This new car model manufactured in China and sold in France has just obtained the maximum score in safety tests.
Who said Chinese products weren’t of good quality? We still hear it very often and it is not always the case. The proof with this new car manufactured by one of the biggest manufacturers in the Middle Kingdom! You have probably already heard of Leapmotor, a brand created just under 10 years ago and specialized in the development of electric vehicles? It attracted a lot of attention at the last Paris Motor Show where many visitors were curious to discover models quite similar to those manufactured in Europe but at much more accessible prices.
Among those highlighted in Paris were the Leapmotor C10, a 100% electric family SUV marketed in France since the start of the school year via the partnership between the Chinese manufacturer and the Stellantis group. With its fairly sober silhouette, its honest equipment and its good habitability, the C10, 4m74 long, has attracted many people. Especially since it has a major asset up its sleeve: its price.
Sold from 36,400 euros, it costs on average 10,000 euros less than its competitors assembled in Europe: the Peugeot e-5008, the Volkswagen ID.4 and the Tesla Model Y for example. For some, such a price difference was undoubtedly hiding a wolf, the robustness of the vehicle probably while the first Chinese vehicles to appear in Europe 30 years ago had displayed limited performance…
This is not the case! The family SUV recently came under the radar of Euro NCAP, a reference body for safety tests carried out on cars. And to almost everyone’s surprise, the Leapmotor received the famous 5 stars, which ranks it among the safest vehicles on the road. In detail, the car made in China obtained scores of 89% for the protection of adults, 85% for the protection of children, 77% for the protection of vulnerable road users and finally 76% for aid to driving.
For comparison, the new Renault 5 E-Tech, supposed to represent French know-how, recently did not obtain 5 stars but only 4. And the very successful electric city car, with respective scores of 80, 80, 76 and 68 in the crash test, was beaten in all categories by the Chinese car, perhaps advantaged by its SUV silhouette!
If some motorists are still reluctant to buy “Chinese”, it is clear that cars made in China, most of them fully electric, no longer have much to envy of models intended for the general public designed on the old continent. Which is not good news for European manufacturers, unable to fight on pricing despite the taxes imposed on the importation of Chinese vehicles and the various government aids established here and there to buy local…