Amid an unremitting sea of new, anonymously styled Chinese electric cars with equally anonymous names, the Leapmotor T03 is one with a difference.
Put simply, it's one of the cheapest electric cars on sale and is considerably less money than a Citroën ë-C3, Hyundai Inster or Fiat 500 electric, and it's only about £1000 more than a Dacia Spring.
But before we consider how much - or indeed how little - car you get for the money, let's briefly consider where Leapmotor comes from and what it plans to do.
Leapmotor cars sold outside of China are put in showrooms by Leapmotor International, a joint venture owned 49:51 by the nascent Chinese company and Stellantis. Leapmotor has achieved such a competitive price for the T03 by making the majority of its parts in-house, avoiding designed-in superfluities and harnessing the economies of scale available from Stellantis.
It's also made on the old Fiat 500 line in Poland, not in China, and therefore avoids both shipping costs and a 20% EU import tariff.
The benefit of this, Leapmotor International CEO Tianshu Xin told us, is twofold: the brand can bypass the expensive set-up phase by simply adding its range to existing Stellantis showrooms across the nation; and potential customers will be reassured by familiarity and “360deg of support during the entire experience, from the selection of the vehicle to financing solutions and post-sales assistance services”.
The company has defined its key brand values as affordability (it claims the T03 is the car that finally gives A- and B-segment buyers access to electric power, although the Dacia Spring will have something to say about that) and cutting-edge technology that takes the hassle out of your daily life. Let's find out if either of those rings true.
