Leapmotor B10 review

Electric SUV offers a lot of tech and luxury for a low price but demands some compromises

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Before we get into the question of what the Leapmotor B10 is like, shall we remind ourselves of who Leapmotor is? This is a Chinese tech and automotive brand that’s been around in its domestic market since 2015 and sold more than 400,000 vehicles globally before Stellantis bought a controlling stake.

After all, Stellantis wanted a budget electric car brand to rival the likes of BYD, Dacia and MG. Leapmotor had the tech and affordability it needed, while Stellantis had the full deck of heritage brands and sprawling European dealership network that Leapmotor needed. Makes sense, eh?

The Leapmotor B10 is the third model from this brand to go on sale in the UK. At 4.5m long, it splits the difference between Skoda's Elroq and Enyaq in size but pricing of £31,495 (or under £30k with the current ‘Leap grant’ discount), means that the Jaecoo E5 and MG S5 are its closest rivals on price, size and range. Smaller alternatives for this sort of money include the Ford Puma Gen-E, Jeep Avenger, BYD Atto 2 and Renault 4.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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The B10 draws power from a CATL-sourced, 67.1kWh (usable capacity) lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery, which powers a rear-mounted, 215bhp electric motor for a WLTP range of 270 miles. There’s no four-wheel-drive variant. In the UK, the B10 is offered with just this rear-wheel-drive, battery-electric powertrain and in one very well-equipped trim level complete with a 168kW charging speed, plus a standard heat pump and vehicle-to-load power capability.

For the battery geeks among us, it’s interesting to note that the B10’s LFP pack has almost no cell buffer. It’s not alone in this: the Jaecoo E5 that Chery has just launched also gets an LFP battery with a virtually non-existent buffer, so it’s fair to observe that LFP battery tech is advancing in that regard. Only time will tell how the battery tech stands up in terms of longevity.

Is it just me, or is the Leapmotor badge very similar to the Smart badge?
Vicky Parrott

The Leapmotor B10 is hardly a ground-breaking design, but the smooth surfacing, LED lights and inevitable rear light bar esnure it looks modern and in keeping with its other cohorts in the electric family SUV class. You can get it in some interesting colours, too, including metallic Dawn Purple and Starry Night Blue, the latter of which is a pastel blue that’s apparently inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting.

INTERIOR

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The interior is one of the B10’s key selling points. The pale leatherette and standard panoramic glass roof make it light and airy, and the perceived quality is all pretty good, although the flip-down cupholders feel flimsy and there’s not enough lumbar support for the driver. You do get standard heated and ventilated seats, though.

A simple digital speedo is another very welcome feature, as is a steering wheel that adjusts manually for rake and reach, and wipers and indicators that are on a conventional stalk. Everything else is controlled via the Tesla-style 14.6in touchscreen, which responds quickly enough even if its air-con controls can be fiddly. It’ll certainly take some familiarisation to get used to where the menus and settings are, despite various shortcuts, but the B10’s touchscreen is easy enough to use by the standards of these systems – even if we favour a slightly less screen-dependant set-up, like that used by Kia, Hyundai and Renault. Naturally, there’s nav and online streaming services, voice control, over-the-air updates and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

The electric windows are controlled by rocker switches on the doors that do the opposite of what you expect: roll the window down when you push the rocker forward.
Vicky Parrott

Space in the back of the B10 is good, and there’s plenty of leg and head room, even for taller adults, plus a centre armrest. The rear seats don’t slide or recline, but you can fully recline the front seats for a ‘lay-flat’ interior. Mind you, there’s no light over the back seats, which can be really irritating if you’ve got young kids and fiddly car seats to deal with on dark winter evenings.

Blip the powered bootlid and you reveal a decent, squared-off boot with 430 litres of space, including some underfloor storage, and there’s a small frunk as well. It's good enough for most families but a way off class best. That boot space is almost the same as you get in the dinkier Renault 4 and you get way more in the Ford Puma Gen-E. 

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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You won’t want to go any distance in the B10 unless you turn the ADAS functions off. Driving with them on is like travelling with a malicious poltergeist on board.

The steering wheel is tugged around when you’re nowhere near white lines, yellow lines, or indeed any lines at all. It beeps at everything: a change in speed limit, breaking the speed limit, no speed limit, some speed limit, not enough coffee in the driver, too much coffee in the driver, glancing at the touchscreen, bad breath, unfashionable clothes, poor conversational skills… I’m quite sure there are more.

