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. 

There are two SUVs on offer from Leapmotor at the moment – the B10 and C10 models both look like pebbles that have been 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 when cars like this new B05 arrive later this year. 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 aimed at folks who aren’t quite so SUV coded. 

I went to drive the car after the Beijing motor show in its Chinese spec (it’s called the Lafa 5 over there, a sort of acronym with ‘live, laugh, love’ vibes aimed at younger buyers) before it arrives in Europe in a couple of months. Not a long drive, but enough to get some quick impressions on an intriguing new launch. 

Range, battery and charging

I’ve not yet driven Leapmotors enough to get a feel for how efficient the company’s powertrains are overall, but the B05 promises a good deal with a 300-mile WLTP range from a 67.1kWh battery. If you can get 250+ miles out of that it would be pretty decent enough – certainly with the car being a lower slung lighter hatchback (SUVs are so heavy and lumber through the air, not great for efficiency at all) you’d hope for some good mileage. 

Leapmotor makes its own batteries in China at a factory I went and had a look round. What’s impressive is how much of the parts and supply chain Leapmotor is determined to make itself, because it’s cheaper and makes you much more agile. The company is opening up a factory in Spain later this year, which we’re not supposed to know about until it’s announced later this year, but it was on a nice display in the factory, so that’s something to look forward to. Would certainly be a cheeky little move to get the UK’s electric car grant. 

Peak charging sits at around 168kW, which means a handy 30–80% charge in 17 minutes and you also get 11kW AC charging as standard which is nice. 

There are lots of little interesting things that show you Leapmotor’s technical interest in all this – like the battery that’s integrated into the chassis, bolted to the underside of the platform without a cover to save weight. Leapmotor has designed its own more compact electronic control unit, which saves a load of space and has enabled an extra 5kWh of battery to be squeezed in. 

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. 

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 plenty 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. 

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

Interior, design and technology 

We didn’t get much chance to play with the interior features of the car – the infotainment (14.6in landscape oriented screen stuck on the dash as standard) looks crisp and in line with what we’ve seen on other Leapmotors. 

It was all in Chinese on the car I drove though, so I couldn’t tell you if there are any fun extras. The B05 is set to come to the UK with Leapmotor’s latest OS 4.0 Plus infotainment system, so it’ll be worth delving into when we see it. 

The driving position is probably the biggest letdown on the car, but even that isn’t a major issue – 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. 

I liked the look of the dashboard with its straight lines that avoid straying into fashionable territory that dates quickly. The Chinese-spec cars we drove had nifty neck pillows and dashboard accessories like a wobbly foldout table or a scampy plastic cat that won’t make it our version but gave the B05 a bit of character. 

The quality of the interior is decent enough, but I couldn’t say how it would live up to everyday punishment. 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, classy ambient lighting and air cooled 50W wireless phone charging. 

Motors, performance and handling

I’m just going to repeat the caveat that I only had a quick run in the car in case it turns out to be wildly different when we drive the car properly in June, but on first impression it feels like a mature drive. 

If I had to guess I’d say that Leapmotor has been benchmarking proper carmakers when putting together the B05 rather than any of its fellow electric start-ups. The B05 has the quietly refined, smooth manner of a company that’s been making cars for longer than Leapmotor’s eight years. 

There was a bit of wind noise at higher speeds (though the B05 makes such little drama of punting along at 70mph you can already tell it’ll be a solid motorway companion), but the car will be on different tyres in the UK and it’s nothing that Tom Jones (or whoever else, yikes) couldn’t help you smother out. 

You feel the benefit of the wide, low battery from the fact that the car sits nice and level through a corner. I hesitate to say anything too much about the ride quality just because I know how dreadful UK roads are and how smooth Chinese ones are. Let’s remain quietly optimistic, shall we?

The UK-spec B05 will get from 0–62mph in 6.7 seconds thanks to its 218hp e-motor. I couldn’t tell you the top speed, but it’s definitely more than 70mph from my scientific analysis. I did actually get a sneaky drive in the ‘hot hatch’ version of the car that was revealed at the Beijing motor show, the B05 Ultra. 

Look, I’ve never been a boy racer, but the Ultra sits 10mm lower, has a cheeky little bodykit (including a double rear spoiler that looks quite nice) and has been given a slug of extra power (27hp to make 245hp) that knocks the dash to 62mph to 5.9 seconds. Just don’t think about what the extra performance is doing to the range.

It was perky but not blistering, and just enough fun without getting you too carried away – it probably won’t come to the UK (it would ruin the ‘one spec to rule them all’ policy if nothing else) but it’s nice that Leapmotor is being a bit creative.

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

Pricing and on sale date 

This is where it all gets a bit vague ahead of the car's official launch. There's no PCP or company car tax info here for the moment, because all the pricing details are still being decided. These new Chinese brands do work fast though, the car’s going to be open for orders in July. 

What we do know is that Leapmotor has said that the B05 will sit firmly beneath its B10 sibling SUV in terms of price, which means below the £29,999 that the B10 costs after the company has lopped off its £1,500 ‘grant’.

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 will be 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 (though the Extended Range version offers 338 miles for £33k – will the extra miles be worth that much?), the Kia charges more for less range and so does the Renault. Suddenly the B05 is looking pretty good... 

Verdict

It’s far too early to be definitive on the new Leapmotor B05, but we love seeing a new hatchback arrive on the market to offer something a bit different to what has become the norm. It’s a mature car (which is to say nicely developed, rather than boring) and avoids some of the brand baggage of rivals. 

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. Definitely put a pin in this one and come back in a month or two when we get a chance to drive the car properly.