Leapmotor could sacrifice Euro NCAP safety rating for a better driver experience
Ever feel like the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in new cars are more of a hindrance than a help because of how distracting, confusing or generally infuriating they can be? We do sometimes, and Leapmotor's marketing boss would be inclined to agree, based on the thoughts he shared about ADAS in an interview with Auto Express. Advertisement - Article continues below
Francesco Giacalone, Leapmotor's head of European marketing and the man responsible for customer experience, told us he would be happy for the brand to sacrifice high Euro NCAP safety ratings – which are earned partly by companies cramming in as much as driver-assistance technology as possible into new cars – for the sake of a better, less stressful driver experience.
'Getting Euro NCAP ratings will not always be inexpensive and will not always be easy to achieve,' he said. 'So at a point in time, there could be the compromise whether to not reach the [maximum] NCAP rating, but to provide the promise of our brand, which is to deliver life-easing technology at an affordable price.
'Maybe we need to sacrifice one star to deliver the right product to the customer, with the full content of useful and life-easing technology?' he added. 'That could be the right choice.' Skip advert Advertisement - Article continues below
But to clarify, Giacalone isn't proposing that Leapmotor starts putting less safety or driver-assistance tech into its cars. Especially because all new cars sold in the EU must be fitted with Emergency Lane Keep Assist, Autonomous Emergency Braking and Intelligent Speed Assist, and more systems will be added to this mandatory list next year. Instead, his suggestion is simply that the driver should be able to choose which of the systems onboard they want activated by default when they turn on their car. Advertisement - Article continues below
He explained: 'Of course, we will not go to the extreme of the spectrum where we launch a car that has no active safety, and the passive safety is crap. All vehicles from Leapmotor are engineered with high-strength stainless steel on the side and in the frame, so the cabin is strong, and there's lots of airbags.
'All those elements will be there. Just maybe, to achieve the five-star rating, you need some active safety which not all consumers equally appreciate,' he said. 'Then, either you make a compromise in that little last mile and probably that will cost you a star – that could be the case – but there's no compromise on the broad security of the car.'
Essentially, as Giacalone put it to us, 'the message is that all the tech, hardware and software is there at the service of the customer. So, if you want, we enable it.'
The marketing boss would be the first to admit some parts of Leapmotor's ADAS suite are not perfect, and still need work, which we very much agree with after driving the C10.
However, unlike some other brands, Leapmotor is willing and able to update its cars extremely quickly after receiving feedback like ours. For instance, Giacalone told us, after receiving criticism about the C10's driver-assistance systems and how difficult it was to turn them off last September, the company developed a solution in just six weeks and was ready to roll it out before Christmas. Now, the car has a drop-down control centre with shortcuts for deactivating certain functions much more quickly, and more easily than before.
But while Leapmotor can update its cars incredibly quickly if and when it needs to, Giacalone thinks customers might find a major update every six weeks a bit annoying. Instead, he said: 'We will try to have regular updates every four months or so, maybe once or twice a year, grouping more improvements and new features.'
Now you can buy a car through our network of top dealers around the UK. Search for the latest deals…
Find a car with the experts Car Deal of the Day: Super sci-fi Kia EV6 for an exceptional £260 per month
Car Deal of the Day: Super sci-fi Kia EV6 for an exceptional £260 per month
Our Deal of the Day for 31 May is an extremely attractive price for this extremely capable electric family car Car Deal of the Day: new Omoda 5, with all the kit you might need, for less than £200 per month
Car Deal of the Day: new Omoda 5, with all the kit you might need, for less than £200 per month
The Omoda 5 is one of the newest arrivals to the family SUV market, and now it's our Deal of the Day for 1 June Audi A3 Sportback 35 TFSI long term test: premium hatch is a joy to live with
Audi A3 Sportback 35 TFSI long term test: premium hatch is a joy to live with
First report: premium hatch joins our fleet, and its bright metallic paint has already earned it a nickname Long-term tests
1 Jun 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
33 minutes ago
- The Independent
Lottery players could still win record EuroMillions jackpot next week
The EuroMillions draw on Friday night offered a record jackpot of £210m, but no winning tickets were purchased. The winning numbers were 20, 21, 29, 30, 35, with Lucky Stars 2 and 12. Seven players won the second-tier prize, entitling them to winnings of more than £2m each. The jackpot is capped at £210m, and additional money has gone to boosting prizes in the second tier. Tuesday's draw will offer an estimated jackpot of £208 million, meaning the record prize amount is still up for grabs.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Britons are great savers – that's the problem
