Leap motor B10

FIRST DRIVE We get behind the

- Alastair Crooks [e-mail]

IT’S been 12 months since we first drove Leapmotor’s T03 city car and C10 SUV, but now it’s time for possibly the most important model the brand will launch in the UK: the B10.

Clearly aligned with the C10 more than the dinky T03, the B10 sits somewhere in between the hugely competitive B and C-segment SUV markets – rivalling the likes of the Ford Puma Gen-E, Kia EV3 and MGS5 EV. It also has to compete with fellow Stellantis group products including the Peugeot E-2008 and Vauxhall Mokka Electric.

Leapmotor is keeping things very simple with the B10 in the UK; there's just one 67.1kWh battery and a high-spec trim level. That gives the car a range of 270 miles, much more than you get in the Ford Puma Gen-E (234 miles) and even more than the Mokka Electric and E-2008, which do 248 and 250 miles respectively. The MGS5 EV Long Range can do 298 miles on a charge, however.

During our test drive, which included plenty of motorways, country roads and city driving, the B10 returned efficiency of 4.1 miles per kWh, which equates to 279 miles of range. A heat pump is standard on the B10, so we'd expect it to get near to its claimed range in the winter, too. Charging speeds stand at a decent 168kW, enabling a 30 to 80 per cent top-up in a competitive 20 minutes.

The rear-mounted motor provides 215bhp and 240Nm of torque, resulting in a 0-62mph time of eight seconds and a top speed of 106mph, although the B10 actually felt a little faster than this.