Leapmotor B05 Review

Introduction and model history

It’s alright if you’re not too familiar with Leapmotor, the brand has only been going a year. It’s a tech-focused Chinese carmaker that’s.. we’ll call it good value rather than budget, features that are exemplified in this new B05 hatchback, as we'll see. 

The brand offers good value thanks to a conscious decision taken by the UK arm to offer one well specced trim level for each car it sells rather than trying to confuse with myriad specs and packages. It’s nice – you take a look and you either want it or you don’t. 

The key differentiator with Leapmotor is that it has a close global partnership with Stellantis, using its dealers and infrastructure across Europe. It’s had easier access to larger chunks of the market and you get the reassurance that the company is in it for the long haul. 

And excitingly, the company has just launched this new hatchback, to complement an SUV-heavy range. Leapmotor already has the B10 and C10 models that look like pebbles worn smooth in the sea, and while they don’t stand out particularly they’re not awful to look at – and there’s the T03 supermini that the company launched in the UK with. That car was a bit more budget, and while having the UK’s cheapest EV as a launch model helped it at the time, the car stands out a little next to the rest of the range. 

Even more so next to the B05 – it’s a sign of how SUV-coded the market has become that Leapmotor can say it’s launching this car as something a bit out of the ordinary with its tongue nowhere near its cheek. In reality it’s Leapmotor’s most traditional car yet, a classic hatchback in the mould of some strong competitors – think Vauxhall Astra, Peugeot 308, Kia Ceed (RIP). Leapmotor doesn’t expect the B05 to be its biggest seller, but we certainly applaud any new electric car that’s smaller and lighter (and therefore more efficient)

Range, battery and charging

The B05 is rated for 300 miles of WLTP range from a 67.1kWh battery that’s been designed, engineered and built by Leapmotor itself. You’d need to average 4.5 miles/kWh over a battery to get that sort of range, and over a shortish drive through the countryside near Frankfurt I managed to 4.9 miles/kWh. I reckon 275 miles or so could be doable, but certainly at least 250 miles in real world conditions. 

I went to see the factory in China where Leapmotor makes its batteries and it was all very impressive – it’s also got plans to open some factories in Europe over the next few years and bring more of the production process in-house. 

The flexibility enabled by that level of control makes for nice little innovations like the way the battery can be attached to the bottom of the B05’s platform and use the car’s internal structure as its cover. That saves weight and a bespoke electronic control unit has allowed an 5kWh of battery to be squeezed into the car.

Peak charging sits at 174kW, which means a handy 30–80% charge in 17 minutes and you also get 11kW AC charging as standard which is nice. Leapmotor says that it has tried to engineer the car to maintain its peak charge rate for longer, rather than advertising a big figure that the car can only manage for a few minutes. 

There's also V2L as standard, where you can run electronics off the car – there's a neat Camping mode that keeps the plug running even when the car is locked. You can also use it to leave the aircon on if you're sleeping inside the car. 

Practicality and boot space

The more time you spend with a car the better feel you get for how it is to live with day to day – there are plenty of little cubbies and places to store things up front in the B05, and it would be a useful everyday runabout.

It has what Leapmotor calls a ‘bridge console’, where you’ve got cupholders and phone charging up top and a space below to store a few things. The door bins are a decent size and you’ve got lidded storage at the back of that central console.

I wasn’t in the car for very long, but every seat felt comfortable, and there’s an impressive amount of legroom in the back. I wouldn’t say the middle rear seat would be very comfortable for very long if you were an adult, but the floor is at least flat. The rear seats do recline (up to 27 degrees if you’re measuring) for added comfort. 

There’s 345 litres of space in the boot that expands to 1,400 litres if you knock the seats down. That’s neither particularly good nor particularly bad – the B05 suffers a little from the car design scourge of the people holding the crayons wanting to make the cars look 'rakish' and 'coupe-like', which is all well and good until you're going camping and trying to ram the boot lid down on a week's worth of gear. 

It's also worth noting that the boot lid is electronic opening, but not electronically assisted. You press a button at the back of the car (or in the app) and have to open and close the thing yourself – probably worth having a go in the showroom if you think reaching it might be marginal.

• Dimensions: 4,330mm/1,880mm/1,520mm
• Max towing capacity: tbc kg

Interior, design and technology 

Leapmotor’s claim to be a tech-led carmaker starts to look a little weak when you interact with its infotainment system – it could do with a bit of work on the user interface stuff. There’s nothing here that moves the game on, which is a great opportunity missed for a punchy little outfit like this. 

