2027 Leapmotor B03X review

The Leapmotor B03X could be the car that transforms the Chinese brand from being an Australian curiosity into something capable of generating serious volume.

Known as the A10 in China but yet to be officially confirmed for Australian release, it is a 4.27-metre long (light-size) electric SUV positioned below the Leapmotor B10 small SUV and B05 hatch.

Australian Government certification documents have already revealed two local powertrain combinations are approved for local roads, however, so its arrival here is effectively a matter of when, rather than if.

Our first drive took place on roads around Marbella and Malaga in southern Spain, covering urban traffic, open motorways and winding mountain roads in temperatures reaching about 35 degrees. The vehicle tested was the higher-specification international Design model, fitted with the larger 53kWh battery and 145kW front-mounted electric motor.

Final Australian pricing, model grades and standard equipment levels have not been announced. The indication at the international launch was around $30,000 for the smaller-battery version and approximately $33,000 for the larger-battery variant, but those numbers remain indicative and Leapmotor did not specify whether they would be list or drive-away prices.

That caveat matters, but so does the underlying vehicle. The B03X feels more expensive than those projected prices suggest, and not just because there is a large screen bolted to the dashboard.

From the outside, it is a clean and genuinely likeable design. The proportions are upright without being boxy, the wheel-arches give it enough visual substance, and the contrasting roof helps break up what is otherwise a fairly simple shape.

Leapmotor says the front and rear lighting signatures are intended to resemble a smile. It sounds a little forced in a presentation, but it works far better in the metal.

It is deliberately not an aggressive or polarising design, and that makes sense. A small family EV needs to appeal to a broad audience, not look as though it has arrived from a science-fiction film demanding the household Wi-Fi password.

How much does the Leapmotor B03X cost?

As mentioned above, Australian pricing is yet to be confirmed but, according Leapmotor International executives at the launch, you could expect to pay around $30,000 for the entry-level variant with a 39.8kWh battery, and about $33,000 for a version with the larger 53kWh battery.

It remains unclear whether those are list prices (excluding statutory on-road costs) or national drive-away figures.

So you can treat those figures as guidance rather than a promise. The final Australian range could also use different grade names and equipment combinations from the Life and Design structure in Europe.

If Leapmotor lands close to those numbers, the B03X will sit in a very competitive position. For reference, the B10 is priced from $38,990 drive-away, while the B05 is priced from $35,990 drive-away.

More importantly, when it comes to its pint-size electric SUV competitors, the BYD Atto 2 currently starts at $31,990 before on-road costs, while the smaller Geely EX2 hatch is priced from $26,490 plus ORCs.

The larger battery appears to be the obvious choice if the indicated $3000 gap survives into the final price list.

It increases battery capacity from 39.8kWh to 53.0kWh, an improvement of 33.2 per cent, while claimed WLTP range rises from 292km to 382km, an increase of 30.8 per cent. From a $30,000 starting point, the price increase would be only 10 per cent.

It should also bring the stronger 145kW motor rather than the entry grade's 130kW unit, and the international Design grade adds a meaningful amount of comfort and convenience equipment.

The base version may still make sense as an inexpensive urban runabout for a household that can charge at home and rarely leaves the city.

But if the difference really is only $3000, walking past the larger battery would require a particularly strong commitment to saving money.

To see how the Leapmotor B03X stacks up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

What is the Leapmotor B03X like on the inside?

This is where the B03X starts making a very convincing argument. The interior does not feel like it belongs in one of Australia's cheapest electric SUVs.

The upper dashboard, door trims, centre armrest and other regular touchpoints are all soft, while the synthetic leather in our Design test car felt pleasant and reasonably convincing.

Long-term durability cannot be assessed during a launch drive, but there is no immediate sense of aggressive cost-cutting. The cabin feels solid, the major controls are neatly finished, and even the window switches are straightforward and easy to use.

The front seats are soft without being shapeless, with enough support to remain comfortable after more than two hours behind the wheel.

