• Up to 263 miles official WLTP range
• We easily managed 240 miles on one charge
• But C10 has slow rapid charging specs

What are the running costs?

Running an electric car is meant to be cheaper, once you’ve stumped up the higher purchase price in the first place. We found the Leapmotor C10 an economical EV to drive, easily achieving the claimed energy efficiency of 3.4 miles per kilowatt hour, suggesting that energy costs will not be too bad.

That points to a realistic EV range of around 240 miles, not far off the claimed 263-mile distance between plugging in. Our latest test fell in the middle of summer, so we would expect that range to shrink back to nearer 200 miles in the chills of a cold winter day.

Electric car running costs will be suitably low running a C10. Falling in VED band A, road tax will cost just £10 in the first year and then revert to the standard rate of £195 annually; it will attract 3% benefit-in-kind tax if you are considering running one as a company car.

Servicing and warranty

You probably don’t know where your nearest Leapmotor dealer is, but that Stellantis connection means it’ll probably be appended to an existing showroom, bringing a degree of confidence in where you can buy and service your electric car. The brand launched in the UK in 2024 with 44 retailers and plans to expand the dealer network to more than 80 outlets by the end of 2025.

Dynamic servicing means that the car is monitoring driving styles and patterns to determine when it will need a pitstop. Our test car indicated it would need its first maintenance visit at 12,000 miles, which suggests it’ll require a service once a year for the average Briton’s typical mileage.

The C10 is backed by Leapmotor’s four-year/60,000-mile warranty, which will cover most new-car finance deals. The battery pack has separate cover for up to eight years or 100,000 miles, whichever falls sooner. This is reassuring when a battery can account for as much as 40% of the cost of a new EV.

Reliability

• Leapmotor an unknown quantity
• But early signs are encouraging
• Reassurance of Stellantis backing

This is a new car from a new nameplate – so it’s difficult to find concrete evidence about the reliability you can expect from a Leapmotor. There are fewer moving parts on an electric car, but that doesn’t preclude problems – and that’s where the reassuring warranty and Stellantis backing should be reassuring.

If you own a Leapmotor C10, why not fill in a Parkers owners’ review, so you can share your experiences with hundreds of thousands of users a month?