► New Chinese electric city car
► Fantastic value, but does it feel cheap?
► Orders open October, deliveries by December
It’s no secret that smaller cars are falling out of favour with manufacturers and consumers in Europe, so it seems a curious time to launch an all-new electric city car like the Leapmotor T03. It has roughly the same footprint as the Fiat 500e, which places the T03 in an even rarer club of electric vehicles – extra small, a bit impractical and positioned in a direction against the winds of tastes and change. Sounds like a tough sell, until you read the price tag. This full EV costs less than 16 grand.
Now, that figure does come caveated with the spectre of tariffs on Chinese cars, particularly from the EU which has hiked its rate up to almost 40% for some brands, but it’s still an low entry point for this class of car, and rivalled by few. Plus, with the backing of its international partner Stellantis and a manufacturing plant in Poland rather than the far east, Leapmotor has positioned itself well to avoid some of the highest rates on the T03 and its bigger brother, the C10 SUV.
Time will tell how it all goes, but for now, what’s the T03 actually like? A cheap-as-chips supermini EV that’s packed with tech and a generous provision of amenities as standard? It sounded too enticing to miss, so I’ve flown to northern Italy to give it a go. Read on for the full review from CAR. Or, if you’d like to find out how we reached our verdict, head over to our how we test cars page for everything you need to know.
At a glance
Pros: great value, decent build quality, five doors
Cons: Not a lot of poke, could do with a greater range, short warranty
What’s new?
The T03 was launched back in 2020 in China but is only just now on the cusp of reaching European shores thanks to distribution networks from Stellantis. The car has been developed almost entirely in-house – even the battery is homegrown, aside from a few of the cells – but some of the styling quirks seem familiar.
There’s an air of Fiat small car to the T03, specifically the 500 crossed in ways with the Panda, though if someone had pissed a Twingo badge on the back and told me it’s French, I’d have probably believed them too. So what if it features a few European styling cues – nothing wrong with that. Does the T03 drive and feel like a European car? Keep reading to find out.
What are the specs?
The T03 is 3620mm long, 1577mm wide excluding the mirrors and 1652mm tall, while 1175kg (kerb weight). That puts it about on par with the Fiat 500e in terms of footprint, only it’s a little bit shorter and a little bit taller, to the benefit of headroom. It produces around 93bhp and 117ftlbs of torque from its electric motoring – all power delivered to the front wheels – with a 0-62mph time of 12.7 seconds and a top speed of roughly 80mph. It has a battery capacity of 37.3 kWh, and a combined driving range of 165 miles, according to figures quoted by WLTP. The T03 also has a quoted efficiency figure of 16.3kWh/100km, though we returned a real world figure of 12.8kWh/100km after a 94.5km drive.
What’s it like inside?
With the lightweight price tag in the back of my mind, I got into the T03 expecting the worst. Surely they must’ve cut corners inside to afford such a low list price, but… no? It’s far from the last word in opulence, but T03’s interior is respectable, well-built and roomier than you might think.
Hard, scratchy plastics line most of the dashboard and door trims, no surprise there, but different surface textures at least break up some of the monotony. Then, around the door handles and central air vents, the T03 features a glossy black plastic and soft fabrics, while the door release handles are metal. In my mind, the dash has the feel and looks of a more upmarket Suzuki Swift – cheap and practical but with a greater sense of style and more homely than the Japanese car.
The car comes with a 10” infotainment display as standard – a central screen that houses all the car’s functions, from the climate control to the driving modes. The graphics aren’t the crispest nor clearest in the world, but thanks to some slide out menus, the software can at least be easy to navigate through while on the road. It’s a minimalist cabin, but not an unpleasant place to be and probably exceeds the low price of the car. One large gripe, though, was that the steering wheel covered a frustrating amount of the display, including the upcoming turn box of the satnav. A few turn offs were ignominiously missed, I’m not very proud to admit…
There isn’t much space in the back in terms of legroom, and any three passengers on the rear bench will likely feel quite squeezed in, but headroom is consistently good from the front to rear of the car. A couple of children would likely feel at home back there, but even just one adult might feel cramped. However, you may be able to mitigate some of that feeling by opening up the panoramic sunroof – yes, a panoramic sunroof. As standard. In a £16,000 EV.
