Leapmotor T03 Review & Prices

While tiny, cheap electric cars have really caught on in some markets, they haven’t so much in the UK - and most popular electric cars sold here are larger and relatively posh. But Leapmotor thinks the bottom of the market is worth a try - so it’s having a go with this, the tiny Leapmotor T03.

If you’ve never heard of Leapmotor, don’t worry. It’s a new brand to the UK, and is Chinese in origin - but its European operations are half-owned by the giant Stellantis manufacturing group that also operates Citroen, Peugeot, Fiat and many others, so Leapmotor has a ready-made network of dealers and service centres.

It’s like buying a TV from a supermarket - you might not have heard of the brand before, but you can at least be confident there’s a warranty behind it and somewhere to return it to if things go wrong.

With the T03’s dinky dimensions and low price tag, there’s only really one car it’s taking aim at - the Dacia Spring. Leapmotor’s offering is a bit more expensive than a basic Spring, but has more range and greater equipment levels to make up for it. The T03 could also be a credible alternative to a used version of a larger EV - it’s pretty comparable to a one-year-old Vauxhall Corsa Electric or MG4 EV.

Leapmotor T03: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 165 miles
Efficiency: 4.4 mi/kWh
Battery size: 37.3kWh
Max charge speed: 48kW
Charge time AC: 6hrs 0-100% (6.6kW)
Charge time DC: 36 mins 30-80% (48kW)
Charge port location: Front centre
Power outputs: 95hp

The T03’s styling stands out from more aggressive-looking alternatives. It looks like an anime character with headlights that look like friendly eyes and a small, smiley grille. Its body is tall and narrow, like a Japanese kei car, and sits on tiny 13-inch wheels. It feels a bit like an electric Fiat Panda, reimagined for 2025.

That tall body has an advantage when it comes to passenger room - the T03 has an impressive amount of space, and four six-foot adults can get surprisingly comfortable inside. It’s far too narrow to accommodate three across the rear bench, though, and even two burly adults might find the front seats to be a bit snug. Plus, all that room for people means the boot is a dinky 210 litres in capacity - smaller than the Dacia Spring’s.

The T03’s simple dashboard design feels much more like a ‘proper’ car than the Dacia’s, and all models get a crisp and clear 10.1-inch central touchscreen and an 8.0-inch driver’s instrument display. Those two come at the expense of almost all physical controls, even a volume dial - and annoyingly, the infotainment software isn’t clever or responsive enough to make you forget or forgive this. Plus, you don’t get Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, which is very frustrating.

Interior quality is very good for the price tag otherwise, making the lack of software finesse even more irritating.

To drive, the T03 feels nippy around town - with 95hp, it’s much more powerful than the Dacia Spring or equivalent petrol-fuelled city cars, and that reflects in a feeling of urgency when you put your foot down. It’s not totally outclassed on the motorway either, though the tall body and tiny, narrow tyres soon kibosh any thoughts of enjoying yourself on a twisty back road.

With a small 37.3kWh battery pack, range is an official 165 miles - though that’s reduced greatly if you do lots of motorway driving. Charge speeds are modest, too, and reflect that this is likely to be a second car charged up at home rather than a main vehicle undertaking lots of long journeys.

Why not check out the best Leapmotor T03 deals right here on Carwow? You can also see great deals on other Leapmotor cars, or check out our pick of the best electric cars on sale now. Remember that Carwow can even help you to sell your old car when the time comes.

At less than £16,000, the Leapmotor T03 is the second-cheapest electric car on sale in the UK. It’s undercut by the Dacia Spring – not by very much, but every little penny does count. At this price it’s an alternative to something like a year-old Vauxhall Corsa Electric or MG4 EV.

There’s only one trim level, but it does come very well equipped for a budget car. You get those two big screens, a panoramic sunroof, two-tone paint, a reversing camera, air-con, keyless start and plenty of driver assistance tech. It’s likely that once the brand is more established in Europe Leapmotor will launch a more basic, lighter-weight T03.

Good performance for a budget car, but don’t expect much in the way of handling with such tiny tyres

In town

The Leapmotor T03 is purpose-built to be a great city car, and it has plenty going for it. The tall body and big windows give a great view out - admittedly less so when it’s raining, as you only have a single wiper at the front and no rear wiper. The 95hp motor is much peppier than the one in the Dacia Spring or the petrol engines you get in traditional city cars, and gives great performance away from traffic lights or during other low-speed operations.

Combined with light, accurate steering and pretty soft suspension that does a good job of dealing with inner-city lumps and bumps, the T03 is a great car to drive around town. There are only two real annoyances. The first is the low-speed pedestrian warning sound - it’s far too loud, and becomes really annoying on the inside especially as it goes up in steps rather than smoothly and consistently. The second is the driver assistance tech, but more on that later…

On the motorway

You might expect the Leapmotor T03 to be out of its depth on the motorway, but it holds up at least as well as any other city car. Compared to something like a Toyota Aygo X or Hyundai i10, the T03 is actually pretty quick at getting up to speed, and once it’s there it feels stable and refined, without a screaming petrol engine to break the hush.

There’s more wind noise than you get from a more expensive, better-insulated alternative, and the tall, lightweight body gets thrown about by crosswinds or by overtaking traffic. But it doesn’t feel too intimidating to drive. It’s only really the lack of range that would prevent you from regularly undertaking long motorway trips in this car.

