Leapmotor B03X Review

You’re absolutely spoiled for choice if you’re in the market for a small electric crossover. The Leapmotor B03X joins the likes of the Kia EV2, Skoda Epiq and Renault 4 – all offering decent levels of space considering their diminutive sizes.

Built in China as a joint venture with Citroen and Peugeot-owning megacorpo Stellantis, the B03X offers up to 237 miles of range, a cavernous 510-litre boot and flip-up rear seats (similar to Honda’s Magic Seats) for those times when you really need to get the Christmas tree home upright.

Leapmotor calls the B03X a ‘passion magnet’ – meaning it can carry everything you need for your hobbies, rather than making you irresistible to potential bedfellows. We think the B03X will struggle to stand out with its generic looks – smiley faces in the headlights and tail lights are about the only bit of styling charm it has.

All its practicality and tech can’t mask a car that doesn’t drive especially well. Light, inconsistent steering couples with a crashy ride to make town driving a bit of a chore. And, while the 21 driver assistance systems may sound great on paper, they sound very much like constant bonging when you’re driving. We also found the B03X has very little grip on its standard tyres – a complaint we’ve not levelled at a new car in quite a long time.

When rivals such as the Kia EV2 offer a much more planted driving experience, and the Skoda Epiq offers nearly as much practicality with – again – a more mature drive, it’s hard to recommend the Leapmotor B03X in its current state. A projected UK price of £28,000 also puts the B03X £3,000 above an entry level Kia EV2 – which admittedly has less tech than the Leapmotor, but is a more appealing proposition to live with.

The B03X only comes in one version in the UK, and that’s the top-spec model the rest of Europe gets. Are you sitting down?

You get a giant 14.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system, an 8.8-inch digital driver’s display, a 12-speaker sound system, 64-colour ambient lighting, heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, a 15W wireless phone charger and… no physical switch to adjust the door mirrors.

That last point makes quick mirror adjustment a bit of a pain when you have to parallel park, because you have to either use a shortcut button on the steering wheel or delve into the touchscreen to find the option. Nearly all the B03X’s functions and options are in the touchscreen, and it’s quite tricky to use accurately while driving – and annoyingly you have a camera on the A pillar staring you in the eyes to beep at you when you’re not looking at the road.

The infotainment screen does offer wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and its Snapdragon 8155 processor means you’re never left waiting for menus to load. You also have ready access to installed applications such as YouTube, TikTok, Tidal and Spotify. Outdoors enthusiasts will appreciate the camping mode which lets you keep the air-con or heat pump running overnight, and there are pet modes and car cleaning modes to make life easier.

The driver’s display is identical to many we’ve seen in other Chinese models, and it arguably tries to pack too much information in. The efficiency data at the right-hand side screen is a bit hard to see on the move. Likewise, the steering wheel’s buttons have barely visible markings, making it a bit of a guessing game until you get used to the car.

Measuring in at 4.27m long, the B03X doesn’t exactly scream big car – but it feels it inside. There’s plenty of space in the front and back seats for tall adults, and the smoothed-but-boxy silhouette means tall adults will fit in the back.

The middle seat is very narrow, however, so it’s best to think of it as a four seater. Those rear seat bases do flip up at the pull of a lever, giving you loads more space for carrying tall items on the rear floor. It’s worth noting that the seat bases don’t quite fold up into fully vertical position like Honda’s magic seats.

Leapmotor claims you’ll find 33 storage cubbies dotted around the cabin. We couldn’t find half that number, but there’s a small glove box, decent-size door bins, plus a huge cubbyhole underneath the centre console. Look around the cabin and you’ll also find several images of Leapy embossed into the interior plastics – he’s Leapmotor’s Minion-esque mascot. Cute.

Open the boot and you’re greeted by a 405-litre space, which looks decidedly smaller than the one in the Kia EV2 and Skoda Epiq. However, it hides a secret. Remove the height-adjustable boot floor and you’ll reveal a vast 105-litre ‘gigabox’, which – as we’ve seen in the Ford Puma – has a removable bung. This means you can wash it out, store wet outdoor gear in there and then drain it when you’re done. Leave the boot floor at home and you’ve got the biggest boot in this class of EV.

Special mention must go to the B03X’s parcel shelf, however. It’s clearly an afterthought, with only a very vague sense of attachment to the sides of the boot. It also bends ridiculously easily, and just feels cheap.

The B03X uses a 53kWh battery for a claimed range figure of 237 miles. Our test route gave us a real-world figure of 217 miles in quite hilly terrain – pretty impressive. A standard-fit heat pump will help keep your range up in winter too.

You can fast-charge the battery at 133kW – again impressive for a small battery – and a 30%-80% charge will take 16 minutes. Be aware when comparing this speed to other cars, because most manufacturers quote a 10%-80% time or 20-80% time.

Power goes to the front wheels via a 197hp motor with 200Nm of torque, and you’ll get from 0-62mph in a brisk 8.6 seconds. The top speed of the B03X is 99mph.

Let’s start with the good bits. The B03X has a tight turning circle of just 10m diameter, meaning that it’s fantastic if you’re an ardent U-turn enthusiast. Its ultra-light steering also makes easy work of threading through urban traffic, although we weren’t enamoured by the way the steering suddenly speeds up an inch or so off centre.

The B03X also feels bumpy and brittle across even the smallest of road imperfections. On our smooth-looking Spanish test route, we were constantly jiggled by the smallest cracks in the road. Out of town, the ride settles down. Perhaps the biggest flaw with the way the B03X drives is the way it suddenly loses grip under even mildly enthusiastic driving. 

We found the front end pushing wide quite alarmingly on roundabouts, with the car even wiggling its back tyres out of line as it rediscovered grip – again, even at moderate speeds with all the safety systems enabled. Accelerating progressively out of roundabouts and tight corners can easily overwhelm the grip of the front tyres, leading to understeer, followed by lift-off oversteer if you panic and completely take your foot off the accelerator. It’s an experience we confirmed with at least eight other European journalists on the launch event.

Leapmotor execs say that the B03X is fitted with Yokohama tyres to give European drivers a reassuring experience, but we’re far from convinced – and this was on hot, dry Spanish roads rather than wet, leafy British back roads.

Otherwise refinement is largely okay, with just a bit of tyre noise at motorway speeds.