Road-tripping 900km through regional Victoria in Leapmotor’s new C10 REEV

It’s a bit of a strange experience to take in silo art. For this particular silo at Albacutya, nine kilometres north of Rainbow in north-west Victoria, a blonde-haired lady, 34 metres tall up the side of a towering silo, smiles as she gazes into the distance – while embracing a giant yabbie. 

The artist, Kitt Bennett, wanted a surreal vibe – and she’s certainly nailed that as we stand at the foot of the Big Desert Wilderness Area looking at a grain silo. Wind gusting, sun setting, and feeling like the only people for miles. 

With Melbourne more than 400km away, we’ve arrived here on Victoria’s famed Silo Art Trail, taking in this vast part of Australia from the helm of a new hybrid SUV made for exactly this. It promises to give back to owners of electric vehicles (EVs) something they’ve been sorely missing – the ability to embark on a classic Australian road trip with no notice, no planning and no worries. 

The road-trip-ready EV: meet the Leapmotor C10 REEV Ultra Hybrid

Our chosen vehicle for this journey is a Range-Extended Electric Vehicle (REEV). We haven’t seen one of these since the pioneering BMW i3 REX and Holden Volt from yesteryear. 

As well as a 1000km-range (NEDC) hybrid SUV, you can think of the new Leapmotor C10 REEV Ultra Hybrid as an electric car with an onboard, back-up generator that takes over when the battery gets low. When the petrol tank itself runs low, you simply fill it back up with old-fashioned petrol at a petrol station. Range anxiety? Not here. 

Just as novel as the REEV concept is, of course, Leapmotor itself. New to Australia but designing and engineering cars now for nearly a decade, Leapmotor is backed by Stellantis, the global automotive giant that owns Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Maserati and Peugeot – to name but a few of its brands. The C10 REEV Ultra Hybrid takes on rivals such as the Tesla Model Y but with arguably more usability and greater value. And not worrying about where you’ll plug it in. 

In iridescent, metallic Jade Green and on its standard 20-inch wheels, our top-spec C10 REEV Ultra Hybrid Design is a handsome SUV – and could look to your neighbours like you’ve just shelled out $80,000 or more on your new car. But this tech-filled, spacious SUV’s secret is – quite aside from its powertrain which we’ll shortly get to – that it’s just $50,890 drive-away. 

What you get for the money is truly impressive. As well as a long list of standard features, the Leapmotor C10 REEV features a 28.4kWh lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) battery pack mounted flat under the floor, powering a single 158kW/320Nm electric motor, driving the rear wheels. 

Under the bonnet is a 1.5-litre petrol engine that can charge the battery during driving, giving this SUV a claimed 1150km (NEDC) range. 

That means you can see a lot on one tank, and one charge, and Drive’s devised a way to experience the REEV across urban, highway and country roads. This involves a tour of Victorian towns starting with R, as an admittedly cute nod to the C10’s advanced REEV powertrain that’s helping us cover so many kilometres. 

Reservoir to Riddell’s Creek: topping up at a DC fast-charger 

One advantage of the C10 REEV is that if you don’t want to ever plug it in, you don’t have to. It can run as an efficient hybrid SUV running solely on petrol power. But equally, electricity is generally cheaper than petrol, and you can recharge not just using AC, but even a DC public fast charger. 

To ensure the C10’s battery is full for our trip, our journey begins at a DC fast-charger near the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir. The C10 can accept up to 65kW from something like an Evie charger, taking the battery from 30 to 80 per cent capacity in as little as 18 minutes. For us, that’s enough time to ensure our own caffeine reserves are just as brimmed for the jaunt ahead. 

With a full battery and full fuel tank, the C10 pleasingly displays a maximum range of 1142km. That would be enough to get us to Rainbow, our final stop on the Silo Art Trail, and back with distance to spare. 

We hit the road, and it’s in this urban environment, in EV mode, the C10 feels at home. The steering is effortless, there’s a tight turning circle, outstanding high-resolution 360-degree parking camera, and great general visibility. The electric motor offers smooth and near-silent refinement, while we love the instant torque under the right foot and regenerative braking. 

RELATED: Visit the Leapmotor C10 Showroom

Riddells Creek to Rheola: taking in the lux Leapmotor’s tech and space

We hit the Calder Freeway and before long, we’re in Riddells Creek – a tiny village with a bit of historic architecture and, it turns out, a bakery with excellent vanilla slice. 

But it’s this leg where we had our first real chance to take in the C10’s interior – and it’s hard not to be impressed with the tech, space and overall vibe. 

Our test car comes with the Black interior, but we would have gone for the Camel Brown that tastefully mixes high-quality tan and black upholstery with what looks like brushed aluminium. If nobody told you the Oeko-Tex-certified upholstery wasn’t real leather, you could think it was nappa.  

The standard, expansive panoramic glass roof fills the C10 interior with natural light, while the 14.6-inch, high-resolution central infotainment screen is somewhat the star of the show – and looks awesome. And thank you, Leapmotor, for including a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster. To see your speed, some other EV manufacturers make you glance at the central screen. Not here. 