On a twisty road

With its tall silhouette and tiny, skinny tyres, you shouldn’t expect great things from the Leapmotor T03 on a twisty road. At low speeds it’s fine, but it feels a bit precarious when you’re going faster. The body leans a lot in the corners, the light steering doesn’t give much feedback, and there isn’t much grip from the skinny tyres which means the stability systems tend to cut in quite early.

The same is true for most city cars, however - if you want a cheap car that’s fun to drive, you should look into something like an MG3.

Loads of space for passengers, but boot space and storage is lacking

The Leapmotor T03 is a pretty narrow car, so it’s not best suited to rugby players - even in the front seats, two big occupants will find their shoulders rubbing together. There’s also no centre console to speak of, just a narrow strip holding the electronic parking brake. However, the seats give loads of legroom and headroom, and there’s enough adjustment in the driving position for motorists of all sizes, although the wheel doesn’t adjust for reach - only rake.

Storage is a little less good - the door bins and glovebox are quite small, and there’s just a single cupholder in the centre with a slot for a smartphone ahead of it. There’s nowhere obvious to sling keys or wallets, though the lack of a centre console does mean it’s really easy to slide across and get out of either side - which can be useful if you’re in a city or a particularly tricky parking spot.

Space in the back seats

Rear legroom and headroom put the Dacia Spring, Fiat 500 Electric and even larger cars like the Vauxhall Corsa Electric to shame. There’s space for a six-foot adult to get comfortable, even behind a driver of a similar size.

It’s too narrow to accommodate three across the back, but don’t worry - you don’t get the choice to, with only two seatbelts. Annoyingly, though, you only get one ISOFIX point for mounting a child seat - it would have been much more useful with two. At least the rear doors are large and open wide enough to make loading children easy, and the windows open properly.

Boot space

The T03’s boot is a paltry 210 litres in capacity. That’s much smaller than the 308 litres you get in a Dacia Spring - it’s the same size as the three-door Mini Electric, and only a little bigger than the Fiat 500e’s space.

It’s a deep space with a very narrow aperture, so loading items isn’t as easy as it could be, and while the rear seats do fold they do so in one go - so you can’t balance extra loading space with a third passenger like you can in alternatives.

Stylish and well-equipped for such a cheap car, but desperately frustrating to use

The Leapmotor T03’s interior doesn’t immediately give off budget car vibes. The two screens - a central 10.1-inch display for infotainment and a large 8.0-inch instrument panel - are clear, bright and high-res, and the minimalist design is well up-to-date. Compared with Dacia’s more outwardly basic approach in the Spring, it’s quite appealing.

So too are the materials chosen, with plenty of fabric trim giving it a more upmarket vibe. The bits not covered in fabric are covered in hard plastic - but it feels quite dense, rather than being super-cheap and scratchy. Build quality seems good.

The central screen reacts quite quickly to your presses, but the software just isn’t good enough. The menus are confusing, and it’s not immediately obvious where you go to find different functions. Many of them use icons that are far too small and difficult to hit on the move.

There’s no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto connectivity either, which means you have to use the (really rather poor) built-in sat-nav and old-fashioned Bluetooth for music. Leapmotor’s own voice control is pretty poor, and you only get USB-A sockets for charging devices rather than the now-standard USB-C.

The most annoying thing is the lack of physical controls. There isn’t even a volume knob - the only way to change how loud your music is, is with the buttons on the steering wheel. The climate controls are screen-based too, and instead of setting a temperature you have to choose between heating or cooling and then decide on its intensity, which is needlessly complex. Some of these are the sorts of things we hope might be fixed in a software update in future.

Leapmotor claims the T03 can return up to 165 miles on the official WLTP cycle. That’s a little better than the 140 miles a Dacia Spring can do, but comes from a much larger 37.3kWh battery - the Spring’s battery is just 26.8kWh, showing greater efficiency.

During a week of mostly town driving, we saw around 130 miles of indicated range, which would relegate the T03 to second-car duties for most people. Though it’s capable of that distance, you’d probably want to avoid charging up when out and about as it only has a relatively slow charging speed - for the benchmark 10-80% top-up you’ll be looking at over 45 minutes at a charger.

You’d certainly get greater utility with a used example of a larger car, such as a Vauxhall Corsa Electric which has a WLTP range of 200+ miles and can charge from 10-80% in around half an hour.

With its super-low purchase price, electric powertrain (and therefore zero emissions) the Leapmotor T03 does of course qualify for the lowest rate of road tax and company car benefit-in-kind tax.

The Leapmotor T03 hasn’t been tested by Euro NCAP just yet. All models do get six airbags and the usual array of active safety kit, but given it’s such a small, lightweight car you probably shouldn’t expect it to put in a top-notch performance. All it really has to beat is the Dacia Spring’s one-star rating, though.

The T03’s driver assistance tech is frustrating, to say the least. Items like the lane-keeping and driver monitoring systems are far too twitchy, the latter moaning at you for a good 15 seconds if you so much as dare to yawn. You’ll definitely want to turn them off as quickly as possible, but this requires diving into several separate menus and can only be done while the car is stationary, which is very frustrating. We’d prefer to see a quick shortcut to do this.

Leapmotor is a brand-new company in the UK and the T03 is a brand-new model, so there’s no reliability data on it just yet. It has been sold in China since 2021, though, so you can expect any major defects would have been ironed out in that time.

The T03’s warranty is four years or 60,000 miles, giving it an extra year of cover over most European alternatives - but the Dacia Spring has up to six years or 75,000 miles of cover if serviced appropriately, and the MG 4 has seven years and 80,000 miles of warranty. At least Leapmotor’s partnership with Stellantis means that there’ll be an ample dealer network, and parts supply should be easy.