Leapmotor B05 Review: Price, range and boot space

Leapmotor B05: Everything you need to know

Such is the onslaught of new, electric SUVs from China that the Leapmotor B05 comes as a pleasant surprise. It's more of a traditional hatchback, rivalling the likes of the Cupra Born, MG4 and Peugeot E-308.

It has a link to that last car, as it happens. Peugeot is part of Stellantis, a massive group of brands which also owns a 20% chunk of Leapmotor and a controlling stake in a joint venture responsible for flogging Leapmotor models outside China. 

This gives Leapmotor an important leg up when taking on the UK market compared to other Chinese newcomers here, like BYD and Jaecoo. It can take advantage of Stellantis' dealer network, its distribution and its marketing might. 

The link might also make buying a Leapmotor less of a leap (pun somewhat intended) than buying a car from BYD et al, but the cars themselves could also do with being half decent and well-priced. The B05 certainly is well-priced, but is it any good? 

That's what we'll be examining in this review. We haven't been bowled over by any of the Leapmotor models we've driven so far – the B10, C10 and T03 – but as a spoiler alert, the B05 is a much-needed step in the right direction for the brand. 

The UK will only be getting the larger-battery version of the car, giving a very competitive 300 miles of range. The pack powers a rear-mounted motor giving enough power for a brisk 0-62mph time. 

The cabin has the usual giant central infotainment screen, but the dashboard is at least an interesting design, if not an especially original-looking one – there's more than a hint of Land Rover Defender going on in there. 

The outside, meanwhile, is utterly generic. It's about as 'safe' as a car design, but at least that means it's not offensive. You might just need to stick with the one free colour – Lightning Yellow – so you don't lose it in a car park. 

Oh, and if you're wondering, it's pronounced 'B Zero Five' rather than 'B Oh Five'. Although we suspect some will still call it the latter, as unfortunate as that sounds. 

How we tested the Leapmotor B05

We've driven the 67kWh version of the B05, which is the only one you can get in the UK. We drove it on a variety of different road types and surfaces, mostly with the car's assistance systems turned on, although we did try it with some disengaged as well. We extensively used the central touchscreen and sampled the rear legroom. 

Is the Leapmotor B05 a good car?

We consider the B05 to be a good car. Yes, it's helped significantly by the value it offers, but its low price and high level of standard specification are such that its less successful elements are easier to overlook.

It's a shame they're there in the first place, though. A vague driving experience is easy enough to live with, but the often extremely frustrating driver assistance systems are tougher to accept. We also dislike the over-reliance on the car's central touchscreen, contributing to an at-times annoying experience behind the wheel. 

These are worth considering before you go any further, but the B05 is one of the better-rounded value-oriented Chinese cars we've driven recently, and it's certainly the best Leapmotor to come to the UK. It's comfortable, has ample rear legroom, a decent (if slightly behind most rivals) boot capacity and a range figure that's spot on. 

Leapmotor B05 range

Although in some countries you can buy a Leapmotor with a 56.2kWh battery, we only get the larger one in the UK. It has a capacity of 67kWh, giving a range of 300 miles according to the WLTP combined cycle. Our test efficiency of around four miles per kWh would give about 270 miles of range on a full charge, which is good going. 

Compared to rivals, 300 miles is about right. The cheapest version of the Cupra Born is just a mile behind, while the MG4 Long Range is slightly further back at 288 miles. 

Leapmotor B05 charging

While the range of the B05 is around where it should be, the charging capability punches above the car's weight. A rapid charging capability of 174kW is far beyond the 120kW offered by the entry-level Cupra Born, and a good chunk ahead of the 144kW of the MG4. 

It's frustrating, then, to see Leapmotor quote its rapid charging time as 30-80%, when 20-80% is more frequently used by rivals, and in some cases, 10-80%. As a result, if you're not paying attention to the fine print, the 17-minute rapid charging time of the B05 might seem more impressive than it actually is. 

Plugged into a home wallbox, it'll be about nine hours to fully charge the B05 from flat. Times that figure by three or four if you're using a three-pin plug, although that's generally not recommended by manufacturers. 

We didn't particularly enjoy driving any of Leapmotor's first UK offerings, the B10, C10 and T03, so we didn't exactly have high hopes for the B05. We had a pleasant surprise, though, as its ride and handling balance is much better sorted here.

