Electric car for 9,000 euros, about 300 kilometers of real range, fast charging, 8-year warranty on electrical components and battery. It sounds too ideal to be true. The Leapmotor T03 comes from China and addresses urban mobility in the right way.
What the giants of the automotive industry can't do, a little guy from China wants to do. Leapmotor is currently the hottest start-up name in China's automotive industry and already ranks among the top 5 car manufacturers. Credit also goes to the Leapmotor T03 model, which should bring e-mobility closer to the masses. In the future, also European.
When evaluating electric cars, we always look at three parameters, based on which we can calculate the car's range. That is weight, which for the Leapmotor T03 model is 1125 kilograms, drag coefficient of a car that is not too big and battery size, which for the T03 model is as much as 36.5 kWh net (41 kWh gross). From this basic data, it follows that the car can reach 403 km according to NEDC. Or a real 300 kilometers.
The little one is powered by a 55 kw engine (75 horses), which is sufficient for its weight, size and purpose. The only thing that bothers me is that the top speed is limited to 100 km/h, which is probably due to the market itself. If it comes to Europe, we believe the top speed will be at least 130 km/h. It accelerates to 100 km/h in 14 seconds, which is not "great", but still fast enough that you will not be slow in the city.
Leapmotor T03 test
Of course, the vehicle has three levels of energy recovery. And the battery technology, which is excellent, as the density is as high as 171 Wh/kg. In addition, the Leapmotor T03 is equipped with an intelligent liquid thermal management system - a heat pump, which is rarely seen in this class. It can heat and cool the battery and effectively control the charging and working temperature of the battery. In DC fast charging mode, it only takes 0.36 hours to charge from 30 % to 80 %.
Leapmotor T03 has practically all intelligent driving assistance functions with the hardware base of “3 cameras + 1 millimeter radar + 11 ultrasonic radars” and can achieve 10 autonomous driving assistance functions, including automated parking system (APS), adaptive cruise control (ACC), low speed tracking (LSF) etc. Unlike the European giants, the car can be updated by connecting to the Internet.
Inside, the Leapmotor T03 is equipped with an 8-inch full-LCD dashboard display and a 10.1-inch high-definition central display with touch control, which is rarely seen in this class and supports dual-screen interaction. Leapmotor OS intelligent car system equipped with KDDI 3.0 voice recognition system and connected with mobile phone APP can achieve voice control, navigation, remote control, video sharing, cloud synchronization, automatic parking and other functions. The Leapmotor T03 is also a pioneer in the use of a facial recognition system. With its intelligent features, the Leapmotor T03 sets the trend of intelligence in the mini car market. The Leapmotor T03 also offers three driving modes: standard, sport and economy, which can be used for different driving habits and different scenarios.
Maybe a word about form. The car is somewhat reminiscent of the 5-door Smart, but it is still different enough that it cannot be called a copy. On the whole, it is a mature product in terms of design, which looks very interesting and comprehensive, and brings certain innovations to the industry and segment - such as facial recognition for starting the vehicle. Prices start at 9,000 euros for the basic version and end with the deluxe version at 12,000 euros. The latter has everything listed in this paper as standard.
In any case, a player that we also want in Europe.
