I wanted to like the Leapmotor C10.
Really.
Because this is exactly the sort of car that should be interesting.
A new manufacturer.
A fully electric medium SUV.
Loads of equipment.
A spacious interior.
Aggressive pricing.
And the backing of Stellantis — the enormous automotive group behind brands including Jeep, Peugeot, Fiat and Maserati.
The ingredients are there.
But after spending time with the C10, I kept coming back to one word.
Boring.
Not bad.
That's important.
There isn't some catastrophic flaw that makes the C10 impossible to recommend.
It drives.
It's comfortable.
It's quiet.
There's plenty of space.
The interior is actually rather nice.
And as a method of transporting people from one location to another, it performs the job perfectly adequately.
But cars don't exist on specification sheets.
And increasingly, the affordable electric-SUV market is full of genuinely interesting alternatives.
The C10 just didn't make me feel anything.
Actually, that's not entirely true.
The lack of Apple CarPlay made me feel something.
We'll get to that.
What Exactly Is a Leapmotor?
Fair question.
Leapmotor is a relatively young Chinese manufacturer founded in 2015, with a focus on electric and electrified vehicles.
More importantly for Australian buyers, automotive giant Stellantis invested heavily in the company and subsequently established Leapmotor International to distribute its vehicles into markets outside China.
So while the badge might be unfamiliar, there is some serious automotive infrastructure sitting behind it.
The C10 became Leapmotor's first model in Australia.
And on paper, it makes plenty of sense.
Medium SUV.
Electric.
Rear-wheel drive in the mainstream versions.
Big touchscreen.
Big interior.
Plenty of equipment.
Competitive price.
Basically, take the formula that has made the Tesla Model Y so successful and make it considerably cheaper.
Nothing wrong with that.
The problem is that everyone else had roughly the same idea.
Design
Look at the C10.
Now look away.
Without looking back, describe it.
Exactly.
There's nothing particularly offensive about the design.
The proportions are neat enough.
There's the expected full-width lighting treatment.
Flush door handles.
Smooth surfaces.
Aerodynamic wheels.
Minimal grille.
All the things we've collectively decided an electric SUV is supposed to have.
But there's very little identity.
Park it among the rapidly growing collection of Chinese electric SUVs entering Australia and I'm not convinced the average person could immediately tell you which one it was.
Compare that with something like a Hyundai IONIQ 5.
You might love the Hyundai.
You might hate it.
But you'll remember it.
The Leapmotor?
Hmm.
It's clean.
It's modern.
It's...
Fine.
And unfortunately, fine is going to become something of a recurring theme.
Interior
Things improve considerably inside.
The cabin is spacious, particularly in the second row, and there's an impressive amount of soft-touch material throughout.
The overall design is minimalist.
Very minimalist.
There's a large 14.6-inch central touchscreen, a separate digital instrument display and relatively little conventional switchgear cluttering the dashboard.
Material quality is better than the badge recognition might lead you to expect.
The seats are comfortable.
There's plenty of storage.
Rear-seat passengers get generous legroom.
And the flat floor makes the cabin feel open.
If you're judging interiors purely by how expensive they look relative to the price of the vehicle, the C10 actually performs rather well.
But then you try to operate it.
And we need to talk about screens again.
Buttons Are Not The Enemy
Almost everything lives inside the touchscreen.
Climate controls.
Vehicle settings.
Driving functions.
Air vents.
Various assistance systems.
You get the idea.
Now, we've established something during our recent reviews.
The Driver's Briefing likes physical controls.
Not because we're terrified of technology.
Not because we're nostalgic for dashboards containing 900 identical grey buttons.
Because some functions are simply easier to operate when you can feel the control without looking at it.
Temperature.
Fan speed.
Demisting.
Volume.
Basic things.
Touchscreens are fantastic for maps.
They're excellent for cameras.
They're brilliant for displaying information.
But replacing every physical interaction with a touchscreen doesn't automatically make something better.
Sometimes it simply makes it harder to use.
The C10 falls too far towards the latter.
And then...
Oh dear.
Apple CarPlay
There isn't any.
Apple CarPlay.
In 2026.
No.
And before somebody emails us explaining that the C10 has its own connected infotainment system:
I know.
There's built-in navigation.
There's an app store.
You can access Spotify and other services directly through the vehicle.
