China’s Leapmotor Arrives In Europe With Two Affordable EVs

Leapmotor has a joint venture with Stellantis. Leapmotor T03 will be one of Europe's cheapest EVs. Some Leapmotor vehicles will be built in Europe to avoid tarrifs

Affordable new electric cars are more common in Europe than in America but are still rare. The newly launched Leapmotor T03 will be one of Europe’s cheapest EVs, with a starting price of €18,900 (equivalent to $21,170 at the time of writing) on the continent and £15,995 in the United Kingdom.

Leapmotor is a Chinese automaker, but the T03 it plans to sell in Europe shouldn’t incur additional tariffs and duties because it will be built locally. Thanks to a joint venture agreement with Stellantis, the first T03s are expected to roll off the production line in Tychy, Poland, before the end of the year. The same factory also builds the Alfa Romeo Junior, the Jeep Avenger and the Fiat 600.

The T03 is very competitively priced and has great specs for a vehicle its size. It draws from a 37.3-kilowatt-hour battery pack that gives it a WLTP range of 165 miles (265 kilometers), and it should also be pretty nippy with its 95 horsepower front-mounted motor.

It is roughly the same size as its main direct rival, the Dacia Spring, but it’s more powerful and has a longer range. The Spring, which had a major overhaul this year, is slightly more affordable, but that could change once the new import duties imposed on Chinese-built cars are enforced—the Spring is built in China, but Dacia is looking at ways to move production to Europe.

Thanks to the Stellantis connection, Leapmotor vehicles in Europe will have access to a wide range of national service networks that would have been impossible to establish if the Chinese automaker had not teamed up with one of the world’s car-making giants.

According to Stellantis CEO, Carlos Tavares, “Thanks to the powerful Stellantis parts distribution system, Leapmotor’s customers will benefit from an unrivaled level of service, which is an important differentiator. We have created a very efficient partnership with Leapmotor that is designed to bring value to our European customers first and to our long-term sustainability.”

The T03 isn’t the only Leapmotor EV to go on sale in Europe. The second model is the C10, an electric crossover that’ bigger than a Volkswagen ID.4—it’s only marginally smaller than the new electric Porsche Macan. It promises “best-in-class safety, an intelligent user experience, and premium levels of comfort” for a price starting at €36.400 (around $40,730), undercutting all similar-sized rivals. Its 69.9 kWh LFP battery gives it 261 miles (420 km) of WLTP range, which is competitive for the segment.

Unlike the T03, Leapmotor won't assemble the C10 in Europe, making it vulnerable to price fluctuations for cars imported from China. Leapmotor has not announced plans to build the C10 in Europe, but it did say it plans to introduce new models on the continent over the next three years.