is gaining the option of partial fuel power in key export markets such as Europe and Australia.
At the moment, the Leapmotor C10 is on sale in Australia as an electric car. Its co-founder, Stellantis, has announced it’ll release a new model, the C10 REEV, in the second half of next year, which will have an extended range using an electric motor with a separate petrol engine, and more details will be revealed in the coming months.
While the Leapmotor C10 has been available as an electric and plug-in hybrid in China, European export versions – sold by Leapmotor International, a joint venture with Stellantis – are only now getting the option of combined petrol and electric power.
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Unlike the standard C10 which uses a 160kW electric motor and a 69.9kWh battery pack, the C10 REEV scales back to a smaller 28.4kWh unit, which can be recharged from an onboard 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine when it runs out of puff.
The C10 REEV comes with a 158kW electric motor.
– however, they cannot be supplied from an outside power source.
Drivers can choose between using electric power only, or selecting an “Energy Mode” which allows the petrol engine to also charge the battery.
Leapmotor claims 145km of electric-only driving range in the European WLTP cycle, down from the previous 420km figure for electric vehicle versions. When the petrol engine and battery work together, it can achieve up to 950km of range.
Under the same lab test cycle, the C10 REEV has a claimed fuel consumption of only 0.4 litres per 100km and exhausts just 10 grams of CO2 per kilometre.
The C10 REEV can be charged using alternating current and direct current, the latter of which Leapmotor claims can recover half of its electric range in just 18 minutes on a 65 kilowatt fast-charger.
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The Leapmotor C10 EV is currently priced from $47,500 drive-away until 31 March.
In Australia, Leapmotor offers a seven-year, one hundred and sixty thousand kilometres vehicle warranty and an eight-year, one hundred and sixty thousand kilometres high-voltage battery warranty.
