What a weird and quirky week for me as I have been living with this new entrant in our South African market called the Leapmotor C10. Just like anything made from China (in the context of cars) it is both strange and weird on the outside as much as it is on the inside but first lets do a short history lesson.
This is a Leapmotor, this is a company that is fast-growing which is a Chinese electric vehicle (NEV) manufacturer founded in 2015 and based in Hangzhou. The brand specifically makes cars that are affordable or rather use the word attainable, tech-focused electric cars and the lineup is typically SUV body styles. Okay? okay.
These guys, Leapmotor, are not in any way affiliated with the usual suspects which are Chery, GWM and our Jetour. Leapmotor is instead heavily backed by the global automotive group Stellantis, which holds a plus-minus 20% stake in the company. Furthermore, Leapmotor International is a joint venture (51% Stellantis / 49% Leapmotor) that handles the distribution and production of Leapmotor vehicles outside of China. Hence why the Leapmotor brand is here under the Stellantis Umbrella, Okay? okay.
Now back to this car, the C10 which is currently the flagship model above the Leapmotor C5 which isn't available in our market, made its debut just last year in the month after launching on October 15, 2025. It is a mid-size SUV that is one of the first REEV Range-Extender Electric Vehicles we have in our market.
What is a REEV? The C10 has both an 1.5L petrol generator and a 28.4 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, only here the engine works solely as a generator to help recharge and generate for the battery and plays zero role in driving or propelling the car forward or backwards. Altogether the setup gives you 158 kW and 350Nm, this is put down to the rear tires only.
The electric only range is said to take you as far as 145km but if that is flat than the 1.5L petrol generator provides you with 970km as it recharges the batteries on a Atkinson-cycle and both these combined are supposed to give you a fuel return of 5.5l/100km and I will tell if that is what we got in just a minute but first lets remember that since you have a choice of driving on electric power or assisted power, you can charge the car.
As far as charging is concerned, you do get a 6.6kw AC cable charger that you can just connect on the wall socket at home as standard in the car which allows one to charge up to full in 5 hours of charging. There is then the option of DC charging which supports charging of up 65kw enabling one to charge from 20% to 80% in about 30 minutes, with a 50% charge achievable in just 18 minutes.
Okay..let me give you a breather on the numbers and percentages by talking to you about looks instead, yayy! The car looks like a Porsche Cayenne especially in this beautiful and very incognito blank paint work. The front gives the fact that it is electric away by having a full closed of fascia that features two LED headlights that are joined by a lightbar that doesn't actually light up, aw.. Anyways, there are more opening on the lower bit of the face which are two air channels on either side to promote good aero and a radiator opening because you still get a engine in there which needs to breathe or else kaboom.
The rear is just as bit Cayenne-esc as the front, this comes through the most with the LED lightbar that is supported by the bold "LEAPMOTOR" branding below whilst everything stays mostly clean and not cluttered which is cool.
The side profile is where things get weird but not how you think but first let me just say the car is equipped with these 20-inch Trident aluminium alloy wheels which look absolutely superb in my opinion as they're finished in a grey color code. Here you also get these flush door handles which you have to manually pop out to open but here is the kicker..
To even open the car is a mission because instead of regular, normal key, you instead have a card that acts as the key to open and operate the vehicle which to me was pretty cool in the first three days of collecting the vehicle but boy was it getting to me after a while. Scenario, say you overslept and are now late for work, with your laptop bag and lunch box in hand you couldn't just walk next to the car to get it open because in a normal car it would sense the key fob and open up, not here buddy.
Here you would have to walk all the way to the drivers side and tap on the NFC Tag section on the driver mirror which is what you use to open the car with all of the stuff in hand and then you have to walk all the way back to the intended and designated stuff door and by then you would have burnt quite the calories.
When you eventually do decide to go into the C10, I would like to report on just how good the car feels to be inside of. Here in typical EV minimalist fashion you are met by screens, a high quality materials spanning the dashboard and door covers and some Faux leather made from recycled materials so you are comfy and saving the planet all at once.
The dashboard is dominated by a large 14.6-inch central touchscreen running Leap OS, which is a in-house operating system that unfortunately does not support Android Auto nor Apple CarPlay but it isn't bad at all because you can mirror your phone on the screen, use the integrated Spotify app or just like me, revert to good'ol Bluetooth music listening and keep the jams rolling.
There are however no buttons any where else but on the two-spoke, heated, leather-wrapped steering wheel which means that they are ALL on the screen. Call me a clutts but I never really figured out what the buttons on the left hand side of steering wheel really even do (I even used the forbidden button mash sequence to get something out of the car but nothing..)
A pet-peeve, is that the lights are on the screen, the fuel cap release/unlock button is on the screen, the Air conditioner and controls is on the screen, the ADAS settings are on the screen and pretty much everything else except the gears which live on the collar of the steering wheel. This is all good to set when you are at a standstill however it becomes a bit of problem to adjust or make changes whilst driving.
The cabin has a nice ambient lighting sequence that has different colors to suit every mood, there is a large glass roof that lets in light making the cabin feel even more roomy as it is already generous enough. A boot space offering around 500l of luggage space does fine getting in three big suitcases.
So how does it stack up against the rest of the pickings? I just can not help but to admire just how outside the box the whole approach and manner of this car is in the way that it does things, the OGs might very well call all the those said tricks that the car can do gimmicks but it also, importantly, did do regular stuff well.
What is it like to drive? Quite good actually because the drive is very calm, refined and quiet at normal or highway speeds giving in little to no wind and road-tyre noise, when the engine engages you hardly hear it even when you put the car into its sportiest setting where the ICE and Batteries combine to give you the most power all at once.
The seats give off enough seating comfort and space for you and your passangers on long and short trips all the whilst being configurable and suited to the driver to make it feel more easier and natural. For the first time in a long time I hadn't made a mandatory visit to the petrol station as the car easily helped achieve figures like 6.8l per 100km without breaking a sweat.
But maybe, just maybe, they have over done it by making some much simpler things a bit too difficult to use on a daily basis, like something as easy as unlocking your vehicle or switching on that said vehicle on. We all admire that they can make these great advancements and substitute the norm for some radical things like a key card but maybe lets change things slowly over time rather than phasing out current norms in a short amount of time.
Honorable mention - The Leapmotor C10 is a finalist in the prestigious Car of the Year awards and will be soon tested amongst other contestant for the ultimate honor of claiming the no.1 spot. It is up against some tough competition but making the finalist list means that this car has certainly what it takes to cause an upset to the competition for sure.
Let us talk pricing shall we? You think such a high-tech and somewhat fancy offering is in the one million rand bracket well than think again because this here C10 starts at R759 900 for the entry level Style and tops out at R799 900 for the top of the range Design model. This purchase guarantees a 5-year/100 000 km warranty and a 5-year/100 000 km service plan.