First Drive: Can the Geely EX5 stand out in a busy segment?

What is it?

The first ever Geely to go on sale in the UK – sort of. Geely is yet another new car brand from China, but with a bit of a difference. It’s the company that owns Volvo, Polestar, Lotus and even LEVC – whose black cabs you’ll see driving around London.

The EX5 is the first car to be sold here as a Geely, and in typical fashion these days, it’s a mid-sized SUV. It’s also fully electric, though plug-in hybrid Geelys are on the way in the not-too-distant future.

What’s new?

Pretty much everything. Unlike some Chinese cars that find their way here, the EX5 is actually relatively new – having gone on sale in Europe and Australia a few months ago.

Despite its Volvo and Polestar connections, the EX5 doesn’t actually share much (if anything) with those two brands. However, Geely says this car has been tweaked by Lotus’s clever engineers over in Norfolk – all in an attempt to make it a bit better suited for Britain’s uniquely potholed roads.

What’s under the bonnet?

There’s just the one choice of powertrain in our EX5s: a 215bhp electric motor that drives the front wheels. It’s sprightly enough for a car of this size, managing 0-60 in around 7 seconds, and hitting a respectable top speed (for an EV) of 109mph.

As for the battery, there’s only one option there too: a 60kWh pack giving a claimed range of up to 267 miles. So far so average, then. The EX5 does at least charge pretty quickly – 160kW is possible on a rapid charger, and helpfully it’ll accept 11kW through its AC Type 2 socket as well.

That’s all pretty much bang on identical to a BYD Atto 3, though that can’t match the Geely’s rapid charging speeds. European rivals do offer larger battery options and therefore longer ranges, but of course that all comes with a higher price tag.

What’s it like to drive?

Despite all their engineering might, Chinese car makers do seem to struggle in making a car that’s enjoyable to drive. Geely has had a decent crack at it though, and – perhaps thanks to those engineers at Lotus – the result isn’t bad.

It’s very much tilted towards comfort rather than sportiness, and does deal reasonably well with lumps and bumps of British roads. As with almost all front-wheel-drive EVs, the steering can get a bit unruly under hard acceleration – though drive in a relaxed manner and it’s largely fine.

It’s also got a slightly clumsy way of minimising that EV-typical wheel spin you can get from a standstill. Geely has artificially damped down the acceleration, making the EX5 feel strangely sluggish off the mark up to about 30mph.

More unnerving is the lane keep assist, which clearly hasn’t ever seen a British road before: tugging you left and right constantly as you try to drive down even reasonably wide roads.

Unfortunately, turning this off isn’t easy: it’s all buried in the touch screen, requiring two minutes of fiddling around every time you get in the car. If there’s one single thing that could improve the EX5, it would be giving it physical shortcut button – as in a Renault Scenic – to make it go away.

How does it look?

If you’re looking for a medium-sized SUV, you could do a lot worse than a Ford Kuga – and the designers at Geely presumably followed the same thought process. In fact, unusually for a Chinese car, the EX5 was actually styled in Italy, which might explain why it looks a bit more European than some of its rivals from BYD and Chery.

It’s not a bad-looking thing at all though – quite pleasingly proportioned, with some nice details like flip-out door handles and an LED rear light bar. It’s a car you could pop on the driveway without anyone realising the modest price tag, or even that it’s electric.

What’s it like inside?

Geely are particularly proud of the EX5’s interior, and to be fair, it’s pretty convincing. As usual for a Chinese car, there’s acres of ‘vegan’ plastic leather – but it all feels very plush and well put-together.

For a car this size too, it’s absolutely enormous in the back. The EX5 feels more like a limo for rear-seat passengers – acres of head and leg room, and very comfortable seats that feel strangely reclined at all times. A family of six-footers would have no issues getting comfy in the Geely.

There’s acres of storage space too, with front occupants getting an array of storage bins and some space under a floating centre console. There’s even a hidden slide-out draw under the rear seats to stow away valuables you’d like out of sight.

Boot space is also decent enough: 461 litres with the seats in place, not including the handy extra storage area underneath the flip-up floor.

What’s the spec like?

As usual for a Chinese car, the equipment list is vast. So vast, in fact, that Geely has separated the car out into three trim levels: SE, Pro and Max. We’ll save you some time – the top-spec ‘Max’ trim offers the best kit-to-price ratio.

There’s almost too much to mention, but needless to say, if a function can be electrically-operated, Geely will have made it that way. Both seats are electrically adjustable, including a powered leg rest for the passenger, and both get a massage function. A 360-degree camera, adaptive cruise control, head-up display, opening panoramic roof, multi-colour ambient lighting and a power tailgate are all included too.

There’s even a posh (sort of) stereo, featuring 16 speakers – two of which are in the headrests. Don’t expect Bose, Bang & Olufsen or even Sony though: instead, proudly stamped on all the speaker grilles is Geely’s own nonsense creation called ‘Flyme’, leading passengers to ask whether your car came from the same people that make the orange lawnmowers.

Of more practical concern is the touch screen, which, as usual, controls pretty much everything in the car. Geely is once again very keen to shout about how powerful it is – and indeed it is pretty responsive when it comes to flicking through the various menus.

What needs some work is the interface. Much like every other budget Chinese car, it does feel a bit like an Android tablet has simply been stuck on the dash, with little consideration about what it’s actually there for.

The home screen, for example; it’s not a map, as you might expect, but a photo of some puffins. Nice, but not especially useful. It does get the usual permanent bar along the bottom for quickly adjusting cabin temperature and the like – but oddly, if you have CarPlay open and try to use any of these shortcuts, you’ll get needlessly jettisoned back to the puffin screen again.

As for voice commands, best to give that a miss as well – they’re too frustrating to bother with.

Verdict

The Geely EX5 isn’t perfect – but then name an electric car of this price that is. What it does manage to do is offer vast amounts of equipment, comfort and space for a pretty enticing price tag.

Despite Geely owning various European car companies, this is a car that still feels predominantly Chinese – for better or for worse. But some usability quirks and driver aid irritations aside, this might be the most convincing budget electric SUV from China to date.