Future of petrol-electric hybrids in South Africa

THE Leapmotor C10 REEV midsize SUV to be launched in South Africa this year is a Battery Electric Motor (BEV), but technically it’s also not. We’ll get to why but if you haven’t heard of Leapmotor before, it’s a Chinese manufacturer that Stellantis has 20% stake in and owns as part of a Leapmotor International, a joint venture with Leapmotor.

- WILLEM VAN DE PUTTE [e-mail]

As a reminder, in South Africa Stellantis houses Fiat, Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Opel, Peugeot, Abarth and soon Leapmotor under its umbrella.

WHAT IS REEV?

REEV stands for Range Extender Electric Vehicle which is essentially a hybrid vehicle that combines BEV technology with an internal combustion engine (ICE).

It’s not a hybrid vehicle as we’ve come to know it, like the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid that uses a traditional hybrid model.

It uses a 1.5-litre 80kW four cylinder petrol unit under the bonnet with the sole purpose of acting as a generator where it charges batteries to a certain percentage. It doesn’t drive the wheels directly but generates electricity to recharge the 28.4kW battery that covers 135km of pure motor with 320Nm of torque on the rear axle.

This way you should, according to Leapmotor, get a range of well over 900 kilometres.

It also provides a claimed 145km/h of electric range (WLTF).

It sticks to get a further 800km range from 30% to 80% and 4.5 hours to full with 6.6kW AC charging.

Modes

The C10 REEV comes with four driving modes EV+, EV, Fuel Mode and Power+