And there’s space, everywhere. Front-row passengers will never knock elbows, while those in the back benefit from the flat floor and huge knee room. Two or three adults could comfortably sit back there on a long journey. And at 546 litres, the boot looks ready to take all their luggage along with them. 

Towards Rheola, the C10 fires up the combustion engine. Outside of the city, and running on 91RON, it’s this highly efficient four-cylinder engine that’s doing the hard yards of this story, humming along at approximately 2200rpm at 100km/h, continuously charging the battery. 

If we were in an EV, we’d have pulled over about now to furiously Google charging stations, hoping there was one within walking distance of a decent eatery. In the C10 REEV, it’s not a thought. 

Rheola to Rupanyup: the C10’s Level 2 ADAS levels-up long trips 

As we continue on the open road towards the little locality of Rheola, about 90 minutes north-west, we’re feeling grateful for the C10’s Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) which combines adaptive cruise control (with stop-and-go) with lane-centring. On long trips like today’s, the C10 can drive ‘with’ you – which can greatly reduce fatigue. 

We arrive in Rheola to find some rolling hills, a scattering of eucalyptus trees, a few houses and a CFA fire station. Gold was discovered here in 1868, and today it’s home to only a few hundred people. From here, we head deeper into Victoria’s Loddon Mallee Region and it seems appropriate to load up some “Mallee Boy” by John Williamson on the in-built Spotify. 

Rupanyup to Rainbow: taking in the Silo Art Trail

About 109km directly west is Rupanyup, and as we approach, there’s a sight that becomes familiar when driving in this part of Victoria: silos on the horizon. They start small, like distant 12-storey buildings, then loom larger as you get into the town. 

Much like Rainbow – our next and last stop – Rupanyup is on the Silo Art Trail. Driving tourism to regional areas, 23 giant artworks can be found in tiny Victorian towns like Rupanyup, painted by renowned street artists from Australia and overseas. 

And like many of those same towns, Rupanyup is awaiting its renaissance. Empty shops line the main street, except for one – Qreiositi (a play on curiosity), a quirky store full of unique art and antiques. If you’re passing through, it’s worth a look. 

Rainbow to Dimboola: ghosts of the Victorian era 

After about 400km from Melbourne (and an overnight stop), we make it to Rainbow – a town far enough away that you can start to sense the outback. 

Grand, Victorian-era buildings line Rainbow’s peaceful main street. A man sits outside one of the pubs, and watches us as we silently motor past. It’s fair to assume this is the first time a Leapmotor has visited Rainbow. 

The Albacutya Silo Art from the start of our story is about 10 minutes further north, and we arrive to the setting sun and an eerie feeling of nobody around for many kilometres. Given it’s six degrees Celsius after the sun has set, we’re more than a little bit grateful for the C10’s heated steering wheel and heated front seats. 

Dimboola to Melbourne: the C10’s ‘unfair advantage’ on a road trip 

While it doesn’t start with R, Dimboola is one of the Mallee’s revival towns – and we’ve come to see why. We arrive at night, the high beam of the C10’s LED headlights brightly illuminating dark Aussie country roads. 

Our accommodation is the Dimboola Imaginarium situated in a 100-year-old bank – with a giant stuffed giraffe in the front room. Chan and partner Jamie sold two restaurants in Melbourne and moved here in 2019, and now offer this unique accommodation to those treading the Silo Trail. 

“The town was dead after it was bypassed, thousands of cars everyday gone, overnight,” says Chan. But now its charming pub, main street and the Imaginarium are bringing people back. “It’s now more popular than Horsham,” says Chan. He says Dimboola offers a formula for reinvigoration for other Aussie country towns. 

In a carpark across the road is a council-supplied 22kW AC electric vehicle charger, free for public use. We plug in the C10 and overnight we have 170km of electric range anew – and it hasn’t cost us a dime. 

On a long tour like this, that’s the C10 REEV’s unfair advantage compared to a conventional hybrid SUV in Australia – you can get a full charge while you sleep. More hotels and motels are offering on-site recharging for EVs, as well. 

The full charge and leftover petrol get us back to Melbourne, and we arrive having completed close to 900km. The C10 has been the perfect companion for our trip – spacious, comfortable and with plenty of technology making the many hours behind the wheel that little bit more enjoyable. We’ve visited parts of Victoria we never knew existed – without worrying about fuel. 

Not just one of the most affordable range-extending hybrid SUVs in 2025, the C10 REEV will make sense for buyers not yet ready for a full EV. Recharged at home each night, the C10 would have all the EV range you’d ever need throughout a busy week – covering the daily commute, school pick-up and drop-off, grocery runs – the lot. 

But its onboard petrol engine means it’s just as ready for the unexpected. For whatever reason, if you needed to drive to Perth at a moment’s notice, you could just get in and go. The same can’t be said of a pure EV. In the C10 REEV, there’s something very freeing about that. 

Although you might start wondering what towns start with L. 

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