Robert Llewellyn spent a few hours with the Leapmotor B10 and came away calling it a delight, a compact SUV that does the family-car job with very little fuss. It is priced at 31,495 pounds, runs a 400V architecture, charges at up to 165 kW, and returned around 4.6 miles per kWh on his drive. The boot is a usable 410 litres, rising to 1,700 with the seats down, with more storage for cables underneath. He rates it a near-ideal family car and says one like it would have made life with young kids far easier. Llewellyn has been driving since 1976, so the praise carries some weight. There is one software flaw that almost undoes the goodwill, and it is worth taking seriously before you buy.
The context that makes the price land is who is behind the car. Leapmotor was founded in China in 2015, making it barely 11 years old, and is now distributed across Europe through Stellantis, which owns a 20% stake. A new factory in Zaragoza, Spain has just started building European-spec cars rather than shipping every unit from China. That matters for a buyer in a way the spec sheet does not show: the usual weak point for a new Chinese brand is dealer and service coverage, and the Stellantis tie-up plugs the B10 into an existing European network instead of a standalone one. At 31,495 pounds it undercuts most established compact electric SUVs. Llewellyn frames the running costs with a fuel-equivalent figure of 132 miles per gallon, his way of showing how little energy the car actually uses, and challenges anyone to find a comfortable five-seat petrol SUV that comes close.
The flaw is the lane-keeping assistant. On narrow British roads Llewellyn found it intrusive, at one point having to pull over to avoid a quarry truck, and switching it off meant digging through menus, after which it re-enabled itself without any input from him. Other quirks are minor. The charge port sits on the awkward side, the boot-release button hides behind the badge so it takes a web search to find the first time, there is no rear wiper, and there is no frunk. The positives stack up though. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connect instantly, the cameras and visibility are good, there is ISOFIX for two child seats, and the rear is genuinely spacious with a comfortable headrest. The central screen drew real praise for being sharp and easy to read, the sunroof has a screen-controlled shade, and the cup holders, door pockets and sound system all passed without complaint. Range lands around 220 to 240 miles depending on the season, and at 165 kW a 20-minute stop adds plenty of miles. Llewellyn had previously driven the much smaller, hyperbasic Leapmotor T03 and rated it, so the B10 reads as a step up in sophistication rather than a first effort. He also singled out the indicator and the general ease of the controls, with no power button needed: drop the card on the pad, foot on the brake, select a gear and drive.
Bottom line: For a family that charges at home and wants real space without crossing 40,000 pounds, the B10 is an easy recommendation, with one condition: you can live with re-disabling the lane assist most drives. That nagging ADAS behaviour is common across new cars and largely regulation-driven, so it is a known industry annoyance rather than a Leapmotor failing, but it is the kind of thing that grates daily on the roads it struggles with. Everything else here is quietly well judged, from the cabin to the boot to the running costs. The story is the value, and at this price the value is genuinely hard to argue with.