The seating position is excellent, visibility through the windscreen is strong, and the upright glasshouse makes the car easy to place in traffic.

Leapmotor quotes up to 1009mm of front headroom, along with 979mm in the rear, and 947mm of rear legroom.

More importantly, the space is genuinely usable. A 179cm-tall driver can sit comfortably behind their own front seat position with plenty of knee, foot and head room remaining.

Four large adults will fit without much negotiation, and five average-sized occupants are possible when required. That is a significant achievement in a vehicle measuring less than 4.3 metres long.

The centrepiece is a 14.6-inch inmfotainment touchscreen running Leap OS 4.0 Plus, paired with an 8.8-inch digital instrument cluster.

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 processor sits behind the system, and the result is generally quick responses, sharp graphics, and smooth animated vehicle displays.

It looks modern and expensive. It is also asked to do too much.

There are no physical climate-control buttons, and settings for the mirrors, regenerative braking, acceleration response, steering weight, charging, and driver-assistance systems all live inside the screen.

The permanent climate strip along the lower edge is better than hiding the air-conditioning in a separate menu, but some icons are too small to hit confidently while the car is moving.

The climate system includes a proper LO setting, resolving one concern raised during the launch presentation, but it took a little time to cool the cabin on a 35-degree Spanish afternoon.

Once operating properly it did the job, though Australian buyers will want to assess it again in a Brisbane summer.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are officially listed. Wireless CarPlay refused to connect to our test phone despite deleting, reconnecting and repeating the process, so the native navigation system had to take over.

Unfortunately, that system was one of the weaker parts of the car, with directions and mapping that were less intuitive than a familiar smartphone application.

That may have been an issue with the individual launch car or its pre-production software, but connectivity is a basic expectation in 2026 and it needs to work reliably by the time customers receive their vehicles.

The instrument display also repeats one of the most irritating decisions found in the B10 and B05. The speed readout sits on the left, while the centre is occupied by an animated representation of the B03X and nearby traffic.

A driver already has a windscreen and mirrors for seeing other cars. Put the speed in the middle.

Cabin storage is generally good. There are two cupholders in the centre, useful door bins and a small upper tray in each front door, plus two USB-C outlets in the front and another USB-C port in the rear.

A USB-A outlet is also included, presumably for anyone still emotionally attached to 2016.

Leapmotor claims 33 storage compartments throughout the cabin. As usual with these numbers, every small tray and cupholder has been invited to the count.

Oddly, there are no rear centre cupholders or conventional storage pockets on the backs of the front seats, two omissions raised directly with the product team during the launch workshop.

The rear-seat bases can be lifted, similar in concept to Honda's Magic Seats, creating a tall vertical space for bags, plants or other items that are awkward to carry in the boot.

Leapmotor says the arrangement has been cleared from an intellectual property perspective, after the resemblance was raised during the technical presentation.

At the rear, the quoted 510-litre boot capacity requires explanation.

It is total storage volume, including a large 105-litre waterproof and washable compartment below the cargo floor, so it should not be compared blindly with a rival's conventional boot measurements.

The underfloor box is useful, particularly for muddy shoes, wet swimming gear, or charging cables. With the rear seatbacks folded, total capacity is quoted at 1605L, and Leapmotor claims a maximum usable load length of 2530mm.

There is no front boot. The 105L compartment is beneath the rear cargo floor, as stated above, while the electric motor and associated hardware occupy the front of the car.

The B03X is not homologated for towing at launch.

Leapmotor's global product planning team says the vehicle is technically capable of it and an original-equipment towbar and rated capacity are planned for a future model year, but no timing or towing figure has been confirmed for Australia.

To see how the Leapmotor B03X stacks up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

What's under the bonnet?

The B03X is the first Leapmotor outside the tiny T03 city-car to use a front-wheel drive layout. Leapmotor says the decision was made partly because front-wheel drive will feel familiar to buyers moving out of conventional small cars, but packaging was the more important benefit.

Placing the motor at the front frees space around the rear axle and helps create the unusually large underfloor storage area.

