There’s nothing especially wrong with the Geely EX5.
Can I end the review there? No? Ok then… Geely has arrived in the UK under its own name with a family-sized electric SUV that gets most of the important things broadly right.
It’s roomy, reasonably comfortable, decently equipped and priced keenly enough to get on the shortlist. For plenty of buyers, that will be enough.
Pros
+ Excellent value for money
+ Spacious cabin with excellent rear-seat room
+ Generous equipment levels
+ Comfortable enough for everyday family use
Cons
– Bland styling with very little character
– Too many key controls buried in the touchscreen
– Lifeless steering and forgettable driving experience
But this is also a car that feels oddly anonymous, given the company behind it. Geely isn’t some newcomer having a brave first go. This is a giant industrial force that owns Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, LEVC, Zeekr, and more. So when it launches its first car wearing a Geely badge, it’s probably fair to expect something with a touch more identity.
Instead, what you get is a car that feels like an electric SUV designed by committee.
That doesn’t mean the EX5 is ugly. It’s clean, tidy and unlikely to offend anyone, but it’s also one of the most forgettable new cars on the road.
There’s no real visual hook here. The shape is smooth and upright, the details are familiar, and the whole thing feels like it has been assembled from the current electric crossover starter pack. Flush handles, slim lights, rounded nose, neat enough surfacing, done. It doesn’t look bad, but it doesn’t look like much either.
The one highlight is the Geely badge. Rather than spelling out the name in capital letters, Geely has a rectangle split into six silver squares, making it look like something else has been pixelated out.
The Geely EX5 interior is a lot stronger than the outside
The EX5 makes a much better first impression inside. The cabin feels modern, spacious and more expensive than the exterior suggests. There’s plenty of soft-touch trim, some smart detailing, and an overall sense that Geely wanted the interior to do the heavy lifting. Which, in fairness, it does.
Space is one of the EX5’s real strengths. Rear passengers get loads of legroom, and there’s a decent amount of storage dotted around the cabin too. For family use, it makes a solid case for itself. It feels like Geely has prioritised the people-carrying part of the brief, and in that respect, it has done a decent job.
The trade-off is that boot space isn’t especially generous for a car of this size. It’s usable enough, and the extra storage under the floor helps, but there are rivals that do this part better.
But, like so many modern cars, the EX5 is obsessed with putting too much stuff into the screen. The screen itself is fine. Better than fine, actually. It’s big, sharp and responsive. But that’s not really the point. The problem is that too many everyday functions are hidden away in menus when they should just be on proper physical controls.
You spend too much time poking around for things that ought to be simple. Menus are haphazard, while similar functions are spread across different areas. The front screen is wasted, with 15.4 inches of screen real estate reduced to a shallow band along the bottom for various functions.
There is a rotary controller on the centre console, which initially raises hopes that somebody has seen sense. It’s never as useful as you want it to be, though, seemingly switching between changing the volume and, inexplicably, swapping the screen background from a salt lake to some trees. Or rocks. Or a kitten.
This is one of those cars where you quickly start longing for the radical, old-fashioned innovation of a button that just does the thing it says it does.
Fine to drive, but never enjoyable
On the move, the EX5 is perfectly acceptable. Performance is brisk enough for this sort of car, with enough punch to make it feel easy rather than slow. It doesn’t feel particularly exciting, but that probably isn’t the point. It’s meant to be a straightforward family EV, not some secretly sporty crossover.
Ride comfort is mostly decent, too. Around town and at sensible speeds, it does a respectable job of smoothing things out, and refinement is good enough that longer journeys shouldn’t be a chore.
The problem is that there’s very little pleasure in the way it drives. The steering is lifeless, the whole thing feels a bit detached, and while it generally behaves itself, there’s no sense of polish or engagement. You’re never encouraged to enjoy it. You’re simply encouraged to get on with it.
That’s fine, up to a point. Not every family SUV has to be fun. But the EX5 doesn’t really replace fun with charm, or comfort with sophistication. It just feels a bit flat.
The regenerative braking setup doesn’t help much either. There are different levels to choose from, but none of them feels especially satisfying, and the lack of a proper one-pedal mode feels like a miss in a new EV.
Geely EX5 electric range is respectable
The EX5’s official range is decent enough on paper. The rather small 60kWh battery is good for 255 miles, officially, while real-world results over a week of use showed the onboard computer reporting 3.57 miles per kWh — enough for 214 miles from a full charge.
That’s fine, but the class has moved on quickly, and rivals now offer significantly more range from bigger batteries. The Geely feels very much pitched at the middle ground. It isn’t embarrassing, but it isn’t class-leading either, and that becomes more noticeable when everything else about the car is already leaning so heavily on value.
Charging speeds are reasonable rather than remarkable, which again rather sums the whole thing up. Nothing here is disastrous. Nothing here really shines either.
Value is its best argument
If the EX5 has one genuinely strong selling point: value.
There’s a lot of car for the money, there’s a lot of kit for the money, and the cabin has enough visual appeal and space to make the whole thing feel like a respectable amount of car for the asking price. If you’re shopping logically, rather than emotionally, you can absolutely make a case for it.
How easy a case? The broadly similarly-sized Kia EV5 is £8,000–£10,000 more expensive as an outright buy.
That may be enough for some buyers. A spacious, well-equipped electric SUV with a sensible price and a decent warranty is not a bad thing to offer. It’s just that Geely has delivered all of that in such a strangely forgettable package.
Geely EX5: The Average Joes verdict
The Geely EX5 is a perfectly decent electric SUV that feels as though it should have been more than that.
It’s roomy, well equipped, comfortable enough, and very sensibly priced. There are no major disasters here. But there are enough frustrations to stop you warming to it, from the touchscreen-heavy controls to the numb driving experience and the general lack of personality.
Most of all, it feels like a car built to tick boxes rather than win anyone over, and that makes the EX5 rather hard to get excited about.
Model tested: Geely EX5 Max
Price: £36,990
Average Joes rating: ★★★☆☆
He is the founder of Huff Media, publisher of Professional Pickup, Professional Van, Average Janes, Average Joes, and CALIBRE. His work focuses primarily on light commercial vehicles, pickups, and real-world vehicle use, with much of his time spent on manufacturer launches, industry events, and long-term vehicle testing.
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