Geely EX5 Review 2025

The Geely EX5 is yet another new Chinese car that's landed in the UK to tempt buyers away from better-established options by providing a lot of kit at a low price. But can it offer much beyond value for money? Find out in our full Geely EX5 review.

Yes, it's another Chinese car company which you may not have heard of before, but Geely is different from most of the new brands that have entered the UK market over the past couple of years. That's because Geely (pronounced 'Jeely', if you were wondering) has, in effect, already been here for a while. 

Volvo has been owned by Geely since 2010, while Polestar and Lotus are also part of its car manufacturing empire. Spend any time in London and you'll see many many newer taxi cabs built by Geely's LEVC, while Smart is now part-owned by the company.

Really, it's a surprise to see that Geely as a brand itself is relatively late to the party, behind Chery and its Jaecoo and Omoda sub-brands, the Stellantis-adjacent Leapmotor plus many other Chinese marques vying for British car buyers' cash. 

Now that its first own-brand car is here it's clear that the Geely EX5 follows a path now well-trodden by its compatriots. Electric car? Check. Family SUV bodywork? Double-check. Lots of kit for not much money? Check, check and check. 

Measuring 4615mm long the Geely EX5 is a similar size to the Skoda Enyaq yet comes in a higher level of specification and is priced closer to the smaller Skoda Elroq. Granted, the EX5's starting price of around £32,000 might not seem spectacular cheap, but Geely is matching the full £3750 government Electric Car Grant (ECG) discount with its own self-funded scheme on top-of-the-range models until the end of 2025, with a still-generous £2300 off the entry-level version. 

To an extent, the Geely EX5 is a case of you get what you pay for. There are fewer frustrations here than with some other low-cost Chinese newcomers, but there are still annoying aspects you simply won't find in cars such as the aforementioned Skodas and the Renault Scenic E-Tech. 

These include poorly calibrated driver assistance systems, a strange ride and handling balance and an over-complicated infotainment system which has to be used for many functions owing to the EX5's distinct lack of physical dashboard buttons. 

In better news its rear legroom is great and although the boot itself isn't massive, there's a sizeable underfloor storage area and various handy cubbies in the cabin, including a drawer under the rear seat base. An eight-year, 125,000-mile warranty also helps set the Geely EX5 apart from alternatives. 

Geely EX5: Range and charging times

The entry-level Geely EX5 SE has an official WLTP driving range of 267 miles on a full charge, while the mid-range Pro drops to 258 miles and the top-spec Max to 255 miles.

That doesn't seem particularly amazing and there's no option for a larger battery as seen in the Skoda Elroq, which manages up to 355 miles with its 77kWh option. The EX5 is fairly close in terms of range to the Leapmotor B10 which has an official claim of 270 miles. 

The ultra-rapid charging capability is competitive with pricier rivals at 160kW, allowing for a 10-80% recharge of its 60.2kWh battery in 28 minutes, assuming you've found a potent enough DC charger and conditions are optimal.

Plugged into a 7.4kW home wallbox the Geely EX5 needs just over eight hours to fully charge the battery from flat. 

While we have reviewed far worse Chinese cars — we're looking at you, Skywell BE11 — the ride and handling balance of the Geely EX5 just isn't right, despite some involvement from sister brand Lotus. It gets flustered by undulations in the road surface, pitching, rolling and just generally wallowing around. As a passenger it really wasn't pleasant.

Body lean in corners is pronounced, which might make you assume that the ride quality will be soft and generally comfortable. It's not — there's a constant jiggling that doesn't go away. There's also a lot of wind noise at cruising speeds.

The EX5's steering is vague so you might find yourself correcting the wheel once or twice when going around bends. Grip levels are fine, though. 

There's only one electric motor setup available for the Geely EX5, mounted under the bonnet and driving the front wheels. 

It produces 218PS and 320Nm of torque resulting in a 0-62mph time that sounds decent enough at 6.9 seconds, but the EX5 doen't feel as quick as that. It's not helped by a pronounced delay between putting your foot down and anything happening. 

That annoying pause is still very much present in the EX5's Sport driving mode, which feels like a token effort that makes little discernible difference to the driving experience. 

The Geely EX5 has been awarded the full five stars from Euro NCAP, with strong scores across the board — 86% for adult occupants, 87% for child occupants, 83% for vulnerable road users and 83% for its safety assistance systems.

You'll be wanting to turn off some of those safety assistance systems — the lane-assistance is aggressive in its interventions and frequently steps in when it's not supposed to. Take it down a single-track road and it goes beserk. The speed limit warning is one of the more vocal ones you will experience, made more irritating by its inability to determine what the limit was on any given stretch of road. 

Bizarrely, there's the option to turn off the autonomous emergency braking, something we haven't seen before or would recommend trying. 

The Geely EX5 isn't rated for towing, so if you need to haul a trailer or caravan, look elsewhere. 

