supplement that’s paid between years two to six. This will save owners £425 a year for five years. 

The Leapmotor C10 is offered in a single very well-equipped trim line. It doesn’t have a trim level name, meaning buyers simply select ‘Leapmotor C10’ for the all-inclusive package. 

Standard equipment includes 20-inch alloy wheels, LED front and rear lights, folding door mirrors dual zone climate control and electric front seats – they adjust in six ways for the driver and four ways for the passenger. The front seats are both heated and ventilated, while the steering wheel is heated. 

A large panoramic sunroof is standard, including an electric sunshade, and ambient lighting gives a brighter interior at night – with colours that can be personalised. A 360-degree camera gives bird’s eye visibility for parking, and rear parking sensors are included too. 

The Leapmotor C10 has an electric tailgate, rear privacy glass and sustainable Oeko-Tex Standard 100 upholstery. Wireless smartphone charging is included, along with a 12-speaker stereo, and the 14.6-inch touchscreen is combined with a 10.25-inch instrument cluster. 

Owners simply have to choose from five colours – Canopy Grey, Pearly White, Tundra Grey, Glazed Green or Metallic Black.