Leapmotor C10 2025 electric car owner review (New Zealand)

‘Leapmotor C10 in NZ’ drives, unsurprisingly, a Leapmotor C10 Design 70kWh, 2025 (standard spec).

This is LC10NZ’s first electric car, he’s owned the C10 less than 1 year and drives 5,000-10,000 miles annually. The current mileage of the car is between 1,000-5,000 miles and he achieves 200 miles range from an 80% charge.

Why did you choose the Leapmotor C10?

Features and specifications for the money
very comfortable and spacious interior
it’s great to drive.

Positives

Space
comfort
driving experience
well-featured app
love how it looks, too.

Negatives

ADAS systems – OTA updates are improving them, but I’m in the habit of turning off the lane-keeping assist and driver monitoring before each journey.

Compared to when you first bought the car, does your battery still charge at the same rate & do you still get the same range?

Yes, but it is only 6-months old and we’ve only done around 4,000 miles so far. It does have an LFP battery so degradation shouldn’t be too big a problem.

Have you experienced any faults with the car? If so, what have they been?

No faults, whatsoever. We did have to go back to the service centre for a replacement windscreen (no fault of the car).

What are the standout technological features of your C10?

Smartphone app
fast and responsive infotainment which is fairly easy to navigate
360 degree cameras are very clear
driver profiles for seat & wing mirror positions
great sound system
built-in nav with route planning, which is fairly accurate.

Tell us something people wouldn’t readily know about your C10

Heated and ventilated seats, heated steering wheel which all turn on automatically when the temperature drops below 8 degrees! Heated wing mirrors turn on when it rains too.

What’s the biggest or funniest myth you’ve heard about EVs?

They’re too expensive! Ours cost roughly the same as a mid-spec Toyota RAV4 which doesn’t have as much interior space or half the features.

What electric car(s) are you interested in next and why?

I’ve loved cars since I was a child and enjoy tech too, so I love following everything that’s new and upcoming. I think anything that focuses on efficiency is great. I do like the look of the forthcoming Xpeng P7.

Home charging unit

EVNEX E2 – NZ-designed and manufactured, it’s a smart single-phase 7.4kW charger.

Electricity supplier & tariff

NZ-specific but we have 3-hours of free power every night which has been perfect for us. Only negative is that our supplier has been taken over by another and our plan is being discontinued so we’ll need to shop around.

What public charging networks would you recommend to others and why?

Again, NZ-specific but like using Jolt (first 7kWh is free) as their chargers are 25kW DC which is great. The C10 has a max AC of 6.6kW so these chargers are well-suited for destination-type charging or while shopping, etc. They’re also significantly cheaper than other DC charge point operators. Z is our other go-to, their 100kW units suit the C10’s max DC rate of 84kW well and they’re cheaper than some other CPOs.

Insurance

NZ-specific, but full comprehensive cover is around £600 p/a equivalent.

Please itemise where you’re saving money (or not) owning & running a Leapmotor C10

Free fuel for 95% of our driving, NZ does have per-km road user charges for EVs and PHEVs (and diesels). We’re financing the car via a 1% ‘clean-energy’ mortgage top-up.