There's Bluetooth connectivity.
There's even a voice assistant.
That's lovely.
I still want Apple CarPlay.
Because my phone already knows where I'm going.
It already has my music.
My podcasts.
My contacts.
My messages.
My preferred navigation apps.
My entire digital life is already sitting in my pocket.
I don't particularly want to recreate part of it inside every car I drive.
And this isn't simply a feature Leapmotor forgot to enable.
The current C10 uses the company's older LEAP 3.0 architecture, and Leapmotor has confirmed the hardware doesn't support Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
The newer B10?
That uses LEAP 3.5 and has already received both systems.
Which somehow makes this more frustrating.
Because we know Leapmotor understands that people want it.
Just not if you've bought a C10.
In 2026, in a car whose entire interior philosophy revolves around one enormous touchscreen, omitting the smartphone integration used by millions of people is baffling.
No thank you, Leapmotor.
There.
We've done it.
The Driver's Briefing “thank you” has officially gone negative.
Driving
Things improve once you stop interacting with the infotainment system and start actually driving.
Sort of.
The C10 is quiet.
Obviously.
It's electric.
Power delivery is smooth and immediate.
Around town, there's enough performance to make merging and navigating traffic effortless.
The low-speed refinement is good.
The steering is light.
Visibility is reasonable.
And the overall experience is incredibly easy.
But...
There's that word again.
Boring.
The steering doesn't tell you much.
The chassis doesn't particularly encourage you to explore it.
The drivetrain delivers its performance efficiently but without much personality.
There's nothing wrong with any of this.
Most buyers of medium family SUVs aren't heading out on Sunday mornings to explore steering feedback.
I understand that.
But even ordinary cars can have character.
The IONIQ 5 has character.
A Model Y has a very particular personality.
Plenty of conventional petrol and hybrid SUVs have their own distinct feel.
The C10 feels like transportation.
You press the accelerator.
It accelerates.
You turn the steering wheel.
It turns.
You press the brake pedal.
It stops.
All very successful.
Next question.
The Problem With Competence
And this is perhaps the central problem.
The C10 is competent.
Competence used to be enough.
Build an affordable car.
Make it comfortable.
Give it lots of equipment.
Price it aggressively.
Done.
But look at the Australian market now.
Chinese manufacturers are arriving seemingly every month.
BYD.
GWM.
Chery.
XPeng.
Deepal.
Leapmotor.
And more are coming.
Simply being inexpensive and well equipped isn't unusual anymore.
It's the entry requirement.
So what makes your car special?
That's the question Leapmotor needs to answer.
And after driving the C10...
I'm not sure.
Comfort
Credit where it's due.
The C10 is comfortable.
The suspension is clearly tuned towards everyday usability rather than pretending this family SUV has any interest in setting a Nürburgring lap time.
Thank you, Leapmotor.
See?
We're friends again.
Around town, the ride deals reasonably well with ordinary road imperfections, and the quiet electric drivetrain makes the C10 an easy vehicle to spend time in.
The seats are comfortable.
Rear passengers have loads of room.
There's very little drivetrain noise.
For school runs, commuting and suburban driving, it's entirely pleasant.
And perhaps that's exactly what some buyers want.
Not every car needs to entertain its driver.
But The Driver's Briefing is called The Driver's Briefing.
We're allowed to want a little more.
Performance
The BEV drivetrain provides the instant response we've become accustomed to from electric vehicles.
And this creates another strange problem for modern EVs.
Electric motors are so fundamentally good at delivering torque that being quick isn't special anymore.
Ten years ago, immediate acceleration from a family SUV would've been remarkable.
Today?
It's just what EVs do.
Which means manufacturers need to find personality somewhere else.
Steering.
Chassis tuning.
Design.
Interior.
Software.
Something.
Performance alone can't carry the experience anymore.
And the C10 doesn't give you enough elsewhere to become memorable.
Range and Charging
For everyday use, the C10's electric driving range is entirely workable.
Home charging remains the ideal ownership scenario.
Come home.
Plug it in.
Go inside.
Wake up with charge.
Simple.
Long-distance travel naturally requires more planning, as it does with virtually every EV, and charging performance depends on the exact C10 variant.
But none of this is particularly unusual anymore.
And again, that's the problem.
A few years ago, simply offering a usable electric SUV at an attainable price was noteworthy.
