Leapmotor C10 Review 2026: Prices, specs and verdict

What is the Leapmotor C10?

Leapmotor is one of many new Chinese brand names entering the UK with big intentions – and you’ll want to remember this one.

While many of the latest Far Eastern brands (BYD and the Chery group) for example, are wholly Chinese entities, Leapmotor is majority owned by Western giant Stellantis.

That doesn’t only give the new brand a firm foundation in Europe, it also gives Leapmotor the keys to a wealth of resources including the Stellantis dealer network, aftersales care and parts supply. European engineering insight is another benefit, too.

The C10 was one of two Leapmotors first launched onto the UK market in early 2025, along with the T03 electric city car. The B10 arrived later as a more European-focused effort.

However the C10 is still worth a look, mainly thanks to sheer size and equipment next to similarly priced opposition. It also has a trick up its sleeve, with a fully electric variant now joined by the C10 REEV – a ‘range-extending’ plug-in hybrid car.

Our in-depth review looks at both hybrid and electric versions of the C10 to see if it’s a sensible buy next to strong family SUV competition.

Verdict: is the Leapmotor C10 a good car?

Overall, we reckon the Leapmotor C10 has some merit thanks to its spacious, well-equipped and plush interior. We also like the REEV plug-in hybrid’s strong range and refined petrol engine. But in other respects such as ease of use, ride comfort, performance and range, there are better options available. The slightly smaller Leapmotor B10 is a better resolved product overall.

Pricing, specs & rivals

Leapmotor doesn’t confuse buyers with a baffling array of trim levels and versions. In the C10 (like the smaller B10) there’s just one fully loaded model to choose from.

At the time of writing, prices for the C10 start from £36,500 regardless of whether you opt for the fully electric version or the REEV plug-in hybrid. Leapmotor did offer a discount to make the EV even cheaper, but that seems to have ended.

Regardless, the C10 EV is priced closely in line with the Renault Scenic E-Tech and Citroen e-C5 Aircross, and just undercuts the MG S6 EV. In REEV form, the C10 is undercut by the MG HS but cheaper than most other plug-in hybrid competitors.

While comparing the price is all well and good, comparing the standard equipment level gives you the best idea of the value on offer with Leapmotor.

That’s because the C10 comes absolutely loaded to the gills with kit, including 20in alloys, heated, ventilated and electrically adjustable front seats with a memory function, a heated steering wheel dual-zone climate control, a 360-degree camera system, wireless phone charging, a panoramic sunroof and an electric tailgate.

Very few competitors offer the same level of standard equipment for the money.

Rivals

The Leapmotor C10 EV competes with cars such as the Skoda Enyaq, Kia EV5, BYD Sealion 7 and Tesla Model Y, even if it undercuts all of those on price. Other options to consider include the Renault Scenic E-Tech, Geely EX5, Vauxhall Grandland Electric, Citroen e-C5 Aircross and Toyota bZ4X.

The C10 REEV plug-in hybrid has strong competition from the Volkswagen Tiguan eHybrid, Omoda 9, MG HS Plug-in hybrid, BYD Sealion 5 and Ford Kuga PHEV, to name a few alternatives.

Leapmotor C10: Interior comfort, quality & technology

The C10’s interior adopts a minimalist style first championed by Tesla, and common in many Chinese-brand alternatives.

While it makes the cabin appear quite basic at first glance (particularly with the all-black cabin option instead of the bolder Camel Brown), spend some time behind the wheel and you’ll notice a high level of material quality, with plenty of rubberised or soft-touch finishes. The materials are all animal-free, too, and feel nice to the touch.

Alongside this solid fit-and-finish, the C10’s artificial leather front seats are very comfortable and electrically adjustable as standard, with plenty of wheel adjustment letting you find a comfortable driving position. The lack of lumbar adjustment may be a black mark for some, however.

Infotainment, sat-nav, stereo and connectivity

Every C10 has a 14.6in touchscreen infotainment system, much like in the smaller B10. It makes a good first impression, with bright, sharp graphics, plenty of features and very good response times thanks to its powerful processor.

This is all well and good when you’re stationary, but trying to access key functions on the move is made harder due to complex menus and small icons. You’ll take some time to work out where things are, and with no physical shortcut buttons or climate control knobs it’s a bit of a faff.

