We first drove the Geely EX5 in November last year at the Ningbo International Speedway and we were impressed with the package the Chinese car giant was planning on bringing into the Australian market as their first model.
The Geely EX5 was officially launched in Australia in March and has performed quite well in sales since then, and I got to spend some time behind the wheel to see what it’s delivering to Australian family SUV buyers.
From great value for money to a fairly comfortable, spacious ride, it’s definitely a car worth test-driving. And it’s notable that the brand is backed by Geely holdings, a behemoth with brands like Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus under its umbrella, and they clearly know how to build cars.
The top-spec Inspire variant that I was driving starts at $44,990 before on-roads. With the amount of kit it packs and the range on offer, it’s quite a package, and is clearly priced to disrupt some of the existing players in the market as it will directly challenge the legacy automakers.
At this price, it easily undercuts rivals like the Hyundai Kona Electric and Kia EV5, and comes alongside, or even below, other value-driven Chinese EVs like the BYD Atto 3 and the Leapmotor C10.
That’s what’s really captured a lot of its early adopters, which at the time of writing this review, exceeds 1,000 deliveries, and that’s growing. (See The Driven’s month by month EV sales data here).
The outside styling itself is fairly conventional, which is not a bad thing and would appeal to many buyers looking for their next family car. It features flush door handles and a full-width horizontal tail light bar.
The cabin is well presented, featuring lots of nice interior touches which are rarely seen in cars at its price point, let alone in an electric SUV.
Standing out in the mainly minimal interior is a very responsive 15.4-inch centre infotainment screen. Most of the car’s functionality is done through this, which could take new car buyers some time to get used to.
I did find quite a few functions buried in menus, which is pretty standard with many of the systems. Searching through menus was not the easiest task, given the lack of a search function. Voice commands are an alternative for basic functions, which could be helpful for many owners.
While programmable steering wheel buttons are also another option, the interface isn’t always intuitive. That might change with the upcoming Apple CarPlay and Android Auto update, which will bring a more familiar system into the EX5.
When it comes to interior comfort and luxury features, the Inspire variant brings synthetic leather seats which are very soft and provide great support.
Given it’s winter time, the front seat heating really came in handy along with a heated steering wheel too. Seats and their functions are class-leading at this price tag.
On top of that, ventilation and even massage function were highlights for a few passengers who got in the car during the time I spent with it.
Add in the panoramic sunroof, a 16-speaker, 1000-watt sound system, a 13.4-inch head-up display, and dual wireless phone chargers, and you have a cabin experience that feels nothing but premium.
The boot comes has a respectable 410 litres with the rear seats up, and 1,877 litres with the seats down, which means lots of space for whatever you want to throw in the back.
The Geely EX5 comes with a 60 kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery, which provides a claimed WLTP range of 410 km for the Inspire. That’s slightly lower than the 430 km for the lighter entry-level Complete variant.
During testing, real-world figures suggested around 360km was pretty reasonable, especially in winter with heated seats and steering on at times, along with the HVAC system keeping the temperature fairly consistent. Of course, the driving included a mix of suburban roads and freeways, too.
Charging is also quite decent, with 11 kW AC capability at home, which is quite rare to find on cars under $50,000, and DC fast charging maxing out at 100 kW, allowing a 30-80% charge in around 17 minutes.
While the 100 kW isn’t class-leading compared to some other, more expensive SUVs that easily get up to 150 kW+, it’s more than enough at most public fast chargers.
One other advantage of the battery is that it includes V2L (Vehicle-to-Load) capability at 3.3 kW, which is quite a practical bonus.
On the powertrain front, the EX5 Inspire is powered by a single front-mounted motor delivering 160 kW and 320 Nm of torque. That’s plenty to get around, especially given the light weight of this family SUV, coming in at 1765 kg.
This powertrain helps the EX5 get from 0-100 km/h in a respectable 7.1 seconds and it really feels quite zippy when on the go, and is more than enough for daily driving and highway overtaking.
Driving through the hills, it’s got plenty of torque, and although not the most dynamic SUV on the market, it hits the mark on most roads I drove on. It’s a big improvement on the handling of the first EX5 we drove in November.
While driving, the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) performs a reasonable job, including when utilising its auto-steer function on freeways.
This makes driving long distances a little stress-free and works well on most highways and freeways around Melbourne. It’s also worth noting that it’s a 5-star ANCAP rated SUV, which is another tick in the box for it.
One area that could be improved is that the system frequently comes up with warnings for minor speed limit breaches. That generally lowered the volume of whatever I was listening to for the duration of the warning, even when it was in cruise control.
The driver attention system is also quite sensitive. It goes off when doing a normal head check while changing lanes, or at times, just normally looking through the windscreen.
This can be improved with over-the-air software updates, and hopefully they do that, because there is nothing else in the market that comes close to offering all these features and the overall driver experience than this car at the price point it’s being pitched at. Add the incentives being offered on it, and it’s a bit of a no-brainer.
For me, the EX5 is the king of value-packed electric SUVs on the market today, offering a premium interior, some of the plushest seats, reasonable tech and an overall package that gives more expensive SUVs a run for their money.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.