Leapmotor B10 Review Australia 2026: A Sharp Electric SUV From a Brand Still Finding Its Feet

The Leapmotor B10 is one of the best-driving small electric SUVs you can buy in Australia under $45,000, and it comes from a brand most buyers have never heard of. The Style starts at $37,888 before on-roads, and a national offer put it at $38,990 drive-away until 30 September 2026. The verdict of this Leapmotor B10 review for Australia: it beats the BYD Atto 3 on driving feel, charging speed and rear-seat space. The trade-off is a young brand with a small dealer network and fiddly software.

That split is exactly how buyers talk about it. People who test-drive the B10 back to back with an Atto 3 often come away preferring the Leapmotor. It has rear-wheel drive, cooled seats, more rear legroom and roughly twice the DC charging speed. Then they hesitate, because BYD has a big network and Leapmotor sells through a few dozen showrooms, many of them Jeep dealers.

This review covers prices, range, charging, ownership costs, the dealer question and how the B10 stacks up against other compact electric vehicles.

Leapmotor B10 review Australia: prices and specs

The B10 comes in two battery-electric trims, the Style and the Design LR (Long Range). Both use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, a chemistry that tolerates daily charging to 100 percent and resists heat better than the nickel-based cells in some rivals. Both drive the rear wheels through a single 160 kW motor.

Spec	B10 Style	B10 Design LR
List price (before on-roads)	$37,888	$40,888
Drive-away offer	$38,990 (to 30 Sep 2026)	$41,990 at launch; current offer not published
Battery	56.2 kWh LFP	67.1 kWh LFP
Motor	160 kW / 240 Nm, rear-wheel drive	160 kW / 240 Nm, rear-wheel drive
0 to 100 km/h	7.5 s	7.5 s
WLTP range	361 km	434 km
DC charging (peak)	140 kW	168 kW
AC charging	11 kW	11 kW
V2L	Yes, about 3.3 kW	Yes, about 3.3 kW
Towing	Not rated	Not rated
ANCAP	5 stars (2025)	5 stars (2025)

Sources: CarExpert, February and August 2026; NRMA, February 2026; EV Central, October 2025 and April 2026; zecar, August 2026; ANCAP. Prices as of September 2026.

Premium paint adds $990. The July to September sale excluded government and rental buyers and applied to new and demo stock at participating dealers. The Design LR was included only in Light White, and Leapmotor didn’t publish a drive-away figure for it. Get a written drive-away quote before you compare.

Watch the NEDC trap. Some Australian price tables list the B10 at 442 km and 516 km, which are figures from the older, more generous NEDC test. The WLTP figures above are the ones to compare with rivals.

Real-world range and running costs

The B10 is more efficient than its WLTP rating suggests. RACQ quotes an official 17.3 kWh per 100 km for the Design LR (February 2026). EV Central saw 12 to 13 kWh per 100 km across a week of mixed driving, worth roughly 380 to 400 km of range (April 2026).

Highway driving is where range shrinks. A reliable rule is that highway range lands at 75 to 85 percent of the WLTP figure once you’re sitting at 110 km/h with the air conditioning on. For the Design LR that means about 325 to 370 km between charges. The Style gets around 270 to 305 km.

At 13 kWh per 100 km and 30 cents per kWh, home charging costs about $3.90 per 100 km. Charge on a cheap overnight or solar-soak tariff and it drops further. Run your own numbers with our EV charging cost calculator.

Charging speed

DC charging is a genuine strength. The Design LR peaks at 168 kW and goes from 30 to 80 percent in about 20 minutes (CarExpert, February 2026). The Style peaks at 140 kW. Buyers who cross-shop it against the pre-Evo Atto 3, which peaks at 88 kW, notice the gap straight away.

At home, both trims have an 11 kW on-board charger. The on-board charger is the component that converts AC power from your wall into DC for the battery. On a three-phase supply the B10 can use the full 11 kW. Most Australian homes are single-phase, where a 7 kW wallbox fills the 67.1 kWh battery from near-empty in under 10 hours.

The B10 also has vehicle-to-load. V2L lets you run appliances from the car’s battery through an adapter, and NRMA puts the B10’s output at about 3.3 kW (February 2026). That’s enough for a camp fridge, lights and a kettle, one at a time.

What the B10 does well

The ride and handling are the standout. European engineers tuned the chassis, and Australian reviewers agree it rides with more polish than most Chinese rivals at the price. Rear-wheel drive and a 50:50 weight split make it feel balanced. One caveat from owners: it will spin the rear tyres in the wet if you’re heavy with your right foot.

Space is generous for the footprint. The B10 is 4,515 mm long with a 2,735 mm wheelbase, and rear legroom beats the Atto 3. Boot figures vary by outlet: CarExpert measured 430 litres, while NRMA, RACQ and EV Central list 490 litres, probably because some count the underfloor space.

Safety is strong. ANCAP awarded five stars with 93 percent for adult occupant protection and 95 percent for child occupant protection. The rating covers all B10s built from September 2025.

The equipment list is long for the money. Owners point to cooled seats, a built-in dashcam, one-pedal driving, and Camp and Guard modes.

What holds it back

Driver-assistance nagging is the most common complaint. CarExpert, RACQ, CarsGuide and EV Central all criticised intrusive lane-keeping and speed warnings. Over-the-air updates have helped. Owners report a 2026 update that shortened the closest adaptive cruise following distance, softened the emergency lane-keep intervention to a chime and vibration, fixed disappearing digital radio stations and added steering weight. Settings still reset every time you start the car, though.

