Long-term test! Leapmotor C10 hybrid 2026 review Australia: REEV Design | The best electric tech?

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]The time has come to say goodbye to the Leap Motor C10 Reeve, which has been my family transport for about the past 3 months or so. And if you give me a moment of your time, I'm going to tell you everything that I liked and everything that I didn't about my time behind the wheel. And this is one you really don't want to miss because if you're putting one of these on your short list, you're going to find out that the things I liked, well, I really liked them. And the things that I didn't, well, I really, really didn't.

[00:00:22]So, let's go take a closer look, shall we? Right, the things that I like. Let's kick off with the design. Now, I have found it a bit surprising that not everybody agrees with me on this, but I like the way the C10 looks, and that's because it reminds me a little bit of a haircut. But let me explain. I think of this as the automotive equivalent to a bloke getting a short back and sides.

[00:00:40]You're not going to walk out of the hairdresser turning heads. But equally, you're not going to look back at photos of yourself 10 years from now and think, "A top bun and an urban mullet. What the hell was I thinking?" This is simple, clean, elegant design, and it's likely to age pretty well. And that's true in the cabin as well, where a simple screen forward design language doesn't exactly inspire, but it doesn't really offend either. I can't help but think that a lot of modern cars are going to look like fashion crisis in a few years time, but I just don't think that's the case with this one. It's simple and elegant enough that it's going to age well.

[00:01:10]Things I like. Number two, the space.

[00:01:12]There is a lot of it. The C10 really maximizes dimensions in [music] the back seat and in the boot, which has been incredibly valuable given we now have an 18-month-old for whom we have to pack a little heavier than a Mela Marcos.

[00:01:23]Welcome to the back seat of the C10 Reeve, and I have to say this feels like the Leap Motor's true superpower. It's 4.7 m in length, 1.9 m in width, and they've used all of that space to really maximize room for backseat riders. I'm 175 cm. I'm sitting behind roughly my own driving position, and as you can see, I've got miles of knee room. I got more than enough headroom and I really feel like I can stretch out and get comfy back here. But the true test for us lately has been our child's baby seat. In some cars when you fit it, it extends so far forward that the front seat passenger can't go back far enough to get comfortable. But that's not the case in this car. We can fit the baby seat easily. The front seat rider has more than enough room. This is the real boon of C10 ownership. Space and lots of it. And the booth space is decent, too, with 546 L. With the rear seats in place, that number grows to 1,375 L with them both folded flat. But I do wish there was better dedicated storage for your charger. There is a little space here under the floor, but it's very difficult to get it in sitting flush. And even when you kind of do, it still lifts that floor a little bit. So, I wish there was a better spot for that.

[00:02:28]And the things I like, number three, the powertrain is clever, even if it doesn't really deliver the fuel savings I was hoping for. So, this is a Reeve or range extender electric vehicle. And this one pairs a rear-mounted electric motor with this 1.5 L turbocharged petrol engine which basically acts as a mobile generator providing power either to the battery or to the electric motor. So in simple terms, it drives like an EV. But with this engine acting as a backup, if you're ever low on charge, this one kicks in and keeps you moving. Okay. And onto the things I don't like. And the first and by far the biggest annoyance is the fact that it all feels needlessly complicated and frustratingly slow. And that starts here with this key card, which might just be the most ridiculous key system I've ever encountered in a modern car. In order to get in and to start the vehicle, you need to hold it here against the wing mirror that unlocks the car and starts it. Now, you also need to do the same in reverse when you get out. Again, you hold it here to lock the car and to turn it off. Now, I want you to imagine getting a baby from the back seat, getting your groceries from the boot, carrying them all up here again, fumbling in your pockets for the key, somehow holding it here to turn the car off before you go inside. It is ferociously annoying and it continues once you're in the cabin. You also need to rest this key against the wireless charger to actually select the gear and get moving. So, simply unlocking it and starting it isn't enough. There's more key action inside the cabin. Yes, there's a phone app and a passcode system that means you can circumvent the card. But, I found the app's [music] proximity lock and unlock to be woefully hit and miss. And the passcode entry system is slow and clunky. And because it takes so long for the screens to catch up, you can find yourself sitting in the car for ages waiting to be able to enter the code to even get moving. So that whole process I find is emblematic of the leap motor experience. Everything is needlessly complicated and really slower than it should be. Number two on my don't like list, and yes, we touched on this earlier, is the fact that it's just not quite as efficient as I thought. I've tried driving gently, lots of long distances, charging frequently, and I really can't get the fuel use to drop below that of like a standard midsize hybrid SUV. And I mean like a conventional hybrid without a plug. Now, there are four drive modes on board, EV plus, EV, fuel, and power plus. All of which decide how and when you use that engine power. But aside from using outright EV mode as much as possible, the fuel use really isn't that impressive. So, for example, over the last 669.6 km, I've averaged 6.9 L per 100 km. Now, that's not terrible fuel use for a car this size, especially given it takes the cheapest E10 fuel, but it's also not as good as a vehicle like a Toyota RAV 4 Hybrid might deliver without ever needing to plug it in. Now, if I used the EV mode religiously, i.e. just relied on battery power as much as possible in urban trips, there's no doubting that I could drop that number.

