Geely EX2 review

In a way, the Geely EX2 is the spiritual successor to the popular Renault Zoe. Its blobby proportions hide a cabin that can comfortably hold four adults, while its soft suspension makes light work of bumpy British roads that would leave other small EVs bumping and crashing out like a badger in a rave.

Sure, the Geely EX2's aesthetics are a little too blob-fish for our liking, but it's wonderful to see a manufacturer offering interesting colours. There are pastel shades of pistachio and dusky pink, as well as a few silvers, and a surprisingly tasty Farrow and Ball creamy off-white. Just stay away from the £185 optional racing stripes, which feel a bit incongruous on a car that takes 11.5 seconds to get to 62mph in its most powerful configuration.

Neither of the EX2's battery options – 35kWh and 47kWh – offer much in the way of driving range. The smaller battery gets a claimed 155 miles, while the larger promises 214 miles but will more realistically get you 185 miles up the road before going flat. Fast-charging speeds aren't fantastic on paper, and you'll take 30 minutes to get from 10-80% on a fast charger.

Dubious looks and average EV stats aside, the EX2 is a cracking little car. The cabin gets two large screens and all the smartphone connectivity you could want. We wish the climate controls weren't in the screen, and it'd be nice to have slightly clearer graphics on the 8.8-inch drivers display, but overall ambience is good. There's plenty of storage too, with a large centre-console cubby and a big pull-out glovebox which is somewhat useless if you have a passenger in the car – it just clouts their knees and won't fully open.

Back-seat space is phenomenal for a car that's only 4.1 metres long, with headroom and knee-room for tall adults. Boot space is also about what you'd get on a much-larger Volkswagen Golf.

Perhaps most surprising is the driving experience. The rear-wheel-drive setup of the Geely EX2 doesn't result in any engaging driving dynamics, but it does allow for a noticeably tighter-than-average turning circle. Light steering makes this a killer urban runabout, as does a standard-fit reversing camera, replaced by a 360-degree camera on top-spec models. 

It's pretty slow, but it's comfortable enough for long journeys, copes well with crap British roads and has all the tech you could really need, as well as an eight-year warranty. And all at a price that undercuts most of its rivals such as the Renault 4, Nissan Micra and BYD Dolphin.

The Geely EX2 feels reasonably luxurious inside – especially in our top-spec test car in Ultra trim. This gives you the option of a white artificial leather, replacing the darker black interior you get on other EX2 models. You'll only really spot the fact this is a cheap car if you start prodding the hard plastics on top of the dashboard. Even the shiny black plastic inserts on the doors and in front of the passenger seat have a Z-shaped pattern that's designed to resemble the Milky Way (the galaxy, not the chocolate bar). Ultra models have 256-colour ambient lighting to perk things up further at night.

Behind the EX2's soft flat-bottomed steering wheel you'll find an 8.8-inch driver's display, which shows the speed, but also hosts a confusing clutter of efficiency information. The steering wheel itself has adjustments for the standard-fit adaptive cruise control, and the radio volume and source. The EX2's gearshift is a Mercedes-style column shifter, leaving the centre console free for cupholders, a few physical air-con controls, a wireless phone charger (only on Ultra models) and a slot for pens.

A 14.6-inch screen sits pride of place on the dashboard, and includes wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a host of games to play when you're charging the car, a camping mode, built-in apps such as Spotify and Amazon Music, as well as an app store. It's quick and responsive to use, although it's a shame you have to prod at the bottom of it to change the climate control settings rather than using a more convenient physical knob. 

Ultra models get heated seats and a heated wheel, which are also controlled through the screen, and they're also treated to a six-speaker sound system over the four-speaker system you get in entry-level Pro and mid-spec Max models.

It feels as though the Geely EX2 is built for people who use their car as an extension of their loft. For such a small car it offers vast amounts of storage. There's a 10-litre glove box drawer (with aforementioned accessibility problems if you have a passenger in the car), a 20-litre cavern under the centre console, a bin under the driver's arm-rest, big door bins and – optionally – a large drawer under the rear seats.

The 375-litre boot is devoid of any fancy under-floor storage, but it's a big old space for such a small car. There's a sharp drop down into the boot from the load lip, but the space is nice and wide and it'll easily swallow a large suitcase or two. Drop the rear seats down and you're left with 1,320 litres of space. 

The boot lid is electrically powered on Ultra models, but weirdly the parcel shelf doesn't swing up out of the way when you open the boot – it's just not attached to the boot lid. Some small rubber wedges on each side of the parcel shelf mean you can wedge it up, but you'll need to manually lower it before closing the boot – otherwise it interferes with the electric boot-closing mechanism and you'll get a lot of beeping… and a boot that just stays open.

Back-seat space is class-leading. The rear seats give tall adults enough kneeroom and headroom to relax, though they have to share a single USB-A socket. There are two air vents on the centre console to help stay cool. The middle seat isn't especially wide, but the flat floor means there won't be any footsie shenanigans with three people in the back. The outer seats have Isofix points hidden behind a velcro flap.

The only major practical downsides are that while the front seats are electrically adjustable on all versions of the EX2, the passenger seat isn't adjustable for height – and we don't know how that glovebox made it past testing given how it just doesn't open if someone with legs is in the front passenger seat.

Entry level Pro models of the EX2 come with a 35kWh battery that's officially good for 155 miles of electric driving. It can charge at a maximum of 60kW, which is slow, but the small overall capacity means you'll still only wait 30 minutes for a 10-80% charge. It also gets an 82hp motor that's good for a 0-62mph time of 14.2 seconds.

Step up to a Max or Ultra model and you get a bigger 47kWh battery with a theoretical range of 214 miles and a slightly faster 80kW charging rate. You'll still wait half an hour for a 10-80% charge. You do get a more powerful 116hp motor for a 11.5-second 0-62mph dash.

While other small EVs use firm suspension and sharp throttle responses to elicit feelings of sportiness, the Geely EX2 takes a more measured and grown-up approach. Top-spec Ultra models with their 116hp motors still don't feel fast (although the sport driving mode sharpens accelerator response a touch), but there's enough oomph to get up to 70mph. All EX2s are apparently limited to 80mph, but independent testing confirms you can go faster… should you wish.

The real surprise is that the EX2 rarely crashes over bumps, and dealt with some truly horrific farm tracks on our test route that would normally leave you feeling seasick in such a small car. There's a reasonable amount of lean in corners, but there's enough grip, and just occasionally you'll feel the rear-drive balance of the car when you accelerate out of a corner. There's not enough power to ever feel like you're in danger of spinning like a poorly driven BMW on Instagram, and the Geely's traction control system will tidy up any unwanted slides before you're even aware of them.

Because there's no motor between the front wheels, you get a nice tight turning circle too. Light steering does occasionally feel a little too vague at higher speeds, but it makes town driving effortless.

Geely has rolled out an over-the-air update for UK models to make it quicker to disable the speed-limit warning and lane-departure warning systems – though it still takes three presses to do. When left on, we found the lane-keeping system did tug at the wheel a bit too much on single-track roads with no white centre line, but it wasn't too intrusive otherwise. 

The EX2 does have a full suite of 'big car' driver assist systems, including adaptive cruise control, blind-spot detection, traffic sign recognition, rear cross traffic alert, hill descent control and more.