Leapmotor listens! Chinese EV brand ditches world’s most annoying key!
EV and ranbge extender brand Leapmotor has listened to one of the loudest complaints about its cars, confirming it will roll out a proper physical key across future models and model-year updates.
The Chinese brand’s current key-card system — used on models including the C10 and B10 SUVs — has come under fire in Australia, and seemingly abroad.
It requires owners to tap the card on the exterior mirror to unlock or lock the car, as well as power it on or off, and then place it on the wireless phone charging pad before selecting a gear.
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It is painful in practice, especially if you are used to simply walking up to your car with a key in your pocket and driving away.
So, Leapmotor has consigned the technology to the history books. Well, sort of.
The key card will remain, but it will be joined by a physical key and the existing phone app, giving owners three ways to enter the car.
“The B05 arrived with the key. The B03 arrived with the key. The key card’s dead,” says Leapmotor International’s Global head of Brand Strategy, Product and Marketing, Francesco Giacalone.
“Well, we are keeping the key card and the physical key, because the key card could be a nice backup you have always in your wallet.
“You can open the car basically with three options. Phone, key, card. And existing models on sale will adopt the key by model-year change, which happens in (the European) summertime.”
That should be welcome news for Australian buyers, with the C10 and B10 already on sale here, and the B05 confirmed for launch later this year.
Only the B05 will launch with a key, but coming updates to the two models already here will see them adopt a key system, too.
The timing for those updates has not yet been confirmed for Australia, but Giacalone said the rollout would begin with model-year updates in Europe during its summer, suggesting the shift is already locked into Leapmotor’s global product planning.
