Leapmotor T03 review — a cheaper electric that delivers value

Times

5 hours ago

Chinese cars don't always hit the spot for European buyers. You know roughly what you're getting from, say, a Ford, BMW, Audi or Mercedes. But with a BYD, GWM, XPeng or Jaecoo, you're taking a big financial step based on little backstory. So what's the story behind the latest entrant to the UK market, the Leapmotor T03, a diminutive city car that looks like a render straight from a computer game?
Leapmotor vehicles sold outside China are distributed and sold by Leapmotor International, a joint venture that's owned 51:49 by Stellantis and Leapmotor of China. Stellantis is the European megacorporation responsible for Citroën, Peugeot, Jeep, Fiat and Vauxhall. Thus, you can buy and service a T03 at an established web of Stellantis dealers which, for prospective buyers, is one reassurance.
The T03 is built on the old Fiat 500 production line in Poland, allowing Leapmotor to sidestep the 20 per cent tariff that Europe puts on Chinese imports. The UK imposes no tariffs on Chinese cars, by the way, which is one explanation for the arrival of so many Chinese car brands in the UK.
So what do we get from this Sino-European electro-hatch? Well, the T03 is one of the cheapest electric cars in the UK, if you discount rule-evading quadricycles like the Citroën Ami, and pitches in at just under £16,000. As ever when it comes to electric cars, though, 'cheaper' doesn't necessarily mean cheap. A petrol Dacia Sandero costs £14,715.
The T03 seats four in a cabin that feels remarkably spacious thanks in part to a big glass panoramic roof. The 37.3kWh battery is good for 165 miles — officially — of range, which makes the T03 fine for urbanauting but not for longer hauls. From standstill to 62mph, it takes a relaxed 12.7 seconds. Leisurely rather than rapid but enough to keep up with traffic on normal roads. A top speed of 81mph is probably best left to theory.
It has a small 210-litre boot and disconcertingly light steering, although that's fine as long as you're pootling around in the city. It's excellent at slipping through traffic and a joy to park. Where most cars feel enormous these days, the T03 is narrower than a tiny Kia Picanto and capable of greasing itself into the tightest parking spaces.
However, there are a few issues. If you were generous you'd say they result from delivering value for money. If you were unkind you'd say they were skimping. For a start, there's its appearance. The T03 is not bad looking but it should be more appealing than it is, given its compact proportions. It nibbles at the edges of cute without ever being something that you bond with, a bit like those pictures of other people's newborns.
There are other things. The headlights should be LEDs, given that the taillights and daytime running lights are, but for some reason they're not. The lack of physical buttons make the T03 a bit of a nightmare to operate. The climate controls are buried in the too-small 10in touchscreen menus and verge on the positively distracting when trying to operate them while on the go. To turn off the annoying advanced driver-assistance systems — standard on all cars these days thanks to the EU's General Safety Regulations 2 (GSR2) — you have to stop and put the car in park. Failure to do so means enduring a drowsiness monitor that seems more paranoid than helpful. Look away from the road for a microsecond or blink slowly and it yelps and chimes for what feels like several minutes (it's actually 15 seconds).
All of which makes it sound like the T03 is a bad car, which it isn't. Once you've got used to twiddling the right buttons before you depart, or accidentally slip and cover the driver-monitor camera with a piece of tape, the T03 is fine and functional. But is it good enough?
Without doubt it's cheaper than the Citroën ë-C3, Hyundai Inster or Fiat 500 Electric but you'd probably just want to save up a little more for any of those to have a nicer city car. Not to mention the excellent Fiat Grande Panda, which starts as a hybrid at £18,975 or at just under £21,000 for the fully electric model.
The other consideration is bragging rights, which I'm afraid you just don't get from Chinese brands. No one is going to look admiringly as you lay your key fob on the table and say: 'Ah, so you've treated yourself to the Leapmotor T03.' The same for Jaecoo, Omoda, BYD or XPeng. Rightly or wrongly, many people regard Chinese cars as things you lease when you have precisely no interest in what you drive as long as it's reliable, handily equipped and meets the budget for monthly payments. In other words, white goods with wheels.
• James May reviews BYD Dolphin, the cheap Chinese electric car
Yet the thing about Chinese manufacturers is their astonishing rate of change and improvement. Where European manufacturers might take years to update models and correct faults, the Chinese manufacturing ecology evolves at a ferocious speed. It wasn't that long ago that we were suspiciously eyeing the South Korean models from Kia and Hyundai. Even further back, in the 1970s, Japanese cars were derided as cheap rip-offs of British designs. Now brands from those countries are class leaders. Perhaps it won't be long before 'Made in China' means something very different indeed.