Leapmotor T03 Review (2025)

Introduction

Yes, we hear you. What on earth is a Leapmotor?

The simple answer is that it's the latest Chinese manufacturer hoping to widen its profits by selling and leasing its cars in the UK.

It is joining an ever-growing list, too, with BYD, Jaecoo, Omoda, Ora, and Skywell among the brands that have appeared here in the last couple of years. XPeng, Zeekr, and NIO are another three that will be fancying their chances soon.

Some have a long and rich history manufacturing cars for the Chinese market, but others, including Leapmotor, don’t.

Those who don't, have a background in engineering or electronics in a completely different field.

In Skywell's case, one of its co-founders manufactured refrigerator spare parts, while in Leapmotor's case, it was formed from a company that makes video surveillance equipment.

But, before you laugh, these Chinese brands take cars very seriously.

Long-standing manufacturer Geely, another company with a background in refrigerator parts, now owns 78% of Volvo and 51% of Lotus.

Meanwhile, Stellantis, the parent company of over a dozen well-known brands, including Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Citroen, Fiat, Vauxhall and Peugeot, acquired a 20% stake in Leapmotor in 2023.

So, what should we make of this Leapmotor T03?

Well, it’s a dirt-cheap electric car, which might sound too good to be true. But then Dacia, one of its main rivals, has already proven that goodness can come without a massive price tag.

And, moving up a couple of ladder rungs, Chinese-owned MG has also proven that electric excellence can come at a reasonable price with its superb MG4 EV.

At A Glance

The Leapmotor looks quite unique, but it also loosely resembles the Mini Cooper and Fiat 500e.

Like the Fiat, it has pretty rounded proportions, while the headlights are widened with LEDs running around its outer edge, as on the latest Mini.

The bonnet extends quite far forward before dropping away sharply at the front, while the absence of a grille allows room for the charging port to be placed in the middle.

There are a couple of cutouts lower down, and while the T03 makes no claims for having SUV credentials, it features cladding along its lower body, all the way around the car.

The side windows have thick black borders, the door's bodywork rises quite high, and the bodywork curves modestly towards the bottom.

The taillights are connected around the back by a black bar with the Leapmotor name emblazoned along the rear.

Overall, it’s okay.

It doesn’t look monstrously ugly or like it’s obviously from a land many thousands of miles away.

It is arguably endearing from some angles, although maybe not as cutesy as the Fiat 500e.

Key Features

There is only one trim level offered with the Leapmotor T03.

All models come standard with 15-inch alloy wheels, a 10-inch infotainment touchscreen with digital radio, an eight-inch digital instrument cluster, LED day running lights, sports-style seats, an electronic handbrake, and automatic air conditioning. You also get rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera.

Additionally, the T03 has a panoramic sunroof, which is surprising for a car that is one of the cheapest to lease in the UK.

There is also only one option in terms of power - an electric motor with front-wheel drive that produces 95PS.

Range & Batteries

The Leapmotor T03 comes with a 37.3kWh battery. That is good enough for a claimed range of 165 miles from a full charge.

You won't achieve that in practice because real-world figures depend on all sorts of factors. But tests suggest the Leapmotor gets closer to its claimed figure than most cars, so expect around 140 miles if conditions allow.

Granted, even if you could do the entire 165 miles, it won’t enable you to make many long journeys. However, for popping to the shops, doing the school run, and a daily commute to work, it should be fine if you don't go too many days without charging.

Performance & Drive

The Leapmotor T03 goes from 0 to 62mph in 12.7 seconds, which is hardly quick for a cheap city car, but then again, it's not surprising either.

It is certainly better to drive the car in Standard mode - putting it in Eco mode reigns in the acceleration, delaying the throttle response considerably.

For what it's worth, Sport mode dials things up a notch, but we found it too prone to wheelspin when we accelerated vigorously.

Despite its unspectacular figures, the T03 is perfectly capable of reaching motorway speeds, performing overtakes, and cruising along for lengthy periods of time.

Leapmotor claims the vehicle is agile in terms of handling, and you can see why to some extent. A short wheelbase, a low centre of gravity, and a relatively lightweight (as electric cars go) all contribute to a car that feels quite sprightly.

