Geely EX5 review

Given Geely roped in some Lotus engineers to help with setup, the EX5 should ride and handle superbly, shouldn’t it? Well, it’s… not too bad actually.

Of course, there’s probably only so much the Lotus wizards could do with a mid-sized family crossover that weighs 2.14 tonnes, but the EX5 rides fairly well. It’s relatively composed over rough surfaces but isn’t too soft either. Bigger bumps do sometimes send a hefty crash through the cabin, but most of the time it’s perfectly acceptable.

Road noise is fairly well suppressed too, so it’s reasonably refined with just a bit of wind noise cropping up at motorway speeds.

Is it quick?

Not especially so, but there is enough power to provoke a little bit of wheelspin while exiting a junction. Remember it’s 215bhp going through the front wheels and instant torque, so it’s not slow once you’re on the move. There are Eco, Comfort and Sport modes, with the latter providing the most urgency. We’d stick to Comfort for a slightly more progressive throttle.

When slowing down there are also three regen modes, but none offers a full one-pedal driving experience and even the strongest setting could give more retardation when you come off the throttle. Still, the brake pedal isn’t as soft as some.

What is it like when the road gets twisty?

Don’t go expecting the steering feel of an Emira. In fact, don’t go expecting any real steering feel at all. There’s no sense of what the front wheels are doing through the steering wheel. Again there are modes here, but in its sportiest setting you just get a horrid elastic feeling instead of actual weight, with the wheel desperate to pull back to centre. There’s also quite a bit of body roll and understeer if you really chuck it into a corner. Not great.

Is it efficient?

On first impressions, yes. On a 60-mile drive that consisted mainly of country roads but also a little bit of town driving, we saw 4.0 miles per kWh. That was with the climate control on (the EX5 gets a standard heat pump that helps) and with some enthusiastic driving in Sport mode. If you managed to average the same you’d be looking at a real world range of just over 240 miles. Not world-beating, but also not too far off the claimed 267 miles.  

Does it have annoying active safety systems?

How did you guess? The Geely’s active safety tech is buried deep in the submenus of its central touchscreen, and even when you think you’ve turned it all off it’ll still tug at the wheel and activate the emergency lane assist when it really isn’t required.