Equally disappointing is the lack of Apple CarPlay or Android Auto support for phone mirroring without an aftermarket dongle. Leapmotor says this can be added via an over-the-air update, but it hasn’t happened at the time of writing. At least the in-built sat-nav is quite similar to Google Maps in look, while apps like Spotify can be separately downloaded.

The 10.3in driver’s display is bright and clear, but like many Chinese cars the C10 has some small fonts and confusing icons. Still, a wireless phone charging pad is standard, while four USB ports (two USB-A, two USB-C) are spread evenly between front and rear passengers.

It’s impressive that Leapmotor throws in a premium 12-speaker sound system, which sounds good, as standard. You can even set the ambient lighting to pulse in time with your music, if that’s your cup of tea.

How practical is the Leapmotor C10?

With dimensions of 4,739mm in length, 1,900mm in width and 1,680mm in height, the Leapmotor C10 is larger than many similarly priced electric SUVs and close in size to the Tesla Model Y.

What results is a vast amount of cabin space. You’ll find no issue up front for even the tallest or broadest of adults, with plenty of headroom, leg space and cabin width.

Rear seat space is similar to the Kia EV6, Skoda Enyaq and Tesla Model Y – that means it’s very generous. There’s loads of legroom, sufficient head space for those over six-foot and a flat floor, which combines with the wide middle seat to make the C10 decent for seating three across the back.

Overall, the largest Leapmotor is in a different space league to cars like the Skoda Elroq and even the Renault Scenic E-Tech (which itself is hardly cramped).

Storage and boot space

Storage in the cabin of the C10 is decent, with generous door bins, plenty of under-armrest storage and a hidden compartment under the centre console. There’s deep cupholders, too, but the glovebox is rather shallow.

Although the door bins in the rear seats are a respectable size, it’s a shame that the fold-down centre armrest doesn’t contain cupholders. You do get pockets in the front seatbacks, however, and oodles of space to install child seats with ISOFIX points in both outer rear seats.

Things aren’t as good in the boot, because the C10’s 435 litre capacity is strangely small given the size of the car. Even much shorter cars like the Kia Ev3 and Skoda Elroq offer bigger boots, never mind the vast load space in a Model Y.

Accepting that, the boot area still shouldn’t struggle with a family weekend away or a big shop. You do also get a front boot to store the charging cables in, freeing up some of the rear load area.

Performance & drive: What is the Leapmotor C10 like on the road?

The C10 is an electric car first and foremost, but Leapmotor also offers it as a Range Extender Electric Vehicle (shortened to REEV Ultra Hybrid) which uses a petrol engine mated to a smaller battery.

In fully electric form, the C10 features a 218hp electric motor powering the rear wheels. That enables a brisk enough (if hardly thrilling) 0-62mph time of 7.5 seconds. That’s on a par with an MG S6 and slightly faster than a Renault Scenic E-Tech.

The C10 gently meters out its performance, so there’s no wheelspin from launch and it builds gradually to full power. That means it doesn’t give you much of a kick in the back, so if you want to feel any sensation of performance look elsewhere. It’s perfectly adequate for everyday driving, however.

Interestingly, the C10 REEV has slightly less power at 215hp. The electric motor is not directly connected to the wheels, solely being used as a generator to charge the battery.

Performance feels modest in Eco or Standard mode, more so than the EV and the REEV’s on-paper figures suggest. It’s perkier in Sport, but overall both hybrid and electric versions seem more suited to efficiency-boosting driving than beating others away from the lights.

There are four hybrid system driving modes in the REEV which let you choose how much assistance you want from the petrol engine – from none at all until there’s no charge left, to always keeping the engine running.

We like that both versions have four levels of regenerative braking to choose from. We don’t like that you must fiddle with touchscreen menus to access them, however, and we also found the brake pedal response a bit tricky to get used to.

Power, 0-62mph times

• Leapmotor C10 EV: 218hp/ 7.5 secs
• Leapmotor C10 REEV: 215hp/ 8.5 secs

Ride and handling

Probably the least impressive aspect of the Leapmotor C10 is its ride and handling. It doesn’t impress us in any area.

The ride, for starters, seems smooth over well-surfaced tarmac but can’t handle the broken tarmac on many British rural roads. It thumps, wobbles and jolts occupants a fair bit more than the best electric SUVs, and never really settles. It’s strange, because the smaller Leapmotor B10 has a smoother ride.

Don’t expect much in the way of satisfaction from the C10’s handling as a trade-off for that ride, either.

