The new Leapmotor C10 REEV (range-extended electric vehicle) launched in SA by Stellantis this week is not a hybrid car in the traditional sense. It has an electric motor and a 50kW 1.5l petrol engine, but the latter never directly powers the wheels. It is there to serve as a generator for the battery pack and extend the car’s driving range to a claimed 970km.
Why the “not-hybrid” distinction matters is that the car doesn’t drive like regular hybrids that switch between petrol and electric power. The Leapmotor C10 always performs like an electric vehicle (EV) with the typically instant and seamless power delivery, and no gearchanges to provide steps as it accelerates. It’s just that you occasionally hear a petrol engine revving in the background when the batteries are being charged.
REEV isn’t a new concept and a few years ago it was used in the range-extended BMW i3 — which had a small motorcycle engine to boost the electric car’s range to about 350km — but the Leapmotor’s nearly 1,000km range is a game changer.
SA buyers have been slow to adopt fully electric cars due to their high prices, long charging times and limited ranges, but hybrids and plug-in hybrids are becoming more popular due to their better practicality, and a growing number of new models are being launched in the segment.
“REEV is the answer to bridge the gap to full EV,” said Janus Janse van Rensburg, head of product and marketing at Leapmotor SA, at the C10’s media launch in Cape Town this week.
“This is the ideal EV solution for long-distance SA conditions where the daily commute is interspersed with spread out destinations, removing range anxiety.”
With its claimed 145km full-electric range the C10 could be used as a purely battery-powered, zero-emission car by owners whose daily commutes fall within that distance, and it can be charged at an AC charger (about four-and-a-half hours to fully charge) or a DC charger (about 30 minutes to charge to 80%).
For longer journeys the petrol engine and 50l fuel tank keep the 28.4kWh batteries juiced up, making the C10 a practical long-distance car.
Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) offer similarly long ranges but the C10’s unique selling point is the stepless, instant performance it provides due to the wheels being powered only by its electric motor.
The C10’s power and torque outputs of 158kW and 320Nm are mediocre by PHEV standards, and those figures drop depending on the energy mode selected, but the car felt ably powered when I drove it at the Cape Town launch. The acceleration was perky and instant — good for a 0-100km/h sprint in a claimed 8.5 seconds and the C10 maintained an easy cruise on the open road with reasonable overaking poke.
The C10 has Eco, Normal, Sport and Custom driving modes that adapt throttle, regenerative braking and steering feel.
There are also four driver-selectable energy modes that vary how much power is supplied by the petrol generator, including a full EV setting. The test car was given to me with the battery less than 40% full so I drove the 270km route mostly in petrol-guzzling modes that prioritised getting it charged again — and averaged 8l/100km. That’s not a frugal figure for an electrified car but it might possibly have achieved the factory-claimed 5.5l had the battery been fully charged to start with.
Leapmotor’s new offering is a premium family SUV available in two five-seater guises: the C10 Style for R759,900 and the flagship C10 Design for R799,900, backed by five-year/100,000km warranties and service plans.
With a length of 4,739mm, the C10 is a competitor to D-segment SUVs such as the Haval H6.
Driving it was a mostly pleasant experience as it’s a refined car that was almost silent in EV mode and not too vocal when the petrol engine kicks in. It felt solid and had an excellent ride quality, displaying great bump-soaking prowess. The rear-wheel drive car handled twisty roads proficiently too, feeling more nimble than expected for a two-tonne SUV with a raised 180mm ground clearance. The brakes felt overly sharp, however, and took some getting used to.
The SUV has a spacious, family-sized cabin decked out in premium, soft-touch materials. The super-minimalist dashboard is devoid of buttons, with all features bundled into a giant infotainment screen and digital instrument panel. While the digitised interface was generally intuitive, some of the icons were small and it was very distracting to operate certain features that would have been simpler with quick-access dashboard buttons. Operating the complex climate control system felt like co-ordinating a Nasa Moon mission.
As per the Chinese-car trend, the Leapmotor C10 is jam-packed with safety and comfort features, with the notable exceptions of Android Auto or Apple CarPlay functionality; these are expected to be introduced later with over-the-air software updates.
Leapmotor is SA’s newest car brand and is imported by Stellantis, which owns a 51% stake in the joint venture Leapmotor International. Headquartered in Hangzhou, China, Leapmotor was established in 2015 as an EV specialist and has produced more than 1-million units since 2019.
The C10 is the marque’s first product in SA, with Stellantis aiming to launch Leapmotor models in every major segment.
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