A new Chinese EV brand – Leapmotor – has unveiled full details and specifications of its new budget city car: the Leapmotor T03.
When the order books for the T03 open in November, it’ll be priced at £15,995, making it the second-cheapest brand-new electric car on sale in the UK (the cheapest being the £14,995 Dacia Spring). The new T03 will feature a 37.3kWh battery, which its makers claim will give it an official range of 165 miles, while its single electric motor delivers 95 horsepower. This will give the new car both better performance and a longer range than its rival from Dacia.
The car is being sold in the UK and the rest of Europe by Leapmotor International, which is a joint venture between Chinese manufacturer Leapmotor and European car-making giant Stellantis, whose other brands include Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and Jeep. The T03 is also arriving in the UK at the same time as a second Leapmotor model – the Tesla Model Y-rivalling C10.
2024 Leapmotor T03 price, specs and release date
- 2024 Leapmotor T03: styling and dimensions
- 2024 Leapmotor T03: interior design and practicality
- 2024 Leapmotor T03: motors, batteries and dynamics
- 2024 Leapmotor T03: price and release date
2024 Leapmotor T03: styling and dimensions
At 3,620mm long, 1,652mm wide and 1,577mm tall, the compact dimensions of the Leapmotor T03 closely mirror that of other city cars, although the Dacia Spring is around 10 centimetres shorter.
With its narrow stance and relatively tall body height, the T03 is also slightly reminiscent of the old Smart Forfour, as are its bulbous headlamps with their distinctive daytime running lights running all around the edge of the light unit.
The wheels look as though they are less pushed out to the edges than in the Smart, however, giving the T03 a slightly tip-toed, under-wheeled stance from certain angles. The short front and rear overhangs mean the car gets a comparatively long wheelbase, which should help with interior space for the five-door hatchback.
2024 Leapmotor T03: interior design and practicality
Talking of interior space, the T03 is strictly a four-seater car, with no option for a third rear passenger – though it would likely be a squeeze in the rear for three anyway, given the narrow body.
Up front, the interior is relatively minimalist, with a column-mounted transmission selector, an 8.1-inch digital instrument cluster and a 10.1-inch central touchscreen, which handles most of the car’s ancillary functions, including the heating and ventilation controls.
The front seatbacks are a single piece with integrated headrests – so these cannot be adjusted, but there are a few surprisingly luxurious touches, including electric windows, semi-panoramic roof with an electrical blind and automatic climate control.
There’s also integrated satnav as standard, a rear-view camera, parking sensors, voice control and 4G connectivity to enable over-the-air technology updates. Plus, many of the car’s functions can be controlled remotely via the Leapmotor app, including the car’s central locking, the climate control and the battery preheating functionality.
Safety kit includes lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist and adaptive cruise control
All the T03’s equipment is standard, with the only choice being colours: Light White, Starry Silver, or Glacier Blue.
2024 Leapmotor T03: motors, batteries and dynamics
Power comes from a 95hp electric motor, which is enough to deliver 0-62mph in 12.7seconds (its main rival, the Dacia Spring can only muster the same sprint in 13.7 seconds even in its most powerful form).
Energy, meanwhile, comes from the 37.3kWh battery, which is enough for an official combined range of 165 miles on the WLTP cycle, though Leapmotor says in purely urban driving the T03’s range is potentially up to 245 miles.
The T03 also feature disc brakes all round, plus a choice of three driving modes – to maximise regenerative braking, or motor response, depending on the driver’s preferences. The steering set-up also comes in three different modes.
When it’s time to recharge, the T03 delivers a maximum charging speed of 48kW – not the fastest – but that’s enough to get a charge from 30-80 per cent in in 36 minutes on a Rapid DC charger.
The maximum AC charging speed using the onboard charger is 6.6kW, meaning it’ll take around 7 hours to fully charge the battery from a home wallbox.
2024 Leapmotor T03: price and release date
Since only one model of the T03 is coming to the UK, with only one trim level, there’s only one price: £15,995, putting it in line with the top-spec version of the Dacia Spring, and £1,000 more than the entry-level model.
Order books open in November, with first UK customer deliveries expected before the end of 2024. And although the T03 is being manufactured in the EU at the former Fiat 500 plant in the Polish city of Tychy, all UK-bound right-hand-drive cars will be manufactured in China.