However, it isn’t all that nimble – at least, not in an athletic way. It is decent for threading through the backstreets of your typical town centre, zipping in and out of traffic on ring roads, and making tight turns, but in terms of chucking it playfully around corners on a rural road, it’s not huge amounts of fun.

The steering has three modes: Comfort, Standard and Sport.

Comfort is too light around faster bends and, although switching to Standard mode firms it up – even more so in Sport – it still feels insufficient, artificial and lacking in feedback.

The Comfort mode's super-light steering is better suited to navigating 90-degree turns on narrow urban streets at very low speeds.

One plus is the suspension, which creates a comfortable ride, helped by the immensely absorbing seats inside the cabin. Even at higher speeds, you'll hear a thud over a pothole, but you'd be hard-pressed to feel more than a light judder through the cabin.

As a result, when travelling in a straight line, the car feels stable and well-planted. Wind and tyre noise are well-damped out, too, even at speed.

Charging

The Leapmotor T03’s battery can recharge at a maximum rate of 48kW.

That might seem slow by modern standards, but because the battery is on the small side, it'll manage a 30% to 80% top-up in just over 36 minutes.

A 7kW home wall box will achieve the same in around three-and-a-half hours.

Beware of comparing these figures with other cars, though. Many manufacturers quote times for a 10-80% charge at full speed and often a 0-100% time for home charging.

Running Costs & Emissions

In an ideal world, we'd all love a car that costs little to lease and little to run - and the Leapmotor T03 ticks both boxes.

With zero emissions, it'll cost nothing to be taxed on the roads either, although that's changing imminently. From April, electric cars will be charged a £195-a-year flat fee, but you'll only have to pay £10 for the first year.

It will be in the bottom band for Benefit In Kind tax, too, making it a good option as a company car. However, every electric car can claim the same, so you could easily find yourself able to have a nicer car for not much more money.

Reliability is an unknown, given that Leapmotor is brand new to the UK. Nevertheless, Stellantis has a majority stake in its international operations, so you can get your car serviced and maintained at many of its brands’ dealerships.

Interior & Technology

Superminis and city cars tend to be the bottom rung of the ladder, price-wise, and that sometimes translates into basic interiors that don't look particularly pleasing. Unfortunately, that's arguably the case with the T03.

Firstly, most of the materials feel cheap and are made of hard or thin plastics; secondly, there’s not much to the cabin. The T03 appears as though its minimalistic design is due to the absence of equipment.

Admittedly, that’s not entirely fair because it has several nice features available – just that they’re all accessed via the infotainment touchscreen. But there lies another problem. The two central air vents prevent the screen from being perched on the dashboard, so it's lower down than in most cars, meaning you’ll be taking your eyes further away from the road to look at it.

It gets worse, too, as the low position means the steering wheel always obscures part of the screen, making it a pain to use.

The dashboard has a rounded front, and there are four air vents in total – and that’s about it – although the steering wheel looks quite nice with its flat bottom.

The interior plastics mainly feature patterns, so at least Leapmotor has attempted to spruce things up a bit.

As for the infotainment system, the 10.0-inch screen is pleasingly successful.

It is clear, features fairly attractive graphics, and is responsive to touches and prods from your fingers. Once you get used to it, it's quite simple to use.

An eight-inch digital instrument cluster behind the steering wheel complements the system. It is also crisply clear but limited in the information it displays and offers no customisability.

Inevitably, the air conditioning controls are buried into the infotainment touchscreen, making it difficult to adjust them while driving.

Unfortunately, there's no smartphone mirroring, so there's no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. You can take this technology for granted in just about every new car nowadays - and the in-built SatNav isn't particularly feature-rich.

Overall, the interior is hard to like, but given the car's leasing price point, it's hard to complain either - Leapmotor has done a good job considering it'll have worked with a limited budget.

We just wish more thought had been given to the positioning of the air vents, which might have enabled the infotainment screen to be placed higher up - and we hope that's something that will be rethought in future models.

Practicality & Boot Space

The Leapmotor T03 has a surprising amount of space up front, with enough headroom to accommodate even the tallest drivers. However, the seats don't have much travel, and the steering wheel can't be moved forward or backward, either, so anyone over six feet tall will feel a little cramped.

The absence of pedals on the passenger’s side means they should be okay, even if they're very tall.