Two lithium iron phosphate battery and motor combinations are planned internationally, and both have appeared in Australian certification documents. Both batteries are claimed to support 2.5C fast-charging.

The 53kWh variant's technical sheet lists a maximum DC rate of 133kW, while the 16-minute claim covers a 30 to 80 per cent charging window rather than the more commonly quoted 10-80 per cent interval.

The battery uses Leapmotor's CTC2.0 Plus Cell-to-Chassis construction, integrating it into the vehicle structure rather than treating it as a completely separate pack. Leapmotor says this improves packaging, stiffness, safety and efficiency.

The company also describes a nine-in-one battery control system and an adaptive battery-management algorithm intended to keep the pack within an appropriate temperature range.

Battery pre-heating can be controlled through the smartphone application, and the Design grade includes a heat pump to reduce the amount of energy required for cabin heating. The front motor is a compact, integrated and oil-cooled unit.

Leapmotor claims the complete assembly weighs 56kg and achieves motor-system efficiency of up to 97.8 per cent, while oil cooling is intended to maintain peak output during repeated acceleration.

Within the integrated drive unit, Leapmotor says chip-level interconnects replace conventional CAN-bus communication, reducing control-signal latency from a claimed 10 milliseconds to 0.5ms.

There is more engineering underneath the screen than the price may suggest. The B03X's centralised electrical and electronic architecture reportedly uses 22 electronic control units and 995 metres of wiring.

Leapmotor also claims faster data communication and lower electrical consumption than its earlier architecture, although the presentation did not provide a sufficiently clear comparison baseline for the percentage claims to be independently assessed.

To see how the Leapmotor B03X stacks up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

How does the Leapmotor B03X drive?

Very well for what it is.

The B03X is not trying to be a sports SUV, and that is completely fine. It is a compact, front-wheel drive electric family car intended for city and suburban use, and it performs that job with very little fuss.

The 145kW motor in the test car we drove provides more than enough performance. Acceleration is smooth and progressive rather than needlessly aggressive, it reaches motorway speeds with ease, and there is sufficient response available for merging with or passing slower traffic.

Leapmotor quotes 8.6 seconds for the 0-100km/h run. That doesn't make it fast by modern EV standards, but numbers are not the point here. The calibration is good because the power is easy to use, with no constant scrabbling from the front tyres during normal driving.

Push well beyond the car's intended role on a tight road and it will eventually understeer, as expected from a relatively tall front-drive SUV on 215mm-wide tyres.

The behaviour is progressive rather than alarming, and most owners will never get close to finding it.

The steering is the weakest part of the chassis. It is light, accurate enough and easy around town, but there is almost no useful feedback through the wheel. Comfort, Standard and Sport modes alter the weighting, but adding effort is not the same as adding communication.

At times it feels closer to controlling a good driving video game than interacting with the front tyres.

Leapmotor knows this. Francesco Giacalone, the executive responsible for Leapmotor product and brand strategy outside China, acknowledged the B03X launch cars still needed more steering precision.

The company plans to apply a revised software calibration derived from the B05. Given the later timing of the Australian launch, local vehicles are expected to receive it from the outset.

That ability to change steering calibration through software is impressive, but the update had not been installed in the cars we tested in Europe. Its effectiveness therefore remains to be assessed when the Australian version arrives.

The suspension is a much stronger proposition. MacPherson struts at the front and a torsion beam at the rear are hardly exotic, but the tune strikes a very good balance between comfort and control.

It is not excessively soft, floaty or bouncy, which has been a problem in some Chinese-market vehicles exported overseas with too little modification.

The B03X settles quickly after larger bumps, stays reasonably flat through corners, and remains comfortable on rougher surfaces.

Leapmotor evaluated three suspension tunes for the international-spec B03X with input from Stellantis engineers, quality teams and customer clinics. The finished result feels properly sorted rather than merely softened until every road resembles a mattress.