In 2026?
The bar has moved.
Quickly.
Technology
There's certainly plenty of technology.
The problem is how much of the vehicle depends on it.
The central display controls an enormous number of functions, and Leapmotor clearly wants the infotainment system to become the centre of the ownership experience.
There's built-in connectivity.
Apps.
Voice control.
Navigation.
Over-the-air updates.
Various vehicle modes.
On paper, excellent.
But technology should reduce friction.
Not create it.
If I need to think harder about performing a simple task because the physical button has been replaced by a screen interaction, the technology hasn't improved the experience.
It's simply changed it.
And if you're going to make the touchscreen the centre of everything...
give me Apple CarPlay.
I'm sorry.
I'm not letting this go.
Safety
The C10 comes with the broad collection of active-safety technology we've come to expect.
Adaptive cruise control.
Autonomous emergency braking.
Lane assistance.
Blind-spot monitoring.
Driver monitoring.
Various warnings and interventions.
There's plenty watching over you.
Perhaps occasionally too much.
Earlier C10s attracted criticism for overbearing driver-assistance warnings, and Leapmotor has subsequently made software changes in response to Australian feedback.
That's worth acknowledging.
Manufacturers listening to customers and improving vehicles through software updates is one of the genuine advantages of increasingly connected cars.
So:
Thank you, Leapmotor.
More of that.
Practicality
This is one of the C10's stronger areas.
The second row is genuinely spacious.
There's plenty of legroom.
The flat floor helps.
The cabin feels airy.
And the boot is useful enough for normal family life.
Shopping.
School bags.
Suitcases.
The collection of completely inexplicable objects children apparently need for a two-hour drive.
It'll handle them.
As a family appliance, the C10 makes considerably more sense than it does as something you'd buy because you love cars.
And I don't mean appliance entirely as an insult.
A good appliance makes life easier.
It works.
It's reliable.
It's simple.
You don't necessarily need to feel emotionally attached to your refrigerator.
But refrigerators also don't cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Value
And here's where the C10 fights back.
Because Leapmotor has always priced this thing aggressively.
You get a lot of car.
A lot of space.
A lot of equipment.
And an electric drivetrain without stepping into premium-EV money.
That matters.
For somebody whose purchasing spreadsheet contains:
Electric.
SUV.
Spacious.
Comfortable.
Well equipped.
Affordable.
The C10 will tick an impressive number of boxes.
And maybe that's enough.
But I think the competition has become too good for us to stop there.
The Competition
This segment is brutal.
Tesla Model Y.
Kia EV5.
Hyundai's electric offerings.
BYD.
XPeng.
Deepal.
And increasingly more.
Some offer stronger brand recognition.
Some better software.
Some better charging.
Some more interesting design.
Some are simply nicer to drive.
The C10's value remains important.
But cheap electric SUVs aren't novel anymore.
And that's why Leapmotor needs to give buyers a stronger reason to choose this one.
Being affordable gets you onto the shopping list.
Character gets you remembered.
Verdict
The Leapmotor C10 isn't a bad car.
I want to make that clear.
It's spacious.
Comfortable.
Quiet.
Well equipped.
Relatively affordable.
And for somebody who simply wants an electric family SUV to perform the daily grind without fuss, there's an argument to be made.
But when I handed the C10 back, I didn't miss it.
I didn't find myself thinking about some clever detail.
There wasn't a particular road where I wished I could turn around and drive it again.
I didn't walk away and look back at it.
It was...
boring.
And perhaps that's a harsher criticism than pointing out something it does badly.
Bad suspension can be fixed.
Software can be updated.
Styling can change with a facelift.
But character?
That's harder.
The electric-car market has matured enormously.
Simply being electric isn't interesting anymore.
Simply being Chinese and inexpensive isn't interesting anymore.
Simply putting a giant screen in the middle of the dashboard isn't interesting anymore.
Cars need an identity.
A reason to choose them.
Something that makes you remember them after the keys have gone back.
The C10 didn't give me that.
And then there's Apple CarPlay.
Or rather...
There isn't.
A technologically focused electric vehicle launched into an intensely competitive market, built around an enormous central touchscreen...
without Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
In 2026.
Come on.
No thank you, Leapmotor.
The C10 does almost everything adequately.
I just wish it gave me one reason to care.