The suspension does a good job of soaking up lumps and bumps in the road surface, while also offering enough support to keep the car fairly level in the corners. There's plenty of grip at the front, and although it's rear-wheel drive, this isn't really noticeable, with the rear end staying planted even if you start accelerating in a corner. 

There's an odd feeling of remoteness to the way the B05 drives, though. A lot of this comes from the vague steering, but it's generally a numb-feeling car. It's the driving equivalent of having an out-of-body experience. 

We're not too bothered, really. The comfort side of the equation is more important, and the B05 scores well in that regard, backed up by reasonably good refinement, with wind and road noise kept down to an acceptable volume.

Leapmotor B05 batteries and motors

Although the B05 is available with two different batteries elsewhere, the UK is only taking the bigger one. It's a 67kWh unit, powering a single motor at the rear axle, an arrangement you'll also find in an MG4 and a Cupra Born. 

There's a slight pause when you put your foot down before anything happens, but the B05 picks up and builds speed nicely thereafter. It's not exactly dramatic off the line, however, and that's likely down to the torque, or lack of, compared to something like a Cupra Born.

The B05's 218PS outguns the entry-level Born's 190PS, but the latter car has 350Nm of torque, eclipsing the modest 240Nm offered by the Leapmotor. As electric motors can deliver their torque instantly, it makes a big difference to how the B05 feels when you're looking to make a quick getaway. 

The level of performance is perfectly acceptable for most, though, with a fairly sprightly 0-62mph time of 6.7 seconds and a top speed of 105mph. Given who we're expecting to buy the car, it's an odd choice to not just include launch control, but also make a big deal about it – it's even mentioned specifically on the spec sheet.

Should you fancy using it, you'll need to put the car in its Sport mode and press both the accelerator and brake pedal at the same time, lifting off the brake when you're ready to set off. 

The Leapmotor B05 is yet to be tested by Euro NCAP. While no guarantee of the B05's performance, it's reassuring that both the B10 and C10 achieved the full five stars when assessed by the safety body. 

You're not wanting for safety systems, with the B05 coming with a comprehensive suite including adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assistance, a driver attention monitor, blind spot detection, autonomous emergency braking, front and rear collision warning and lane change assistance as standard. 

We ran into multiple problems with these assistance systems, though. The lane assistance system often triggers when it shouldn't on country lanes, and its interventions can be quite aggressive. Turning it off isn’t as simple as you might hope, either, with multiple elements you can pick from to disengage. You want to turn it all off, really, but the system has a habit of turning itself back on if the ‘emergency lane keeping’ element is triggered, which will, as mentioned, happen erroneously. 

The worst part of all is the driver attention monitor. This just seemed to go off constantly, even when eyes were firmly on the road. It was worse when sunglasses were worn, making us wonder if it struggles to track eye movements through the tint. Although less of a problem when wearing regular glasses, the false warnings did still occasionally crop up, when they didn’t for another journalist driving the same car who didn't need corrective lenses to drive.

Even when it is working, it's very over-zealous – it seems a bit mean to bury so many functions into a distracting touchscreen and then telling the driver off for looking away from the road for the briefest moment. And unlike most of the assistance systems, you need to be stationary to turn it off. 

Leapmotor is keen to emphasise that you can create customisable profiles with your preferances in terms of what's off/on, but we'd rather the systems just worked properly in the first place. 

The Leapmotor B05 is not rated to tow anything, so you'll need to look elsewhere if you're looking to haul a trailer or caravan.

The B05's boot space of 345 litres isn't anything amazing – it's a good chunk behind the MG4's 363 litres and the Cupra Born's 375 litres. We also would have liked a more flexible 40/20/40 split for the folding rear seat, rather than the 60/40 you get here. Folded flat, there's a total of 1400 litres of cargo volume, which is actually a bit better than both the 4 and Born's capacities when similarly configured. 

While the boot space won't wow you, the rear legroom should. For a car of this size, there's plenty of legroom even for taller rear-seat passengers, and although the panoramic sunroof does cut into the headroom a bit, you can be a smidge over six feet and still have good clearance. 

The dashboard has holes cut into the lower section, which can be used for various accessories, including a fold-out tray table. Availability of these in the UK hasn't been confirmed, though, and some might not work as well in a right-hand drive configuration. 

In the front part of the cabin, there's a deep storage cubby under the central armrest, just in front of which is a wireless phone charging pad and a double cupholder. This section forms a sort of 'bridge' to the rest of the dashboard, underneath which is an open, shallow storage area. 