Cabin refinement is another highlight. Electric cars remove engine noise, which makes tyre roar, wind noise, suspension thump and cabin rattles much easier to hear. The B03X suppresses those secondary noises well and feels surprisingly well insulated at city and motorway speeds.

The braking response is easy to judge, and the touchscreen provides Weak, Medium and Strong regenerative braking settings.

There is no proper one-pedal mode in the launch software, although Leapmotor's product planning team says it is being developed as an over-the-air update.

Driver-assistance calibration has also improved significantly compared with earlier Leapmotor products.

The lane-keeping functions are less inclined to tug aggressively at the steering wheel, and their physical intervention is among the better examples we've encountered recently in an affordable Chinese vehicle.

But the intelligent speed warning remains deeply irritating. A configurable profile can be used to silence the audible alert, but on the launch car it appeared to require re-selection after each restart.

That is partly driven by European requirements for the function to default to on, but understanding the reason doesn't make the beeping any more charming.

At least Leapmotor has made the shortcut relatively easy to reach.

That is progress, even if the ultimate goal should be a system that's accurate and subtle enough for drivers not to have to immediately look for the off switch.

A 10.0-metre turning circle, excellent outward visibility and compact footprint make the B03X extremely easy to manoeuvre in tight spaces.

The surround-view camera in the Design grade is clear enough, and front and rear parking sensors remove most of the remaining excuses for scraping an alloy wheel in a shopping-centre carpark.

Energy use was also encouraging. After 105km since its last charge, our test car's trip computer displayed an average consumption figure of 13.9kWh/100km. The screen attributed 79 per cent of the energy to driving, 12 per cent to air-conditioning, and nine per cent to other systems.

That was not a controlled test, and the screen's seven-hour-plus 'since last charge' total covered a longer period than our review drive, so it may have included use by other drivers and it shouldn't be treated as a definitive real-world range result.

Even so, it is a strong number for a small SUV operating with air-conditioning in hot weather, and it sits below Leapmotor's quoted combined consumption of 15.7kWh/100km.

To see how the Leapmotor B03X stacks up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

What do you get?

Final Australian equipment levels have not yet been confirmed.

Internationally, the B03X is offered in Life and Design grades, with the Life available with either battery and the Design restricted to the larger 53kWh pack.

2027 Leapmotor B03X Life standard equipment highlights:

• 39.8kWh or 53.0kWh LFP battery
• 18-inch alloy wheels
• LED headlights
• Roof rails
• Rain-sensing wipers
• Automatic climate control
• Synthetic leather-wrapped steering wheel
• 14.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• 8.8-inch digital instrument cluster
• Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• Six-speaker sound system
• Seven airbags
• 21 driver-assistance functions

B03X Design adds or replaces:

• 53.0kWh battery and 145kW motor
• Synthetic leather seat upholstery
• Six-way power-adjustable driver's seat
• Heated front seats
• Heated steering wheel
• Heat pump
• Power-folding and heated exterior mirrors
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Surround-view camera with dynamic guidelines
• 12-speaker sound system
• Ambient interior lighting
• Vehicle-to-load capability

The supplied Design technical sheet refers more broadly to electrically adjustable front seats, while the launch release specifically lists a six-way powered driver's seat.

Final Australian specifications will need to clarify whether the passenger seat is also powered.

The B03X also offers the 105L washable underfloor storage box and flexible lift-up rear-seat bases, although the supplied material does not clearly state whether these packaging features vary by grade.

Three acceleration modes, three steering modes and three regenerative braking levels are fitted to the Design test car.

A charging limit can be selected through the screen, charging can be scheduled, and the smartphone app supports remote pre-conditioning, battery pre-heating, and vehicle monitoring.

No conventional towing capacity is listed, and the physical-key arrangement for Australia is yet to be confirmed. The international Design specification lists NFC and smartphone virtual keys.

Colours

The international B03X exterior paint palette comprises:

• Galaxy Silver
• Tundra Grey
• Rime Beige
• Acorn Brown
• Berry Blue
• Seaweed Green

Interior choices are Currant Black and Oat Grey synthetic leather.