The C10’s steering is fairly accurate, but it gives you little feedback from the front wheels and the car leans quite a lot in the bends. Overall, the Leapmotor is better suited to gentle drives on unchallenging roads.

Noise and refinement

The Leapmotor C10 does a decent job of isolating occupants from both wind and road noise at higher speeds. That makes it a good motorway companion, but the unsettled ride and suspension noise takes away from this refinement on anything other than smooth surfaces. That said, the C10 REEV impresses with low noise levels even when the petrol engine is fired up.

Euro NCAP: is the Leapmotor B10 a safe car?

The Leapmotor C10 is among the safest family SUVs you can buy new thanks to its five-star Euro NCAP crash test rating.

With an 89% score for adult occupant protection and 85% for child occupant protection, the C10 beats offerings from Geely but doesn’t quite protect occupants as well as the MG S6 EV. A vulnerable road user score of 77% is competitive, too.

There’s no shortage of standard safety kit, including the usual automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist, driver monitoring and traffic sign recognition. On top of that there’s blind spot detection, reverse auto-braking, rear cross-traffic avoidance and even a safe exit alert system.

That’s all well and good, but some of these systems prove annoying in real-world driving, with plenty of false warnings and bonging. Leapmotor claims to be updating these systems over-the-air in time to improve them, however, and you can set up a custom shortcut button on the steering wheel

Fuel economy, range, charging and running costs

The all-electric Leapmotor C10 gets a 70kWh usable battery pack, which is a decent size. The resulting range is certainly nothing to write home about in this day and age, however.

The C10 EV manages 263 miles of range on the WLTP combined test. That’s better than a Honda e:Ny1, and on a par with the Skoda Enyaq 60, so it should be sufficient for those who don’t do many long motorway trips.

For those that do, or want the capability to do, though, it’s disappointing. Most electric SUV rivals have a long-range version managing well over 300 miles (some close to 400 miles) on a charge. At least you get a standard heat pump to more efficiently heat the cabin in winter.

The Leapmotor C10 REEV plug-in hybrid uses a 28.4kWh battery pack that’s said to be capable of a range of 90 miles on a charge. Of course, that’s not all – in combination with the petrol engine and 50-litre fuel tank it’s claimed to be able to do over 600 miles in one go.

That official hybrid range figure is only a few behind the more expensive Omoda 9, never mind the pricier-still VW Tiguan eHybrid.

The official fuel economy figure is 706mpg in the WLTP test – well ahead of the Omoda and on a par with the Tiguan. It’s unlikely that you’ll achieve that figure unless your journeys are only within the C10’s electric range, but it’s still a useful comparison.

Range on a charge (WLTP figures) H4

• Leapmotor C10 (full EV): 263 miles
• Leapmotor C10 REEV: 90 miles

The Leapmotor C10 EV isn’t a great car for long trips, and the so-so range is only one reason why. The other is charging speeds that are well short of the standard expected with modern family EVs.

With a peak rapid charging speed of just 84kW (almost half the typical speed in this class) the C10 takes 45 minutes to charge from 10-80% even in a best-case scenario.

Most rivals are closer to 30 minutes or less. That’s even more curious when the cheaper Leapmotor B10 promises a competitive speed of 168kW and a 10-80% charge time of just 26 minutes.

It’s a shame, but it does at least mean that you don’t need to seek out the fastest charging points to top up the C10. You do also get 11kW charging, which allows you to make the most of three-phase home and destination chargers where available.

Funnily enough, the C10 REEV isn’t that much slower to charge on paper, so it’s competitive with the best plug-in hybrids. DC rapid charging of up to 65kW allows a 30-80% charge in 18 minutes. Both models also get Vehicle-to-Load capability to power household items of camping gear from the battery.

Charging speeds

(Figures from EV Database)

• 7kW charging: 11hr 45 mins
• 11kW charging: 7hr 30 mins
• 50kW rapid charger (10 to 80% charge): 69 mins
• 150kW+ rapid charger (10 to 80% charge): 44 mins

How much does the Leapmotor C10 cost to insure?

The Leapmotor C10’s insurance groups are higher than average for a family SUV, which is a common theme with new Chinese brands where parts supply and aftersales is not as established as older brands.

Sitting in insurance group 40 in EV form, the C10 is likely to be more expensive to insure than even top-spec version of the Skoda Enyaq. At group 41 for the REEV, the C10 is 16 groups higher than a Skoda Kodiaq PHEV.