The phone-as-key setup divides people. The B10 uses a Bluetooth digital key, and owners in two-driver households say it connects to only one phone at a time, even with two Leapmotor accounts. Auto-lock can also catch you out if kids are still in the car. Test the key system with your own phones before you buy.

Other niggles from reviews: most controls live in the touchscreen, the Linglong tyres are noisy with modest wet grip, the soft suspension gets floaty over rough country roads, and the wireless phone charger doesn’t hold the phone well. The battery-electric B10 also can’t tow at all.

The dealer network question

This is the real decision. Leapmotor is distributed in Australia by Stellantis, the group behind Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo. Stellantis handles distribution, logistics and servicing support, but it doesn’t build the cars. The network grew to 24 dealerships by September 2026, and Leapmotor has said it could add dealers outside the Stellantis family (CarExpert, September 2026).

Twenty-four sites is thin for a national brand. Many Leapmotor franchises sit inside Jeep showrooms, and owners say the sales experience there can be poor, with staff who know petrol cars and not much about EVs. Owners report that some dealers share a showroom with EV-only brands instead, and describe that as a better experience. Before you buy, find out:

• How far your nearest Leapmotor service dealer is, and whether it has EV-trained technicians
• How long crash-repair parts such as panels and lights take to arrive
• Whether the 8-year roadside assistance has conditions tied to dealer servicing

Sales are growing from a low base. Leapmotor sold 1,022 cars in Australia in 2026 up to September, and 677 were B10s (CarsGuide, September 2026). The wider market is booming. Electric vehicles took 16.4 percent of new-car sales in the first half of 2026 (CarExpert, using FCAI and EVC data), and battery EVs alone hit 24.9 percent in August (Electric Vehicle Council, September 2026). A buyer who picked the Jaecoo J5 EV early faced the same doubts, and that car went on to sell in big numbers once word of mouth spread. That’s no guarantee Leapmotor will do the same.

Resale is the other unknown. Low-volume brands have taken the heaviest value hits on the used market, as our EV depreciation guide shows. If you plan to keep the car eight years or more, that matters less.

Warranty and servicing

The B10 comes with a six-year, 150,000 km vehicle warranty and an eight-year, 160,000 km battery warranty, plus eight years of roadside assistance (CarExpert, February 2026). That matches BYD’s vehicle cover but falls short of the seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranties on the Geely EX2 and GWM Ora 5.

Servicing is every 12 months or 20,000 km. Capped-price servicing totals $2,954 over eight services, or roughly $296 to $441 a visit (EV Central, April 2026).

Leapmotor B10 vs the competition

The B10 sits in the most crowded part of the Australian EV market, where the BYD Atto 3 Evo and Geely EX5 are its closest rivals.

Model	Price	WLTP range
Leapmotor B10 Style	$38,990 drive-away (offer to 30 Sep)	361 km
Leapmotor B10 Design LR	$40,888 before on-roads	434 km
BYD Atto 3 Evo Dynamic	$41,990 before on-roads	420 km
BYD Atto 3 Evo Premium	$46,990 before on-roads	510 km
Geely EX5 Complete	$41,990 before on-roads	475 km
Jaecoo J5 EV	$35,990 before on-roads	402 km
MG S5 EV Essence 49	$42,990 drive-away	335 km

Sources: The Driven, August and September 2026; CarExpert, March and July 2026. Prices as of September 2026.

Against the Atto 3 Evo, the B10 costs less and drives the rear wheels in both trims, while the BYD gives you more range in Premium form and a much bigger dealer network. Our BYD Atto 3 Evo review covers that car in detail. The Jaecoo J5 EV is cheaper again with similar range. See our Jaecoo J5 EV review for how it drives.

What about the B10 Hybrid EV?

The B10 Hybrid EV is a range-extender version. It has a small 18.8 kWh battery giving 84 km of WLTP electric range, plus a petrol engine that acts as a generator for about 900 km of total range (CarExpert, June 2026). It costs the same as the EV: $37,888 for the Style and $40,888 for the Design before on-roads.

Two differences matter. The Hybrid EV can tow 750 kg braked, which the EV can’t. It also misses out on the novated lease tax break, because the Australian Taxation Office treats cars with a petrol engine like plug-in hybrids, and those lost the exemption from 1 April 2025.

Is the Leapmotor B10 worth it on a novated lease?

The battery-electric B10 is a strong novated lease candidate. Both trims sit well under the 2026 to 2027 FBT threshold of $91,661 (ATO), so they qualify for the full fringe benefits tax exemption. They’re also well under the $75,000 line where the exemption narrows from April 2027.

Be careful with the residual. A novated lease ends with a balloon payment, and on a young brand the car’s market value at the end could fall short of it. Ask for a conservative residual and model it with our novated lease calculator. Our EV novated leasing hub explains how the balloon works.

Who should buy the Leapmotor B10

Buy the Design LR if you want the best-driving small electric SUV under about $45,000, charge at home and live within easy reach of a Leapmotor dealer. The faster charging and extra range make it the pick of the two.

Buy the Style if you mostly drive around town and want the sharpest price. It’s the same car with a smaller battery.

Look elsewhere if you need to tow, live far from a dealer, or want the reassurance of a big network. The Atto 3 Evo is the safer choice. You can compare them side by side in our EV compare tool or check the B10 Style product page.