Styling
One of those inoffensively bland and aerodynamically optimised shapes that you see a lot of from China, the problem with the Geely EX5's looks is that, were you to pry that obscure six-square logo off its nose and then ask your average person on the street to identify the manufacturer, this design could have come from any one of about 15 companies. Maybe more. But appraise it for longer, and you start to realise the EX5 is well-proportioned, looks good sitting on its 19-inch alloys, has nice, slim headlight clusters and a tidy full-width illuminated strip at the rear, and it can even carry off flat-grey paint (as on our tester) while still looking reasonably appealing. So it's not daring to look at. Yet it's not shockingly, unapologetically ugly, either.
Interior
Material quality and aesthetic interest are both present and correct in the cabin of the Geely EX5, although its architecture and technology follows the usual Chinese pattern, which we also found when we drove the SUV's smaller relation, the
EX2 hatchback, quite recently. Thus, you have a high-bridge console area, an under-dash storage zone, a column-mounted shift lever, hardly any meaningful buttons, and two screens - one massive affair for the infotainment, another shaped like the loophole in a military pillbox serving as the instrument cluster - which run almost everything in the car.
And, as with so many of these systems, the Geely does lots of things pretty well, but has some annoyances in terms of hyperactive ADAS and baffling menu configurations and bloody items of what little switchgear there is being installed the wrong way around that make the interior a place which is infrequently teeth-gnashingly frustrating. So, for instance, turning on your front heated seats and/or steering wheel is a multi-tap faff in the EX5. The upright, tab-like window switches operate in a counterintuitive fashion. To open the pano sunroof or even its blind, you have to delve into the baffling touchscreen and find the submenu which handles this stuff. Why?! What the heck, apart from some minuscule manufacturing costs for the button and wiring, is wrong with a physical sunroof control in
exactly the chuffing place you normally expect to find it in any car, up near the blinkin' sunroof itself?! Gah!
Practicality
Better news here, because there's a completely flat floorwell in the second row of the Geely EX5, plus plenty of head-, knee- and legroom too, so even taller adults should be happy in the back of the EV. There's also a decent 461-litre boot at the back, which has some handy under-floor stowage to keep the car's charging cable tidy and out of sight, while dotted throughout the cabin are plenty of useful storage spaces and solutions to make life onboard the Chinese machine that little bit easier. As long as you're not using the infotainment, that is.
Performance
Geely initially kept it simple for the EX5 family, as there was one e-motor choice (front-mounted, 218hp/320Nm) and one battery pack size (60.2kWh, range of around 250-270 miles, depending on trim level) to go with it. All you did was choose whether you wanted SE, Pro or Max spec, the former of these being the range champion on its 18-inch alloys, the latter (tested here) the slowest to 62mph from rest by two-tenths of a second (running 7.1 seconds as is) due to its 50kg heavier kerb weight brought about by its extra kit.
However, in spring 2026, the Ultra was added to the line-up with a slightly larger 68.4kWh battery pack giving up to 280 miles of range, even on 19s and loaded with kit. However, no power or torque upgrades mean this one does 0-62mph in 7.6 seconds, while it costs £38,990 as well - fully seven grand more than the SE at the other end of the range.
In all honesty, the EX5 Max we drove is perfectly fine. It's interesting that this bigger SUV is front-driven, when the smaller EX2 hatchback is RWD - something of a USP in modern compact EV hatchback circles now the
Honda e has long since bit the dust - but who knows? Maybe Geely will 'do a BYD' with the EX5 and treat it to a mild midlife facelift hiding a complete shift in driven wheels, power and underpinnings, as per its rival company's remarkable
Atto 3 Evo update.
Nevertheless, there are no major traction issues to report with the EX5 in its current format, while the amount of power, torque and real-world performance it delivers is perfectly sufficient. It feels swift enough to justify its electric propulsion, yet not so stupidly rapid that it'll make your passengers come over all queasy when you accelerate with any great meaning. Both throttle and brake pedals feel fine to use, while during its week on test with us it turned in an excellent 3.7 miles/kWh average efficiency in normal, everyday usage. Good stuff.
Ride & Handling
Ah! At last! An affordable, mainstream Chinese car which genuinely feels like it has steering of some substance and suspension that knows how to deal effectively with a typical European road. Geely's UK PR representatives are at pains to point out that this particular carmaker, taken in isolation, doesn't own any of Volvo, Polestar, Lotus or Smart... but it
is affiliated to all of them, and it really does show in its dynamics. Indeed, Geely explicitly mentions the 'experts at Lotus' had some input on the tuning for the springs, dampers and anti-roll bars of the MacPherson strut front, multilink rear of the EX5's chassis. Having experienced the way it drives, we don't think this assertion is mere marketing flim-flam.
Just as we found with the smaller, if drastically underpowered EX2, the EX5 SUV's real strength is its dignified day-to-day comportment. For both ride comfort and rolling refinement, we have no significant complaints whatsoever. This EV is always cultured and composed, no matter how shambolic the road surface it is facing up to, and it has none of the brittle-edged ride manners of some of its similarly priced compatriots, nor a sense that its body control isn't quite operating at the level you would like.
Naturally, it's not a thrill-a-minute joy machine in the corners, but even here the EX5 is ahead of many of its Asian peers because the steering feels like it might actually be attached to the front wheels for once. It's not a brilliant set-up by any stretch of the imagination, but it is more positive, better weighted and even imbued with a trace of feel, so if you want to hustle the grippy EX5 along a rucked-up, sinuous British B-road, then it can manage such a task with a fair degree of aplomb. Not memorable, you understand, but pleasantly, surprisingly adept - yeah, let's leave it at that.
Value
As ever with a newcomer from this country, you get lots of kit with the Geely EX5 for not a lot of money. Even the base SE, a tenner shy of 32 grand, has plenty of useful equipment on it, but our £36,990 Max comes with items like heated, ventilated and massaging front seats, a panoramic roof (even if it is vexatious to operate), a 360-degree camera system, adaptive cruise, 19-inch wheels, a 13.8-inch head-up display and a 16-speaker Flyme Sound premium audio system, among much more. You don't want for much in the EX5, aside from a few more physical buttons, and so it feels a suitably good-value proposition.
Verdict
The Geely EX5 is competitively priced and generously equipped, but it has some infuriating human-machine interface issues. Its interior is aesthetically easy on the eye and highly practical, but the exterior styling is a bit generic. The 218hp motor serves up ample performance on the roads, but neither the 255-mile range nor the 160kW DC peak charging speed on 400-volt architecture is nothing to write home about.
So far, so every other Chinese EV of a similar size, price and type we can think of. But where the EX5 differentiates itself from its compatriots is in the way it rides and handles. Don't misconstrue us, you're not about to chop in your
Toyota GR Yaris for how the Geely tears up a country lane, nor are you going to lament your decision to choose the
best-riding car of the modern era, if you're in the market for a much grander, pricier EV than this. We're not saying the EX5 rides like a Genesis G80 Electrified for a fraction of the price. In truth,
nothing rides like a Genesis G80 Electrified.
Yet the civil dynamic manners of the Geely are undoubtedly the reason it puts distance between itself and most of the competition. Apart from the dearer, more potent and larger
Xpeng G6 AWD Performance, we think this is the best-driving Chinese electric car we've yet sampled this side of things like the
Denza Z and
Yangwang U9. And those, don't forget, are
bona fide, six-figure supercars with comfortably in excess of a thousand horsepower. Thus, the EX5 is nothing short of excellent work by this manufacturer. If its infotainment didn't make us swear so much, so often, we'd happily bump it up another half-star here.