Apple and Android connectivity comes as standard at least, because the native satnav is a bit ropy too. That 14.6in landscape oriented screen is at least crisp. Leapmotor says it comes with its latest OS 4.0 Plus operating system, which is loaded with apps like Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal and the like.

The infotainment screen is supposed to be able to run things like the satnav and music side by side, but I couldn’t work out how to do that in the time I had with the car. If you buy one you’ll want to sit down with the manual and get everything how you like it.

The lack of cabin buttons isn’t great – you have to keep going back to the touchscreen to change basic things and then the car tells you off for not paying attention. But such is modern life. Leapmotor did make a big deal of showing various ways you could turn off the advanced safety systems if you found them intrusive, but you’d hope the company’s tech heads are also working on ways to make the safety systems better. The lane keep and distraction warning systems are particularly obnoxious, but these things are fixable over the air these days. Fingers crossed. 

I didn’t get on well with the driving position, but that could be down to personal choice – the wheel doesn’t adjust low enough or pull out far enough for my liking, which meant I had to hoik the seat right up to feel comfortable, which was at odds with the low hatchback stance. The angle of the seat base also doesn’t adjust, and I felt like I was being tipped forward. I’d probably get myself a little cushion or something. 

Interior quality is solid but unremarkable – the seats are made of a smooth eco leather, you get heated electric seats up front as standard plus a panoramic glass roof with sunshade (which actually livens things up in the cabin quite nicely – enough to distract from the dreary grey), classy ambient lighting and air cooled 50W wireless phone charging. 

Motors, performance and handling

Every carmaker will try and convince you that their car is sporty and fun to drive, but that’s mostly marketing nonsense. The trick is not to listen to them. The B05 is a sensible car that likes being driven at a sensible speed. You can turn the power up with Sport mode if you want to, but it’s easier just to leave the house earlier. 

You feel the benefit of the wide, low battery from the fact that the car sits nice and level through a corner, but more of a revelation is the delightfully smooth ride. Even over rough patches of road the car remains steady and quiet inside the cabin. 

The regen is unobtrusive, though it would be nice to have some paddles for on the fly adjustment. There’s a neat setting at the back of the infotainment control menus that helps the car come to a gentler stop when it switches from regen to brakes, which is nice. 

The B05 will get from 0–62mph in 6.7 seconds thanks to its 218hp e-motor and has a 106mph top speed that there’s no reason to imagine any B05 will ever actually reach. Leapmotor likes to make a bit of a fuss about the car having launch control, but it’s about as useful as me getting expensive trainers to go jogging. 

I did get a sneaky drive in the ‘hot hatch’ version of the B05 when I was at the Beijing motor show earlier this year, but no one knows whether the B05 Ultra might come over this way yet or not. 

There’s a bit of extra power, a cheeky little bodykit and it takes 1.8 seconds off the run to 62mph, but performance is perky not blistering. Just enough fun without getting you too carried away.

• Power: 218hp
• 0–62mph:  6.7sec
• Powertrain: Rear-wheel drive 

Pricing and on sale date 

The B05 is priced at a very competitive £28,995 (which includes Leapmotor’s own ‘Leap grant’ that it has discounted in lieu of being eligible for the UK government’s electric car grant) and apart from fancier paint that’s all you’ll have to pay. And even then you’re only talking £575.

It’ll presumably revert back to £30,495 when the offer runs out in September, unless Leapmotor decides to extend it. We don’t know what PCP deals might be on offer for the new hatch, but we’d expect them to be eye catching. 

It’ll be tempting to compare the B05 to the likes of the Vauxhall Astra Electric and Peugeot e-308, but the well specced Leapmotor will have finished its business as those cars are just getting warmed up in terms of price. Both those cars start at £30k for the entry level versions, at which point your B05 driver is laughing all the way home. 

Of course, Leapmotor won’t say that its car is going up against the competition internally – it has its eye on the likes of the MG4, Kia EV4 and Renault Megane. It will undercut the MG4, the Kia charges more for less range and so does the Renault. Suddenly the B05 is looking pretty good... 

Orders open in July with deliveries beginning shortly after. 

Verdict

The Leapmotor B05 isn’t standout in any particular area, but it does everything just well enough that you wouldn’t be sad if you bought one, especially for £29k. It’s great to have a reasonably priced family EV on the market that will offer fuss free motoring for people making the switch to electric, especially one that’s not an SUV. 

Of course if you do end up buying a B05 you’ll certainly have to explain to everyone what it is, but at least that conversation won’t be a defensive one. It’s easy to forget that this carmaker is barely 10 years old, and it gets better with every new car it launches.