Written by Luke Wilkinson and Seth Walton Updated: 19 February 2025

Overview

After a surprisingly brief preamble, the Leapmotor T03 has reached UK shores. It’s a cheap, cheerful and surprisingly well-equipped electric city car aimed squarely at the Dacia Spring – but, as I’ll soon explain, it’s leaps (sorry… forgive the pun) and bounds ahead of its Romanian rival in terms of its driving experience, comfort and interior technology.

Leapmotor is a new Chinese EV manufacturer brought here by the European motoring powerhouse Stellantis (parent company of Citroen, Fiat, Peugeot and Vauxhall among others). That means it’s well supported. Rival Chinese brands such as BYD and Skywell have had to build their UK presences from nothing, whereas Leapmotor can piggyback off Stellantis’ national network of dealerships and service centres. We’re off to a good start.

The price and spec add further credence to the T03’s cause. You get big-car features such as climate control, a 10.1-inch infotainment system, voice control, 10 different driver assistance functions and an enormous panoramic sunroof. And the price? It starts from £15,995, making it a mere £1,000 more than the austerity-spec Dacia Spring.

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Naturally, the T03 isn’t a fast car. It has a 37.3kWh battery pack and a single electric motor producing a decidedly meagre 95hp. However, because it weighs a whole 75kg less (the same as an adult passenger) than the small-battery Fiat 500e, it has enough poke to get out of its own way. It’s also a lot faster than the top-spec Spring, which has just 65hp.

Keep reading to find out what I made of it on UK roads. If you’d like to learn more about how I formed my opinions on the T03, head over to our how we test cars explainer page.

What’s it like inside?

Far nicer than you’d expect given its price tag. It’s hardly the last word in luxury – there are some very cheap plastics hiding out of your eyeline – but it’s well-built and airy, thanks in no small part to that enormous panoramic sunroof.

It’s pretty barren inside. There are hardly any buttons on the dashboard – everything is controlled from the touchscreen. But the funkily textured crash pad in the middle of the dashboard and the snazzy aluminium door handles show that Leapmotor has at least tried to make the T03 a nice place to be. I appreciate the effort. It’s difficult to do on a budget.

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I’m less enamoured by the touchscreen. Yes, I understand it’s cheaper to bung all the cabin controls on a touchscreen rather than make physical buttons for all the functions, but I wish it had a couple of switches for the heater. The tiny slider is a nightmare to use when you’ve got fat, imprecise fingers like mine.

In typical Chinese fashion (I’m looking at you, BYD), the infotainment system is a veritable rabbit warren of menus upon sub-menus. It’s a bit daunting, if I’m honest – even for simple tasks like setting sat-nav instructions or adjusting the radio station. Oh yeah, and you can’t disengage lane assist unless the car is stationary and in park.

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Despite this, I reckon the quality of the cabin and its tech far exceed the car’s price point. It feels like it’s from the segment above the Dacia Spring, but it only costs £1,000 more. When I attended the T03’s launch event, Leapmotor kept banging on about how it’s main goal was to become the ‘UK’s best value EV manufacturer.’ I reckon it’s doing a good job already.

Comfort

The T03 is a small, cheap car, so you shouldn’t expect miracles here. The seats are finished in a springy, durable fabric that should keep the cabin looking fresh well beyond its warranty – but they don’t offer a great deal of support. In fairness, though, this isn’t a car I’d want to cover huge motorway miles in. Not least because I’d need to stop and charge every couple of hours. It’s at home in the city and designed accordingly.

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It occupies about the same amount of space on the road as a Fiat 500e, which means interior space isn’t particularly generous. Those up front won’t have many complaints about legroom, but if you try and shoehorn two adults onto the rear bench there will be squabbles. However, because the T03’s roofline is taller than the 500e’s, headroom is plentiful everywhere.

Safety 

Euro NCAP hasn’t yet crash tested the T03. Leapmotor says the car has been designed to meet EU regulations but, because it’s a small, cheap city car, we’re not expecting a stellar performance. As long as it improves on the Spring’s abysmal result, we’ll be happy. We’ll update you the second the wreckages are carted out of Euro NCAP HQ.