[00:05:11]But here's the other quirk. Because this is a plug-in hybrid, the battery is actually not that big. In fact, it's 28.4 kW hours, which is much smaller than you'd find in like a proper BEV.

[00:05:22]And that delivers an all-electric driving range of somewhere between 100 and 150 km. And what I've found is just that that EV range does deplete really quickly, and you do end up relying a little bit more on that petrol engine again. So, yeah, it's clever tech. And I've got to say, I have driven it when it's been out of electric charge alltogether and it keeps going. and I've driven it when it's been out of fuel altogether and it keeps going. And for that, it's a pretty good safety net. But in terms of out andout fuel savings, I'm not that impressed. The other sort of quirk of this powertrain, I suppose, is when you do massively deplete the battery, you find there's not a lot of power under foot. I think it's because it's using that petrol engine not only to deliver driving power, to keep you moving, but also to try and recharge the battery as quickly as possible. But the result is you put your foot down and not a lot of anything happens. it can be quite sort of confronting until you realize that you've run out of juice.

[00:06:13]Now, with all of that in mind, I actually don't mind the way this car drives. Yes, the ride definitely is on the firm side, especially on these broken roads in town, but you probably heard me say before, I actually prefer a firmer ride if the other option is one of those really floaty, disconnected rides that some of the newer brands are serving up. But there is one quirk to the drive experience as well, and that is the brake pedal feel, which I still am really struggling to get used to.

[00:06:36]There's just no consistency in the brake pedal. You put push it down slightly and there's almost nothing and then suddenly it finds a bite point and grips up really quickly. And the result is something that can get quite uncomfortable if you're not expecting just how hard it's going to break and when. [music] And the very last item on my do not like list is the fact that I just don't think the C10 is good enough. And I know that sounds a little bit harsh, but then Leap Motor does have a B10, which I really quite like. So, it proves the brand can do it. But for me, this one just isn't it. Usually, when I hand a car back after a long-term experience, there's a part of me that's sorry to see it go.

[00:07:15]That's really not the case here. And it's mostly because the C10 has found a way to aggravate me on almost every trip. Whether it's the infuriating key card system or whether it's how long it takes the reversing camera to load when you first get in the car or the fact that it's just started phantom beeping at me when I get out of the vehicle presumably because it thinks there's a baby in the baby seat even when there isn't. It always seems to be something.

[00:07:36]There really are a lot of quirks left for Leap Motors still to address, but the brand has proven they can do it.

[00:07:41]They introduced a software update on this vehicle which comprehensively changed the way the ADAS systems work and made them far less overreactive. So they can improve things from a distance.

[00:07:50]So, if you're listening Leap Motor, here's a couple more for you to get on to.

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