What’s the T03 like to drive?
With just 93bhp, and a 0-62mph of 12.7 seconds, the T03 is absolutely not a quick car, nor does it feel especially nippy behind the wheel. However, the T03’s stats comfortably beat those of the Dacia Spring – one of the T03’s only direct rivals in the UK – which has a 0-62mph time of 14 seconds and only 64bhp. So relatively speaking, it’s not the slowest car in the world either.
The suspension is taught in the T03, but it’s not necessarily uncomfortable. I could feel the road’s surface in some clarity through the steering wheel and chassis, but wasn’t necessarily intrusive. Although the ride was tight, the T03 isn’t very agile. It’s not got an inherent go-kart quality to it like you might find in a Mini Electric or Fiat 500e.
I felt no inclination to chuck it around in search of cheap thrills, but then that isn’t what this car was designed for, and that’s okay. The power feels like just enough to be useable, though I’d recommend planning entry onto motorways with some consideration – I was caught out by the lack of poke once during my test, and it’s not something I’d want to do again.
But at slower speeds through urban environments, the T03 felt at home and performed adequality enough. The steering is light and direct in its standard setting, but I was able to lower the assistance level by opting for the Sports tune mode – more of a personal preference really, but it weighted up nicely. The electric motor’s sports setting sharpened the car’s throttle response about to where I would’ve liked it all the time. In its regular or Eco mode, you really have to plant your foot into the pedal to get the car to shift, so keep it in Sports if you value quick getaways.
The car comes laden with safety kit, with driver attention warnings, forward collision warnings and adaptive cruise control included, to name a few. Most of the safety systems can be switched off via the display menu, but I found the T03 would override my decisions – specifically switching the lane keep assist off – when it felt it necessary. I kept getting ‘Emergency Lane Keep Assist Activated’ notifications on the instrument cluster, when I had barely moved off the road’s centre line. What was the point in giving me the option to turn the LKA off if the car was still going to activate it when it felt it knew better? The mind boggles.
The only other traits that really grated on me were the wind noise at motorway speeds – it was alarming – and the electric motor’s synthetic whine around town. The latter was only discernible from around 10mph up to 20mph, but right in the middle of that window, the car would squeal at me in such an incessant pitch, I could barely take it. It was intrusive and unrelenting. Perhaps there was a way of dialling it back but I couldn’t find one, so Leapmotor if you’re reading this, please tone down the whine. It did my head in.
Before you buy
Leapmotor has kept the T03’s options list very short – in truth, you can only decide the colour, and there are just a handful of options. There is only one trim level on offer, with one battery size and power output. It does, however, come generously equipped. I’ve already mentioned the panoramic sunroof, digital displays and safety kit, but the T03 also features voice control, a Bluetooth key with access through your smartphone, 10 driver assistance functions and an electric parking brake.
It feels like a truly healthy provision for the price, and especially in comparison to the comparatively destitute Dacia Spring. Despite the higher power output and more standard features in the T03, it’s actually cheaper than the Spring – £15,995 for the Chinese car while a similar Spring starts from £16,995. A slower version of the Spring starts from £15,995 but it’s so down on power that it’s not really comparable with the T03.
Where the electric city car has historically fallen short is on range. The Spring has a quoted combined range of 142 miles, while the T03 can manage up to 164, according to figures from WLTP. However, it can’t quite match the Fiat 500e’s quoted range of 199 miles. The T03 is significantly cheaper than the Fiat 500e, though, as the latter starts from £25,995.
Verdict
A few niggles aside, I think the Leapmotor T03 is a thoroughly decent car. It doesn’t have the sheen or character of some rivals, particularly the Fiat 500e, but if you can look past that, it offers up a great low-cost option. Does it feel as cheap as it is? Honestly, I don’t really think it does. It only has a three-year warranty, which could be troubling given that it’s a new player in the market, and ff the government were to slap a lofty set of new tariffs on the T03 to bump its price up then it would make even less sense. I’d also like to give it a go on British roads just to check their homework on the suspension tune but honestly, if you’re in the market for a brand new electric city car that won’t break the bank, it’s an option worth considering.