The T03’s safety equipment certainly stands it in good stead. You get a driver attention warning, forward collision warnings and lane-keeping assist system as standard. When my colleague, Seth Walton, tested the car in Italy, he had this to say about the system:

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‘The Lane Keeping Assist (LKA) became a bit peeving, though, as despite turning the system off, the car would continue to alert me with an ‘Emergency Lane Keep Assist Activated’ notification at the slightest hint I might be leaving the centre line of the road.’

I must have got lucky. My UK test car didn’t flash any warnings up at me once I disengaged the system, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on the T03’s lane assist system the next time I drive one. I’ll update you if it starts misbehaving again.

What’s it like to drive?

It’s far better than the Dacia Spring, that’s for certain. This is mostly because Leapmotor has learned from Dacia’s mistakes and fitted the T03 with quality Continental tyres rather than cheap and nasty Ling Longs. It makes a big difference. It’s much more predictable.

It’s also quite fun. Because it’s so utterly underpowered, you can mash your foot into the floorboards and leave it there, safe in the knowledge you’ll never be going fast enough to get a speeding ticket. It’s brisk enough to 30mph, but performance tails off quickly as you approach the national speed limit. Which isn’t such a bad thing, I suppose.

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The suspension is quite good, too. It’s nothing clever, but it’s lithe enough to deal with Britain’s battered roads without rolling around in the corners like a badly set trifle. It also offers just enough feedback through the seat to let you know what’s happening on the tarmac beneath your backside.

Sadly, the steering leaves a little to be desired. It’s a bit vague around the centre, meaning the T03 doesn’t feel anywhere near as nimble as the pin-sharp MINI Electric or excitable Fiat 500e. Mercifully, the feedback builds as you wind on the lock and, once you’re past an eighth of a turn, it’s perfectly acceptable. More importantly, given this car’s intended playground, it’s light enough to be a breeze to bumble around town in.

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The only other problems we’ve encountered are wind noise and the motor’s rather irritating safety whine. At motorways speeds, the sound of the wind whipping around the A-pillars is genuinely alarming. If I wasn’t used to driving such old cars, I’d feel quite exposed.

Leapmotor’s safety chime is also a bit much. It’s audible at speeds up to around 20mph, but it sounds like a broken alternator bearing. Seth had this to say about it: ‘It really started to grate on me. It was too loud and piercing, and seemingly unstoppable as I couldn’t find a way to turn it off or just turn it down. Leapmotor, please sort out the EV whine.’

Range and charging

Range is always a bit of a sticking point for small electric cars. The old Honda e, for example, could barely manage to cover 100 miles of real-world driving before running out of power, which basically confined it to the city. Thankfully, the Leapmotor T03 is better. Just.

The T03 has an official WLTP maximum range of 165 miles – and that figure doesn’t seem too far removed from reality. On my miserable wintery Sussex test drive, the car told me it was averaging 3.1 miles per kWh, which puts its real-world range for the day at around 115 miles. That’s commendable for the money, especially because I wasn’t trying that hard to eke miles out of its battery pack.

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Leapmotor says the T03 can charge from 30 to 80% capacity in 36 minutes, which is about on par with the Dacia Spring. The T03 also has a charging port on its front bumper, which I find annoying. I prefer to reverse into parking bays because its safer when you need to leave. I guess parking nose first means it’s easier to chuck stuff in the boot.

What models and trims are available?

The T03 only comes in one specification. There’s one battery size, one power output, one trim level, one car. As I’ve mentioned, though, you get a lot for your money. A lot more, in fact, that a comparably priced Dacia Spring. At £15,995, it sounds like bargain to me.

Unsurprisingly, there are many other rivals. If you’re happy to stick with petrol, there’s the Suzuki Swift, the Dacia Sandero and the MINI Cooper – although the latter option is a far, far more expensive. If you’d ready to make the switch to an EV, you’ll be looking at the Fiat 500e, the Vauxhall Corsa Electric and the (rather brilliant) Fiat Grande Panda, although the T03 trounces them all for value.

Click through to the next page for my final verdict on the new Leapmotor T03.