As far as routes are concerned, our 120-odd km journey in the areas surrounding chilly Milan is a rather nice snapshot of what Italy has to offer. By snapshot, we mean tight alleys, winding backroads, and the sweeping autostrada.

Under the gentle breeze of the continental weather, we’re driving the Leapmotor C10 for an international first-taste held to coincide with the brand’s European introduction. More to the point for you and I though, it’s a sample of what to expect from the next battery electric vehicle (BEV) to be launched in Malaysia really, really soon.

And to recap, Leapmotor is a fledging Chinese carmaker that's only been around for about 8 years. They specialise in BEVs, and were acquired by European conglomerate Stellantis late last year, and they'll handle exports and aftersales network in markets outside of China.

Exterior: How does it look and feel?

It’s a big boy. The C10’s 4,739 mm length, 1,900 mm width, 1,680 mm height and 2,825 mm wheelbase firmly puts it in the D-segment, and upon launch it’ll be among the very few BEV offerings in this size bracket.

Perhaps it's a bold move to break away from the usual B- and C-segment playbook, as so many other brands tend to do. Considering its size, comparable to the Proton X90 and Chery Tiggo 8 Pro, pricing will be crucial. With BEV incentives in the mix, can this new Chinese upstart be positioned to truly challenge its rivals?

However that turns out to be, Leapmotor’s first global model isn't aiming to divide opinions by how it looks. It's all rather simple and pure, with a traditional profile only jazzed up by things like a horizontal light bar and sweet 20-inch wheels. Bonus points for the green though, it's a lovely shade.

The brand also made it clear that making your choice will be simple, offering just two trims and five colours for the European market. It looks to be even easier in Malaysia, given that only the higher-end Design variant (identifiable by the 20-inch wheels) was shown here.

Interior: Minimalist, designed by people who play with phones more than they drive

Much of the simplicity is mirrored within, with two screens highlighting an otherwise uncluttered interior. Between the plastics, the rest of the material mix seems thoughtful enough, with the company employing Oeko-Tex Standard 100; a ‘liquid resistant’ and ‘baby friendly’ synthetic leather for the seats.

From a family car point of view, that’s a pretty strong USP.

Similar good news can be shared about its size. It’s cavernous inside, with ample headroom and miles of legroom, perhaps enough for another row of seats at the back.

Alas it remains a five seater, but that means buyers get a huge boot - 435 litres with the rear seats up, and folding the 60:40 rear bench boosts capacity to 1,410 litres. For smaller items there’s a 32-litre frunk.

In fact, it’s made better when you realise that the C10 offers size like this at prices cheaper than the similarly-sized Tesla Model Y - € 36,400 vs € 43,675 (~RM 167k vs RM 205k) - at least in Europe. If such a feat can be repeated here, it’ll be quite the contender.

The physical parts are all good. What brings the entire package down few steps is the sacrifice of user-friendliness in this wild goose chase for minimalism. They’ve gone full buttonless here, so most of what you’ll use daily is baked into the 14.6-inch quad-HD centre-mounted screen.

Leapmotor’s loaded it with a top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295 chip, hence there’s quite a bit of processing muscle to go with its sharp graphics too.

You’ll need that, given the screen’s sheer omnipresence - adjusting air-cond settings, heck even its vents, your music, your navigation…all can only be done through here.

It’d be nice to have easy access to drive modes and ADAS settings (which reset everytime you turn off the car, by the way), but no, they’re all only adjustable when the car is in P.

At least Leapmotor’s very confident about their over-the-air (OTA) update capabilities - having done 6 in 2023 alone, introducing and fixing about 100-odd functions - so let’s hope a more logical way to do things will come soon, eh?

Otherwise, there's a tidy list of kit to be found. Standard fittings include dual-zone automatic air-cond, 42-inch panoramic glass roof (with electric sunshade), heated and ventilated front seats, wireless phone charging, four USB ports, ambient lighting, and a 12-speaker surround sound setup that admittedly sounds rich.

Driving: Comfortable, but not much to say for engagement

Powering the C10 is a simple, one-size-for-all setup: there’s a single rear-mounted motor (RWD) providing 218 PS and 320 Nm, which is claimed to be good enough to squirt the 1,980 kg SUV from 0-100 km/h in 7.5 seconds. Top speed is rated at 170 km/h.

Energy comes from a lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) battery, of which Malaysia will get the larger 69.9 kWh unit, offering the C10 of up to 420 km of WLTP-rated range on a single charge.

Being built on a 400V architecture means it comes with a 6.6 kW AC charger, and can accept up to 84 kW of DC fast charging. Not the most groundbreaking numbers, but it's sufficient to charge the battery from 30% to 80% in about half an hour.

With that out of the way, driving the C10 itself is a fairly calm experience. It’s good that Leapmotor isn’t about instant torque almost every BEV manufacturer and their mom’s talking about these days, but rather preferring an everyperson tact of smoothness over blistering.

But it can do both. Leaving it in ‘Sport’ mode uncorks all the power but makes it nervous to drive in traffic, so we left it in ‘Comfort’ for most of the time. ‘Eco’ wasn't nice, it just neuters too much power.

Speaking of which, this is another thing that needs an OTA fix - the car defaults to Eco on every startup, but considering the fiddly screen we have to contend with, it'd just be wise to have the car keep the last chosen drive mode.

On matters of ride and handling, it’s got a decidedly European flavour to it - chassis tuning was said to be done by Stellantis’ chassis tuning team in Balocco, Italy, incidentally where Maserati’s is - and to an extent it proves the point. It's composed on the bumps and stable on the fast straights, but it's par with nearly every European SUV.

We’ll note that suspension is a little firm on some road surfaces, but this might change for export models. As it was driven however, it stayed well-controlled and settled quickly after any unexpected bumps.

Of course, it’s also helped by incredibly squishy seats that were also rather indulgent, offering good support on our relatively long drive.

Steering feel is the typical vagueness most Chinese BEVs have, remaining featherlight regardless of mode. The good thing is that it makes the car easy to manoeuvre in Italy’s tight suburbano roads - and it really doesn’t feel imposingly large to drive, despite what the cabin size suggests - but it won't reward anyone who’s looking for a ‘driver’s BEV’, so to speak.

ADAS, despite the C10 having a rather long list of them, isn't the most convincing to use. Lane Keep Assist is particularly intrusive, and it didn't take long before the driver attention warning system yelled at me because I made the cardinal sin of peering to the sides at a narrow junction.

In terms of efficiency, the onboard computer read a usage of about 16.6 kWh/100 km, after a 110 km drive. A majority of it was at low speeds, save for the final 20-30 km stretch on the fast, sweeping autostrada.

First impression verdict

How will it work for Malaysia? Granted, the C10 has its fair share of issues (at this point), but there's a few commendations that will set it apart from the crowd too - it's extremely roomy, largely practical, and its comfort-led character could be just the panacea for someone looking for a simple, everyday family cruiser.

It, however, could benefit from one more positive to really boost its case, and that's pricing. Given that it’s aggressively undercutting rivals in Europe, perhaps a similar strategy is best for Leapmotor to truly meet its Malaysian mark.

That said, we eagerly await another drive on home soil to see how the C10 handles Malaysian roads because it could still be a decent competitor in this space.