Leapmotor B05 dimensions

The B05 is 4430mm long, 1880mm wide (including mirrors) and 1520mm tall. Interestingly, Leapmotor brags about the B05 having a 'class-leading width', and sure enough, it's quite a bit broader than a Cupra Born, which is 1880mm across. The Born is also slightly shorter at 4322mm, and a bit taller at 1540mm.

The B05 initially looks quite premium when you first look inside, helped by its massive central infotainment screen. The artificial leather cladding much of the cabin doesn't feel all that luxurious, though. It also doesn't help that the cabin is just a sea of grey. Everything seems to be put together well enough, but it's hard to know how it'll all look in a few years, given that Leapmotor is an unknown quantity.

The B05 features a massive 14.6-inch landscape touchscreen infotainment system. It needs to be big, though, because it's needed for pretty much everything. Like the climate control, the heated seats, and even the electric mirrors. Frustratingly, you need to prod the screen multiple times to bring up an electric mirror adjustment mode, at which point the left-hand directional control on the steering wheel can be used to move it where you want. 

There is at least a shortcut for the climate temperature permanently displayed at the bottom, but it's small and simply not as easy to use as a proper button. And if you want to do anything else, it's a real faff. Initially, we thought the little fan icon would bring up the climate control window, but it doesn't – it turns the system off entirely. Instead, you press the temperature readout, which feels counterintuitive. It involves further distracting screen prodding to change the fan speed. 

The screen responds quickly enough to touch, but the graphic design is very bland and grey-heavy. There's little identity to it – it all felt extremely familiar to the systems in other Chinese cars we've tested recently, including those from BYD. 

It's the same story with the 8.8-inch digital instrument cluster. Same greys, same setup with a digital representation of the road in the middle portion of the display. As we've seen in so many other new Chinese cars, it shows what the car's sensors are picking up – things you can probably see quite well out of the front of the car with your own eyes.

Taking up so much of the display with this means a lot of the other information is unceremoniously shoved to the side and shown in a small font. This includes your speed, which we'd rather have in the middle and in much larger digits. 

These are the latest On The Road (OTR) prices for the new Leapmotor B05 as of June 2026 – prices can change, so please use these as a guide before checking Leapmotor's latest price lists. 

Is the Leapmotor B05 good value compared to rivals?

Considering all the equipment you're getting, the range figure and the charging ability, the B05 looks like great value at its initial price of £28,995. That price does include what Leapmotor calls a 'Leap Grant' of £1500, though, matching the Band 2 government Electric Car Grant (ECG), which the B05 is unlikely to ever be eligible for. At the moment, the discount is available until the end of September 2026. 

A Cupra Born costs more like £34,500 with ECG, coming with a similar range for that figure. Even the cheapest version of the MG4, another value-oriented, Chinese-built EV, is slightly more expensive.

Then again, if you are a cash buyer, we've seen some pretty big discounts on comparable EVs like the Cupra Born. We'll also need to wait and see how the B05's finance deals pan out, because these will be of more relevance to a lot of customers. 

You'll still need to pay £200 annually from year two in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) car tax, because the EV exemption has been binned. 

We averaged about four miles per kWh in the B05 we drove, which would give you a real-world range figure of 270 miles. That's reasonably close to the official figure, and it'd make for a very cheap car to run, especially if you're on an EV tariff and are able to time your charging sessions with cheap off-peak electricity. If you're on a standard tariff, it'll cost about £17 to fully charge. 

Insurance groups weren't available at the time of writing, but judging by other Leapmotor models, we're expecting these to be high for the performance and price of the car. This is often the case for fledgling brands in the UK, because insurers don't have a lot of historical data to go on.

There's a question mark over reliability, too – it's too early to know how the B05 or any Leapmotor will fare in the long run. Having the backup of a large, existing company in the form of Stellantis is reassuring, at least, and the warranty lasts slightly longer than what's considered the bare minimum. It runs for four years or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first. 

In the UK, the Leapmotor B05 is available in only one specification, coming with plenty of equipment as standard. The only optional extras are colours, charged at £575 each.

The standard equipment list includes:

• 18-inch alloy wheels
• Adaptive cruise control
• 8.8-inch digital instrument cluster 
• 14.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• Apple CarPlay/Android Auto
• Electrically adjustable front seats
• Heated front seats
• Heated steering wheel
• Climate control
• Panoramic sunroof
• Interior ambient lighting