The British aren't bad savers. But – as a nation – we hold much less of our wealth in investments than our American and European counterparts – limiting potential for long-term returns. The Government recognises this issue and is considering savings limits to cash ISAs, which could encourage investment in shares and other assets, but what about the root causes preventing appetite for investing? Robinhood, alongside Global Counsel, examined the barriers to investing for under-represented groups in the UK. Inclusion is foundational to Robinhood's mission: of our 25 million customers, around half are first-time investors. We're working to match that level of access in the UK – and that starts with listening. Research showed that people approach investing differently, with distinct barriers to investing for women and ethnic minorities. Women are significantly less likely to invest than men, and ethnic minorities invest considerably less than the majority population. When they do, motivations vary, and lack of confidence undermines actual capability. Ethnic minority investors are nearly four times more likely to invest to support elder family members, which may explain why they tend to be more focused on medium-term gains over longer-term, personal retirement goals. They are also twice as likely to hold exchange traded funds (ETFs). Confidence in social media is low for all respondents, yet 44pc of ethnic minority respondents are likely to rely on it for investment advice, versus 14pc for non-ethnic minority population. There is also widespread misunderstanding of the minimum amount of capital required to invest. For relatively accessible investments, like stocks and shares Isas, respondents believed they needed, on average, £2,383 to invest – more than 23 times the £100 minimum required by many providers. Policymakers and industry can address the barriers. The Financial Conduct Authority is clear that the consumer duty welcomes innovation, provided that it leads to better consumer outcomes. Historical, well-intentioned regulation has created a market where financial advice is out of reach for many. However, Advice Guidance Boundary review, and more specifically Targeted Support, can now address this by allowing firms to provide advice on the basis of 'people like you', opening financial advice to a wider range of investors. With this in mind, firms should be allowed to re-visit the way investment risk is represented – to help, rather than alienate, investors. Cash products are not required to carry warnings about lower long-term returns or the risk of wealth erosion due to inflation, while investing products must carry multiple downside warnings. Both should carry equally robust and proportionate information – so consumers understand the risks of investing and the risks of holding cash. Additionally, marketing materials should dispel myths about up-front capital requirements for investing. The move to a new Consumer Composite Investments regime should broaden the range of products retail consumers can invest in, including specifying US-domiciled ETFs in the overseas fund regime. The data is clear. UK consumers want to invest more, and in a wider range of assets. This requires coordinated action. But the opportunity to create a nation of long-term investors is too important to miss.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE One in four senior bank staff say closing branches 'isn't a concern'
More than a quarter of senior banking professionals say the closure of bank branches isn't a major concern for their business, figures seen by This is Money reveal. While as many as 27 per cent of senior bank staff said branch closures weren't a challenge to their business, the same cannot be said for the public. There is growing concern over access to bank branches, as more find themselves living in bank and cash machine deserts. Some 60 per cent of bank customers said closures have made it more difficult to speak to a member of staff, according to the data from credit information provider CRIF. A majority also said banks are now less focused on serving and looking after their customers than they were five years ago. A third said the increasing numbers of bank closures have made it more confusing to get what they need form their bank because they are now unable to speak to bank staff directly and instead often have to find information on their website. As many as 13million banking customers still rely on physical branches, recent figures from the Financial Conduct Authority reveal. Sara Costantini, regional director for the UK and Ireland at CRIF, said: 'Financial services have changed rapidly over the last decade, as people continue to embrace digital banking and manage multiple aspects of their finances online. 'The knock-on impact of this has been the reduction in physical, in-person banking services. 'While many working in the sector don't see this as a major challenge to their business, bank branch reductions are continuing to fuel concerns over the quality of customer services and what further closures may mean for the future.' How many bank branches are closing? According to data from Which?, some 379 bank closures have been earmarked for 2025, with a further 22 already planned for 2026. This is despite rules brought in last year that banks must prove to regulators that local communities will still have free cash access if they close their branch. Since 2015, there have been as many as 6,377 branch closures across the UK, meaning two thirds of all the branches open in 2015 have now closed. Bank closures are increasingly giving rise to the creation of banking deserts. Data from Nomis shows that in 2024 there are as many as 15 'grey zones' in the UK. North East Derbyshire, a district with more than 100,000 residents, has no bank branches whatsoever. In the CRIF survey, a fifth of consumers said they are concerned about the closure of more bank branches over the coming five years. Costantini said: 'The findings highlight the difficult tightrope that banks now need to walk, balancing the need to ensure their digital services remain cutting edge and up to scratch, which has become a competitive area for so many, without losing the personal touch that more traditional services offer.' Meanwhile, its not just bank branches that are shutting their doors. Between October 2019 and January 2024, there was 30 per cent reduction in the size of the UK's ATM network, likewise creating ATM dead zones and stifling Britons' access to cash. Some 23,000 ATM's are expected to be closed, leaving just 15,000 across the country, according to the UK's ATM network, Link.