The Geely EX5's boot space is 410 litres, assuming its variable height floor is in its lowest position, which is a little behind the Leapmotor B10's 430 litres and a long way off the Skoda Elroq's 470 litres. You do get a 51-litre storage area under the floor which is lined with plastic, so andy for chucking in lifestyle gear such as muddy walking boots or a sodden wetsuit. 

The 60/40-split rear seats don't fold completely flat but they do open up a total volume of 1877 litres. Storage space away from the boot is also generous, with big door bins all round and a handy 14-litre storage drawer that pulls out from beneath the middle rear seat. 

It's a spacious-feeling cabin, helped by the EX5 Max model's panoramic sunroof, making for a bright interior. Rear head- and legroom are excellent, while the Max's front-seat passenger benefits from an electrically unfolding legrest that lets them pretend they're in a business class airline seat. You can't alter the height of the passenger seat, though, which seems an odd omission. 

On first inspection all seems fine inside the Geely EX5, with reasonably plush-feeling materials that are mostly put together well. We say 'mostly' as we did notice a couple of bits of trim that didn't line up brilliantly, while the very cheap-looking and -feeling luggage cover seemed to be the source of rattling noises.

Physical buttons are few and far between inside the Geely EX5, meaning its 15.4-inch touchscreen infotainment system must be heavily relied upon for many functions. Which is a problem — not because of its responsiveness, which is fine, but due to its complexity.

If you want to turn off the lane-assistance or the speed limit warning — which, as you will read further on, you  will definitely want to — it's four screen taps to get through to the right section. Athough the swipe-down shortcuts from the top of the screen can be customised, you can't put those on there. 

There is a large rotary controller which defaults as the volume control, which seems an odd touch. You can add an alternate function to it but your options are limited, bizarrely including using it to change the touchscreen's wallpaper. 

The main climate control functions you will use most often are permanently displayed along the bottom of the screen but we would rather have physical buttons instead. There's the option of using the voice assistant but we didn't have much luck with it.

Geely EX5 Max models have a 16-speaker premium sound system from Flyme (nope, we haven't heard of it either) but its quality was disappointing, with a harsh, distorted sort sound arising as the volume's increased. Although there is a subwoofer the whole system is sorely lacking in low-end clout. 

Another miss is the lack of Android Auto smartphonme connectivity, although this is being added in due course. 

The Geely EX5 range starts from £31,990 for the entry-level SE. That's slightly more than the £31,495 starting point for a Leapmotor B10 and actually a fair bit higher than the £30,210 charged for a Skoda Elroq, which has the government's ECG factored in, something the EX5 is not eligible for. 

As with many manufacturers whose products don't qualify for the ECG, Geely is underwriting its own 'grant' which lops £2300 off the price of the entry-level EX5 SE, making it slightly cheaper than the Skoda but with a bigger battery and a higher standard specification. 

The mid-range EX5 Pro is £33,390 and enjoys a further £3200 off, but the only things it gets over the SE are 19-inch wheels and the option of a different interior trim, so there's little point. You might as well go the whole hog and get the top-spec EX5 Max, which is £36,990, less a chunky £3750 discount.

Geely is also offering a heavily subsidised Andersen wallbox charger that can be bundled in for an extra £499, which together with the 'grants', currently run until the end of 2025. We await news as to whether they will be extended into 2026. 

Keeping your Geely EX5 charged at home has the potential to lower the running costs well below those of an equivalent petrol or diesel car. It'll cost about £15 to fully charge the car on a typical UK tariff, but savvy EV drivers will get themselves on a variable rate and keep charge sessions to off-peak periods, substantially lowering the cost. 

There's nothing you can do about the yearly VED car tax bill because EVs no longer escape it — it's the same £195 per year as it is for combustion-engined cars. At least all models are well below the £40,000 threshold for the Expensive Car Supplement, so that's an extra £425 annually from years two to six you won't need to cough up.

Being an EV, the Geely EX5 also has a super-low Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) rate of just 3%, so if you're able to get one as a company car the monthly salary sacrifice will be negligible. 

Considering the car's modest price and performance, the insurance groups are on the high side at 35 for the EX5 SE and Pro, with the Max in 36. 

The Geely EX5 is offered in three trim levels — SE, Pro and Max.

The Geely EX5 SE comes with the following equipment as standard:

• 360-degree camera system
• 18-inch alloy wheels
• 15.4-inch infotainment touch screen
• 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster
• Keyless entry/start
• Wireless smartphone charging pad
• Wireless Apple CarPlay smartphone connectivity
• Dark-tinted rear side windows
• Heated, synthetic leather-wrapped steering wheel

The Geely EX5 Pro adds, well, not much, actually:

• 19-inch alloy wheels

The top-spec Geely EX5 Max upgrades the standard specification with:

• 13.8-inch head-up display
• 16-speaker Flyme sound system
• Panoramic sunroof
• Electrically operated tailgate
• 256-colour interior ambient lighting
• Metallic paint
• Front parking sensors
• Ventilated front seats with massage function
• Electrically operated front passenger seat legrest