It is a similar story in terms of rear seat space. There is just about enough room for most, but those who are very tall will struggle to fit.

One advantage, though, is that the rear is only designed to accommodate two people – there is no middle seat, and the car is officially a four-seater.

That might be a deal-breaker if you've got three kids, but if you haven't, you'll likely appreciate that this means the two rear seats offer more width than they otherwise would, so at least there’s plenty of shoulder room.

Forward visibility isn’t great as, although the front windscreen pillars don’t look incredibly fat, they feature some black cladding on one side and a thick black outline around the windscreen on the other.

What’s more, the low driving position and high bonnet can hamper your view out of the front.

Rearward visibility is also hampered by a shallow back windscreen and thicker pillars, which are also bordered with cladding to one side.

The side windows, too, aren’t very big, as the bodywork beneath the glass comes up relatively high, rising even further towards the back of the car, limiting the amount of daylight that gets into the cabin.

At least parking sensors and a rear-view camera are included as standard, which is quite impressive given the T03's price point.

The cabin doesn't offer much storage for personal belongings, with small door bins, a fairly small cubby in the centre console, a single cupholder, and a tray for your phone.

The boot space is only 210 litres, which is comfortably beaten by most of its foes. It expands to 880 litres with the rear seats folded down.

However, unlike most cars, where the seats fold in two or three sections, the rear bench folds in one single piece. So, you can choose to have both back seats in place or none, which is highly impractical if you’ve got child car seats in the back.

In addition, the boot isn't terribly wide, as you can easily see from the outline of the tailgate at the back of the car.

Safety

The Leapmotor T03 is yet to be put through its paces by the crash-testing experts at Euro NCAP.

However, Leapmotor’s other car in the UK, the C10 SUV, was assessed last year and earned a five-star safety rating, scoring 89% for adults, 85% for kids, and 76% for safety assists.

Admittedly, that’s a bigger car – and it's pretty standard for smaller cars to perform less well in Euro NCAP's crash tests, with many superminis and city cars scoring four stars or fewer.

Nevertheless, the T03 shares many safety features with the C10 SUV.

As standard, you'll get automatic emergency braking, blind spot detection, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, driver drowsiness and attention warning, intelligent speed assistance, and forward collision warning.

That is impressive for such a cheap car.

Options

Leapmotor is yet to confirm an options list.

However, given that only one trim level and one electric motor are offered, it appears keen to provide everything you'll need upfront. Therefore, we don’t expect the final list of added extras to be extensive - that's if there is one at all.

Three body colours are offered: light white, starry silver and glacier blue.

That is all that’s been announced for now, though.

Rival Cars

The Leapmotor T03’s main competitor as a low-cost electric car is undoubtedly the Dacia Spring.

The Spring is marginally cheaper, but not by much – and the Leapmotor is considerably better equipped than the Dacia.

Electric city cars aren’t in huge supply at the moment, but the Fiat 500e and BYD Dolphin are two other small cars we suggest considering.

There is also the Citroen e-C3, Vauxhall Corsa Electric, Renault 5 E-Tech, Hyundai Inster, and Mini Cooper Electric.

Verdict & Next Steps

The Leapmotor T03 provides a low-cost car leasing solution for those who want an electric vehicle.

It is very well equipped for such a cheap car. It offers great ride comfort and, for a city car, a decent amount of cabin space, although taller occupants will still struggle.

Unfortunately, though, the cabin’s size comes with a cost: a very small boot. The lack of split rear seats also means you can only fold them down if nobody's in the back.

Range is limited, too, but that’s hardly surprising in an electric city car. The absence of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto also knocks some points off.

Its performance isn't great, and many of the interior materials feel cheap. The infotainment system - particularly the positioning of the screen - is infuriating, especially since nearly all the car’s functions are controlled through it.

Of course, reliability is an unknown, but having Stellantis's backing provides some reassurance that expert maintenance will be available.

If you can live with the low infotainment screen, you'll be pleasantly surprised when you compare the equipment list with the Dacia Spring – and that's undoubtedly the T03's most significant selling point.

Where to next?

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**Score based on Select’s unique meta score analysis, taking into account the UK’s top leading independent car website reviews of the Leapmotor T03 Lease.