Australian colour availability and any premium-paint charges are still to be announced.

To see how the Leapmotor B03X stacks up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

Is the Leapmotor B03X safe?

The Leapmotor B03X has not yet been independently assessed by ANCAP or Euro NCAP, so it currently carries no Australian safety rating.

Leapmotor is targeting a five-star result and expects independent testing to occur in early 2027.

The company says the B03X uses the same core active-safety hardware and software family as the B05, which has achieved five-star ANCAP and Euro NCAP ratings. However, those ratings do not transfer from one model to another.

International specifications includes seven airbags, comprising front, side, curtain and far-side protection, along with 21 driver-assistance functions supported by 14 sensors and cameras.

Functions shown or detailed during the launch included:

• Lane-centring
• Automatic lane-change assist
• Front vehicle departure warning
• Intelligent speed assistance
• Traffic jam assist
• Driver fatigue monitoring
• Automatic high-beam
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Surround-view camera

The exact Australian safety list is not yet confirmed.

Leapmotor also presented its Leapmotor Integrated Motion Control system, which it says can use vehicle controls to maintain stability after a tyre failure or on a slippery surface.

However, that function was not listed in the supplied international technical specification, so its availability in Australian B03X vehicles cannot yet be assumed.

To see how the Leapmotor B03X stacks up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

How much does the Leapmotor B03X cost to run?

Australian service pricing for the B03X has not been announced.

Leapmotor's current Australian aftersales program for 2025-and-later vehicles includes a six-year, 150,000km vehicle warranty, an eight-year/160,000km high-voltage battery warranty, eight years of roadside assistance, and eight years of capped-price servicing.

Service intervals for current models are 12 months or 20,000km, whichever comes first.

Those terms are the logical expectation for the B03X, but Leapmotor Australia still needs to confirm they apply unchanged to this model.

The Design's heat pump, battery pre-heating, scheduled charging and 11kW onboard AC charger should make home and public charging easier to manage.

Vehicle-to-load capability is also listed, allowing the battery to power compatible external electrical appliances through an appropriate adaptor.

Leapmotor Australia has separately said it will seek to provide the same service as the company's international target of having 90 per cent of required spare parts available within 24 hours.

It has not said the Australian operation currently achieves that figure, and the company has not precisely defined whether availability means warehoused, dispatched or delivered to a dealer within the 24-hour period.

To see how the Leapmotor B03X stacks up against the competition, check out our comparison tool

CarExpert's Take on the Leapmotor B03X

The Leapmotor B03X is a very good small electric SUV, and potentially an excellent-value one.

It gets the important things right. The cabin is genuinely spacious, the materials feel better than expected, the seats are comfortable, the boot arrangement is clever, and the vehicle is quiet and composed on the road.

Performance is more than adequate, energy use appears promising, and the larger battery's 382km range should be enough for the way most buyers will use it.

There are still obvious areas to improve. Too many everyday functions depend on the touchscreen, wireless CarPlay did not work in the launch car, the native navigation is poor, and the speed warning remains annoying.

The steering also lacks feel, though Leapmotor has acknowledged the issue and Australian cars are expected to arrive with revised software.

An independent safety rating is the other significant unknown. Seven airbags and a long equipment list are welcome, but they do not replace an ANCAP result.

The biggest question is price. If the entry model arrives at around $30,000 and the 53kWh version really costs only about $3000 more, the larger battery will be the easy recommendation. It delivers substantially more range, a stronger motor and more equipment for a relatively small price premium.

At those prices, the B03X would not merely be cheap. It would be one of the most complete affordable EVs on the Australian market, and a convincing second car for a family that can charge at home.

It is not sporty, it is not perfect, and it still beeps more than anyone asked it to. But it feels like a properly engineered car rather than a collection of technology sold at a tempting price.

That distinction is why it earns a Very Good rating.

Note: This review covers an international-specification vehicle. Australian pricing, equipment, warranty and safety equipment details remain subject to confirmation.

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