Leapmotor C10 review

Let’s start with the good stuff. Broadly speaking the C10 is comfortable. When the roads are forgiving it coasts along happily. You don’t end up thinking ‘yup, this is another cheap knock-off’ five minutes after getting in, so that’s a solid base to work from.

As we mentioned in the Overview, acceleration is extremely smooth and the pedal response is consistent, so you don’t have to fight to get the car to do what you want. Too many manufacturers overlook that these days.

And the bad stuff?

Dynamically the C10 is pretty limited. In corners the body leans a lot and without much sense of control. The steering is heavily assisted and so feels light but numb, and you have to work to unwind the lock out of junctions. The brakes can be snatchy at low speed and spongy when you’re going a bit quicker. The ride tends to be jittery at a crawl. No fun to be had here.

And on our unforgiving roads, the ride isn’t particularly refined either. At slow speeds it’s OK, but anything faster – or when you hit a bump or rut in the road – it’s jarring in the cabin. Hit a pothole and you crash through it. Fortunately, the suspension noise that we encountered on our first test in Italy isn't as bad in the UK.

Anything else?

Yeah, Leapmotor makes a big deal about how quiet the C10 is and generally it’s very hushed. The two exceptions are below 20mph where the augmented low-speed sound whirrs away (presumably you can turn this off, though we couldn't find the screen for it) and at motorway speed, where the buffeting off the wing mirrors really picks up.

Drive, neutral, reverse and park are all selected using a stalk behind the wheel. But there are no paddles to adjust the level of brake regen, and while you do get drive modes which adjusts strength (plus accelerator response etc), you have to delve into the touchscreen to cycle through them. And there’s little noticeable difference anyway.

Does the range hold up?

263 miles is the claim, suggesting efficiency of 3.7 mi/kWh on the combined cycle. This is precisely the figure we hit on our first 50-mile drive, although this was mostly through towns and villages on a mild day.

Back home over a similar length journey this dropped to 3.2mi/kWh – albeit in much colder temperatures – though this was largely avoiding motorway speeds. Expect it to fall further when fully loaded with kids and paraphernalia, too.