Geely EX5 Review

Geely Auto may be a new name for UK car buyers, but it's one of the biggest brands in China, selling upwards of four million cars per year. And it's the driving force behind the likes of Volvo, Polestar and Smart. It's launching in the UK with this – the EX5. You can think of it as a family-friendly electric SUV that rivals the like of the Skoda Enyaq, Nissan Ariya and Hyundai Ioniq 5.

Despite looking as memorable as a ham sandwich, behind the EX5's cookie-cutter smooth looks and on-trend rear lightbar you'll find a huge amount of kit for the money. Top-spec models have everything from heated and cooled massage seats to a giant panoramic sunroof, as well as wireless-charging abilities and a 360-degree camera.

While the boot is some way off being the largest in its class, the EX5's back-seat accommodation is genuinely impressive, allowing tall adults to lounge in comfort behind similarly lanky front-seat passengers.

Thus far, Chinese manufacturers have struggled to tune their cars' suspension for UK roads, often feeling unsettled and vague. The Geely EX5's been set up by experts from EV (and sometime sportscar) firm Lotus, and the result is that it rides comfortably most of the time, flowing with the road and giving you ample confidence through nicely weighted steering. There are still some jarring bumps at low speeds and it's not exactly fun to drive, but it's more than acceptable. Hurrah.

Downsides? The 60kWh battery does keep the EX5 relatively light at 1.76 tonnes, but also limits range to 255 miles on paper – we saw about 220 miles in real-world testing. Fast charging speeds are bang average too at a 100kW maximum.

With an eight-year warranty and enough launch discounts to bring the price of a new top-spec Max model to about £33,000, Geely's value proposition is on par with the likes of Jaecoo models, and initially far more financially appealing than a European alternative.

The Geely EX5's interior looks rather smart, and even entry-level SE models get a blue fake-leather interior. Pro and Max models give a choice of white or black.

Whichever you pick, you feel cocooned in the driver's seat with a high centre console to your left, on top of which you get a twin phone holder/wireless charger and a lidded cubby hiding the cupholders.

All models get a 15.4-inch infotainment screen with wireless Apple CarPlay, and it's quick and responsive to the touch. We love the fun set of customisable wallpapers, including boudoir shots of kittens and adorable small rodents. You might smell a rat when it comes to the menus though – there's a lot of burrowing to be done if you want to disable the lane-keep assist and speed-limit warnings.

Generally speaking, we still found it easier to find most things than in a BYD or Jaecoo, and there's always a voice assistant to help – handy considering the climate controls also require a few prods and swipes to change. Thankfully there is a physical button for quick windscreen demisting.

All EX5s also come with a digital dashboard as standard. It's a bright rectangular affair and looks almost identical to that we've seen in other Chinese cars, so it'll show you your driving range and trip stats. There's a customisable button on the steering wheel which can be used to turn on the 360-camera, change the audio source or… open the boot. Fantastic. We didn't test it at 70mph, but presumably it's sensible enough to ignore you when you're moving.

Top-spec Max models also get a large 13.8-inch head-up display, which can show you a litany of information including a view of the traffic around you taken from the EX5's sensors, plus adaptive cruise control information, your usual speed limit guidance and media info.

Speaking of audio, the Max model's 16-speaker 1,000-watt sound system includes a subwoofer, as well as headrest speakers in the front seats. It sounds clear and bassy.

Material quality throughout the cabin is impressive for the price, with soft-touch materials everywhere you'll rest elbows and hands, and it's only when you reach into the door bins that things feel a bit plasticky.

Otherwise, the Geely EX5 is another well-equipped car from China. The frankly staggering standard kit list on entry-level models includes a 360-degree camera, 18-inch alloys, sat-nav, keyless entry and go, wireless charging, tinted rear windows, that synthetic leather interior, a heated steering wheel and a heat pump.

Max models add a head-up display, the 16-speaker upgrade, a panoramic sunroof, powered boot lid, metallic paint, 256-colour ambient lighting, front parking sensors, ventilated and massage front seats and a power-adjustable front passenger leg rest. Phew.

At just over 4.6 metres long, the Geely EX5 fits in between the Nissan Ariya and Skoda Enyaq. Like the Nissan, it prioritises rear-seat space over boot capacity – the Geely has just 410 litres of normal boot space, plus a large 51-litre plastic box under the boot floor. An Enyaq has 585 litres in total.

Back-seat passengers will find it easy to get comfy in the Geely. Six-footers will be happy for long journeys, with plenty of headroom and footroom, even with the driver's seat dropped as low as it'll go – a rare thing in an EV.

There's a flat floor throughout the rear cabin, along with a comfy drop-down central armrest featuring two cupholders. There's also a pair of USB sockets in the back – a USB-A and a USB-C.

Reach underneath the back seats and you'll find a pull-out drawer with 14 litres of space, which will be a handy place to stash high-vis vests on a European roadtrip. 

In total, Geely reckons there are 33 storage spaces in the cabin. There's a full-width glovebox, large door bins in each door and a large area under the centre console with more charging ports.

Whichever trim level you pick for your Geely EX5, you'll get the same 60kWh battery and 218hp electric motor powering the front wheels. 

The battery isn't as big as in something like a Kia EV6, so the Geely will travel a modest claimed 255 miles on a charge in a top-spec version (smaller wheels on the entry-level model increase range to 267 miles). We saw reasonable efficiency of 3.7mi/kWh in our testing, suggesting a real-world range of 220 miles.

Fast charging is possible at a fairly old-school 100kW, so a 30-80% charge takes 20 minutes (some other manufacturers manage 10-80% in the same time). A heat pump is standard, and the inclusion of a vehicle-to-load system on top-spec models means you can power laptops or small fridges from the car.

Acceleration is brisk without slapping your head back into the headrest, and the 0-62mph sprint takes 6.9 seconds.

You're not going to have any memorable drives in the Geely EX5, but it does at least ride comfortably on UK roads thanks to a pleasingly soft suspension setup. It never feels wayward over bumps and crests in the road, though it does lean a fair bit when you get it into a tight corner.

The steering weights up nicely, though it's still a little vague in more technically demanding sections of road but hey – it's a family SUV and it ticks all the right boxes from that point-of-view.

There's adjustable brake regeneration through the touchscreen, and you can also alter the response of the brake pedal itself – though we found it a little 'nothing… nothing… everything' in both comfort and sport modes.

As you'd expect there's also a range of driving modes to sharpen throttle response, but given how the EX5 can wheelspin out of junctions in the damp in normal mode, we suggest leaving it there.

The EX5 comes with all the advanced driver assistance tech you might expect, most of which you'll want to turn off in the touchscreen at the start of every drive. The lane-keep assist bongs away with annoying regularity on narrow country lanes (and repeatedly claimed to have activated the emergency lane assist mode on our test route), and it fought us off our chosen line when we were trying to avoid a rogue wheelie bin on the verge. That's also been true of every other Chinese car we've driven recently – and it's likely software updates will trickle out as the brand continues to develop its cars for the UK.