I suspect that a four-wheel-drive B10 would do well in the UK. You don't need more power, just an extra motor for those buyers who like all-season confidence.
Vicky Parrott

Of course, Leapmotor is not alone in suffering with an overstimulation of alerts, but others prove that these necessary safety systems can be much more subtle and helpful. Critically, you can control the B10’s ADAS stuff via a shortcut button on the steering wheel, so it’s not difficult to turn them off. At which point you are at your leisure to enjoy the breathtakingly forgettable dynamics.

The throttle, steering and three regen modes are all controlled independently in the screen, in the same fashion as you do in a Tesla. With acceleration in Comfort, the throttle is soggy and long travel so it all feels too obviously neutered. In the happy medium or sport settings, things improve and the B10 is perfectly inoffensive to drive, with more robust responses and enough urgency from the 215bhp, rear-mounted electric motor. Sure, the 0-62mph time of 8.0sec isn’t strikingly fast, but it’s good enough for everyday use and the B10 only starts to feel a touch breathless if you go for a rapid squirt of acceleration up to motorway speeds.

The 18in Linglong Sport Master tyres fitted to our test car were not great. They slip in urgent getaways even in dry conditions, and squeal noisily even in moderate cornering, so factor in the cost of new rubber if your B10 is delivered on the Linglongs. Leapmotor has told us that B10s ordered in 2026 – after the initial allocation of cars arrive at the end of 2025 - will have Hankook tyres.

RIDE & HANDLING

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The defining characteristic of the B10’s driving dynamics is its loose-limbed ride comfort. It eases over bigger bumps, and while there’s some patter and thump over coarse surfaces, it’s an unashamedly comfort-oriented car, which is fair enough.

In the most laid-back mode, the steering is very light and feels too remote to be particularly confident-inspiring, but weighted up in either of its other two modes, the steering is predictable and linear enough. So long as you don’t mind a lot of body lean and pitch, and quite a bit of wind noise at motorway speeds, the B10 is inoffensive transport.

The B10 gets passive dampers as standard, with no adaptive upgrade on offer.
Vicky Parrott

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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The Leapmotor B10 is available in the UK in only one model, which is fully loaded with comfort, luxury and tech, including keyless entry (or you can use your phone), 360deg parking camera, ambient interior lighting, semi-autonomous drive mode, blindspot warning, panoramic roof and more. It also gets a four-year, 60,000-mile vehicle warranty, and the battery is covered for eight years and 100,000 miles.

Between that equipment and the competitive WLTP range and charging speed (270 miles and up to 168kW respectively), the B10 feels like a lot of car for the money. But it still comes with compromises, and monthly PCP and lease deals have yet to be confirmed. It will be those monthly deals that make or break the B10 in the UK, of course. Ultimately, they need to be very tempting because a smaller but still useful family EV from a more familiar brand still feels like a better option in all but the financial sense.

The Leapmotor's four-year warranty is no incentive next to the longer warranties from MG, Kia, Hyundai, BYD and Toyota.
Vicky Parrott

VERDICT

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You get a lot of tech and equipment for your money with the Leapmotor B10. It undercuts many similarly sized electric SUVs by £8000 or more, despite having a healthy WLTP range and rapid charging speeds. It’s also roomy enough inside and uneventful to drive, so if you can get a good deal, it’s not hard to see why the B10 might have real appeal. But the B10's low costs are really the only reason to buy it. In most other aspects, it’s just adequate. 

Leapmotor B10 news

Leapmotor B10 to land in UK next month as £30k family EV
Leapmotor B10 to land in UK next month as £30k family EV

Vicky Parrott

Vicky Parrott

Vicky Parrott has been a motoring journalist since 2006, when she eventually did so much work experience at Autocar that it felt obliged to give her a job.

After that, she spent seven years as a features and news writer, video presenter and road tester for Autocar, before becoming deputy road test editor for What Car? in 2013. After five years with What Car?, Vicky spent a couple of years as associate editor of DrivingElectric and then embarked on a freelance career that has seen her return to writing for Autocar and What Car? as well as for The Daily Telegraph and many others.

Vicky has been a Car of the Year juror since 2020, and the proud owner of a 1992 Mercedes-Benz 300-SL 24V since 2017. She aspires to own an Alpine A110 and a Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo.