Leapmotor T03 Review

Read Caroline’s Leapmotor T03 review for everything you need to know about buying Leapmotor’s new electric city car in Ireland.

Leapmotor arrived in Ireland in 2025, a Chinese car brand backed by the Stellantis Group for its expansion into Europe. The brand is already building a significant dealer presence here, and showrooms will be well stocked over the coming months with several new models in the pipeline.

While the Leapmotor C10 and B10 look after the popular SUV market, it’s the tiny T03 that sits at the lower end for buyers looking for a good value, small electric car.

The Leapmotor T03 is in showrooms now and starts from an attention-grabbing €18,950.

Let’s take a closer look.

Design

2025 was really the year of the small electric car, with new entrants like the Dacia Spring, Hyundai Inster, BYD Dolphin Surf and the Citroen E-C3. The Leapmotor T03 joins them and while it won’t win any beauty contests, it’s dinky and cute in its own way. The overhangs front and rear are short, with the wheels pushed out to each corner. The wheels are tiny by today’s standards, with narrow tyres and a standard 15-inch alloy. The headlights are halogen, though it does get LED daytime running lights. There’s just one trim level called Style and four colours to choose from – blue, green, white and grey.

The small hatchback does not have a rear wiper, so water can collect on the rear window.

Leapmotor T03 Interior

The T03 has a simple interior and definitely feels like a small car from behind the wheel. The fit and finish is good with no squeaks or rattles during our test drive but it’s not quite as salubrious feeling as a Hyundai Inster and the seats seem a bit flat and lacking support. Still, the ambience is generally better than that of the Dacia Spring. Standard features include a panoramic glass roof with blind, which is unusual for the city car class. Though I would prefer to see heated front seats and heated steering wheel, which are strangely absent from the spec.

There’s also air conditioning, digital driver display and a touchscreen. But alas no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto connectivity yet! These are meant to arrive eventually as an over-the-air update. While the system does include Bluetooth and its own navigation, it’s really missing the simplicity and slickness that these tools offer.

Other standard features include a reversing camera, cruise control and numerous safety aids like lane keep assist, the latter which can be quite aggressive and turning it off made for a more relaxed motorway drive.

There’s also an electronic parking brake and push button start.

Practicality

The T03 is a proper city car so while it’s brilliant for parking and nipping around, carrying passengers is not its forte. Space is tight in the back, even for children. It’s also a strict four seater, but both seats do get Isofix points included. The Hyundai Inster also gets this four seat arrangement, but it does offer more legroom for rear seat passengers.

The boot is 210 litres, which is not huge but acceptable for a small car. The rear seat can be let down in one entire piece with no option for split folding.

Battery and range

The T03 uses a 37.3kWh LFP battery, which is good for a range up to 265km (WLTP). That’s more than a Dacia Spring or entry level BYD Dolphin Surf (220km), but less than a Citroen E-C3 (320km), larger battery version of the Dolphin Surf (322km) and Hyundai Inster (327/360km).

Charging

The T03 offers AC charging up to 6.6kW. There’s also DC fast charging possible, but only up to speeds of 45kW. Leapmotor gives a 30-80% charge time of 36 minutes, which indicates it’s not the quickest to charge. However provided you can charge at home and don’t plan to do much motorway driving, it should be okay.

Driving the Leapmotor T03

The T03 has 95hp, which goes through the front wheels. 0-100kmh is 12.7 seconds but it feels nippier in real world driving and there is no problem keeping up with traffic or joining motorways. More importantly, the 0-50kmh time is just 3.7 seconds. The electric motor does whine at low speeds, which is strange and not something you hear in most small electric cars these days.

There are a few different drive modes, however the car defaults to eco upon start-up and is how I drove it most of the time.

The energy consumption over my time driving was 16.3kWh per 100km, including some motorway driving. This indicates a real world range of about 221 kilometres. It is a car designed for urban use and that is where it excels. Out on bigger roads, it does get noisy and less comfortable.

In cold weather, the tyre pressure warning light did fire several times on start-up, but once the tyres warmed up, it stopped sounding an alert.

There is regenerative braking, but the effect of it is not that strong and falls short of a full one pedal drive mode, which would be ideal in a city car like this.

Every T03 is covered by a a six year vehicle warranty and eight years on the battery.

Leapmotor T03 Price

The T03 is available from €18,950. By comparison the Dacia Spring is available from €14,490, the BYD Dolphin Surf from €17,985, the Hyundai Inster from €19,590 and the Citroen E-C3 from €23,900.

Verdict

The Leapmotor T03 does a lot right on paper and will undoubtedly tempt buyers with its sharp pricing and features. It’s easy to drive, cheap to run and genuinely well suited to urban life, where its compact dimensions and punchy low-speed performance come into their own.

However, the T03 is entering an increasingly competitive segment, and that works against it. Rivals like the Hyundai Inster and BYD Dolphin feel more polished and offer greater range and comfort for not a huge jump in price.

If your driving is mostly short, urban journeys and you want a simple, affordable electric car, the T03 will make sense. But taken as a complete package, it struggles to truly shine when stacked up against some very strong alternatives.

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Written by Caroline Kidd

Founder and Editor of Changing Lanes, Juror for Irish Car of the Year