EVs now beating petrol on lease costs?

[3sheds]

I only recently saw this deal but from July 2025, Leapmotors started leasing a medium to large EV SUV, the C10, for only £175 per month.

Here are the forums where people are raving about it.

It interested me because:

1. People on piston heads forum are going crazy for it. They are not consumers who are interested in saving the planet. They are interested in as big and luxurious an SUV possible for lowest price. So it's attracting people who wouldn't normally consider an EV.

2. Leapmotor C10 is being marketed by trusted Stellantis-selling UK dealers. So that removes a big perceived risk for many consumers. Dealers are still the most popular way to buy/lease new cars.

3. The C10 doesn't seem to qualify for the government grant but it is still way cheaper than petrol equivalents (probably because made by an experienced chinese manufacturer).

I really wonder whether this is a "watershed" moment? EVs (but mainly only chinese made) are becoming significanly cheaper than petrol for UK consumers to lease. Therefore the transition to EVs might be driven by lower purchase/lease prices in the future.

But it presents a massive problem for the European/US based manufacturers like Stelantis, VW group and Ford. Their problem is not how to make EVs cheaper per se. Their problem is that they can't make any car, even if petrol or hybrid, cheaper or better quality than Chinese EV competitors.

Do you think the Leapmotor C10 is just a one off or is it a watershed moment for EVs getting cheaper than petrol cars? Can the legacy car makers come back from this, or are they now doomed? Will UK government start putting tarrifs on these vehicles or requirements for assembly in the UK?

 

[T1 Terry]

The more lease EV's out there, the most s/h EV that will hit the market at the end of the lease period. The more EV's the better the charging infrastructure get until it becomes too expensive to buy or own a petrol car. The second hand car yards will be swamped with petrol cars that no body wants and that will be the point the petrol car manufacturers hit the wall .... but most petrol and diesel car makers already know they are at the end of an era, the emission standards will push them out of the industry even if the sales demand doesn't drop to the point they are no longer viable.

There will always be those who build mega expensive petrol powered cars, just like there are still horse carriage makers, but the average motorist won't be able to afford to buy, insure, repair or even fuel one within 5 to 10 yrs ....

T1 Terry

 

[Bam Bam]

I only recently saw this deal but from July 2025, Leapmotors started leasing a medium to large EV SUV, the C10, for only £175 per month.

Here are the forums where people are raving about it.

It interested me because:

1. People on piston heads forum are going crazy for it. They are not consumers who are interested in saving the planet. They are interested in as big and luxurious an SUV possible for lowest price. So it's attracting people who wouldn't normally consider an EV.

EVs are already significantly cheaper than petrol cars (for those with driveways) when you take the cost of fuel/charge into account.

There is a huge amount of FUD and lies about batteries and so on but people doing leases won't care even if they believe that stuff because it is someone else's problem.

The FUD is impacting second hand prices which in turn is making leases more expensive. Though it means great deals for people who are looking for second hand EVs.

Do you think the Leapmotor C10 is just a one off or is it a watershed moment for EVs getting cheaper than petrol cars?

EVs are only going to get cheaper with competition and battery price drops, petrol cars aren't.

In fact petrol cars are getting more and more complicated to try to increase the efficiency a tiny amount to get a bit closer to EVs. That is just making them more expensive and less reliable, making EVs more appealing in comparison.

Can the legacy car makers come back from this, or are they now doomed?

Car manufacturing work has long been a high paid job (though a tough job) for people with few qualifications. My Grandad did it for 40 years and it paid well.

Robots have increasingly taken over the process, but it might be that those working in car factories will have to take pay cuts to compete with Chinese labour costs.

On the other hand...

• Chinese labour costs will rise as China gets richer so it might even out a little bit.
• The Chinese car industry could be in for difficult times when the state withdraws support and there could be a bloodbath. At the moment they are producing too many cars hence why they are getting shipped over to UK and Australia.

Will UK government start putting tarrifs on these vehicles or requirements for assembly in the UK?

The UK should follow the EU and introduce a Carbon Border Adjustment mechanism that will hit all imports from China in the short term.

That will increase costs for consumers and level the playing field slightly.

I wouldn't want to be a car company boss unless maybe I also owned a robotics company (cough Hyundai).

Tesla should be cleaning up but instead the boss is too busy doing a fascism.

 

[3sheds]

I agree with much of what you say. The only bit of nuance I'd point out is that China has gone from buying most of its cars from foreign manufacturers (either manufacturing in China or abroad) to being able to cover all its domestic demand by Chinese production by Chinese manufacturers. It's done this in a really short time. So its not suprising there would be some overproduction. That doesn't mean the primary aim of subsidies was to dump on foreign ccountries. It just means the aim was to build up strong domestic manufacturing, as Europe and America have had for the last 100 years. In so doing they've built up technological and efficiency advantages over the legacy manufacturers. The blame for this should be laid at the legacy manufacturers who have been given multiple warnings that they should have switched more quickly to EV production, but they ignored until it was too late.

I think the UK government should try to attract Chinese, and other country's manufacturing here, in return for tarrif free access. That is what Indonesia is doing quite successfully. Once we have the EV plants within the UK, our young people will be able to work out how they operate and hopefully eventually set up UK based companies to compete (or at least to compliment).

Also the elephant in the room is that investment in car manufacturing in the UK has fallen off a cliff since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016. Pre-2016 most UK manufactured cars were being exported to the EU. I don't think we'll ever get that level of industry back to the UK unless we get back a close and stable trading relationship with the EU. But that isn't going to happen this decade unfortunatley, with Nigel Farage waiting in the wings along with other economic nationalist parties waiting to take power in Europe.

 

[Everest]

I think the UK government should try to attract Chinese, and other country's manufacturing here, in return for tarrif free access. That is what Indonesia is doing quite successfully. Once we have the EV plants within the UK, our young people will be able to work out how they operate and hopefully eventually set up UK based companies to compete (or at least to compliment).

So, how would that work with the UK's minimum wage of approx. £12 per hour, China around £3 per hour and Indonesia less than £1.50 per hour?

 

[JohnV6]

We happily off shored all production. EU states used redundancy cost scam etc to block that. I ran 32 factories across the eu and despite the lowest labour cost they were the most attractive to close. The eu wasn't an even market. Rachel has made any kind of business totally unattractive . It is not just labour cost now.

We need to onshore production but the accountants and banks will say no

 

[Bam Bam]

I agree with much of what you say. The only bit of nuance I'd point out is that ...

Agree with all that.

China creates industrial targets and uses subsidies to achieve their economic aims (like opening new coal plants, making NEVs, building apartments etc.).

These tools are in some ways overly effective and then there is a glut and then they need to deal with oversupply (under-utilised coal plants, surplus EVs, demolishing towers).