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Chinese electric carmaker Leapmotor has conceded the omission of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in the brand’s C10 electric SUV may have cost it some customers, but it's confident the car's overall value package will still offer mainstream appeal.
Speaking to CarsGuide at last week's Melbourne Motor Show, Head of Leapmotor’s local operations Andy Hoang said the brand was aware the popular screen-mirroring technology is an important feature for Australian buyers.
“To be frank, there will be some customers who are adamant that, ‘this is what I need, this is what I want,’” said Hoang.
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However, Hoang added that in his experience, once customers stepped into a C10 and realised there were alternative options, they could be won over.
“There are a large group of customers who also recognise it isn’t the be-all and end-all.”
“The two things used most in your car are mapping and music, so once you can explain to a customer that the [C10] actually does have maps, it does have Spotify, it does have YouTube, we’ve found that most customers go, ‘oh, I just heard about CarPlay but I don’t really need it.’”
Quite controversially, the C10 arrived on the Australian market without the third-party software that is increasingly considered a minimum requirement on new cars. The car is still compatable with a mobile phone via Bluetooth, although it can only utilise Leapmotor's in-house infotainment software.
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are currently available on Australia’s cheapest car, the Kia Picanto, which retails for $18,390, before on-road costs – about $27,000 less than the 420km driving range C10, which starts at $45,388, also before on-road costs.
Despite a competitive price tag for its segment (the C10 entered the Australian market in November last year as the then cheapest electric medium SUV in the country), it has struggled to gain momentum on the sales charts.
Last month’s sales data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries showed 138 C10s had been sold in the first three months of this year, considerably less than key competitors in the BYD Sealion 7 (730) and Geely EX5 (188). The former comes standard with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, while the latter will add the technology later this year via an over-the-air update.
Global CEO of Stellantis-backed Leapmotor International Tianshu Xin said the decision to omit the smartphone technology was made due to founder Zhu Jiangming’s ambition to model Tesla. The US carmaker uses its own in-house vehicle software, which is widely considered to be the benchmark technology for the EV industry.
He also added that using a mobile phone while driving in China, the C10’s home market, is more common practice than in western countries.
“It’s not, from the customer's perspective, a must in China. Now we’re going abroad… [new models] will have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.”
The incoming B10 small SUV, which the brand is marketing as a “globally-developed” model, will carry the technology thanks to its newer architecture, Xin confirmed. However, it will not be retrofitted to C10 models as it is incompatible with the car’s current architecture.
Xin said Leapmotor was working on an alternative wireless solution to be rolled out in the second half of this year through an over-the-air update that will allow for screen-mirroring functionality, although he didn’t go into detail on how this technology would look.
“There is a solution already coming… so that customer need and feedback is already being taken into consideration,” Xin added.
