Geely EX5 Preview – CleanTechnica

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Although it is two weeks to the official launch, Majella and I were able to take a preview look at the new Geely EX5. The Geely name means “auspicious” or “propitious” in Chinese. Our friendly sales rep even let my granddaughters have a play with the car. Sadly, we were unable to drive it — but he had had a short drive and spoke to its comfort. The car was being showcased at a couple of local rugby matches on Saturday and Sunday, and he had driven the car to the stadium. The price has not yet been made available to the public. More vehicles are on the way, but for the moment, only 10 have landed in Australia to do their duty as promotional purposes.

Maybe Geely is waiting for the price war to settle. At the moment, it appears that there are specials every day on the vehicles that the Geely EX5 will be compared to: the BYD Atto 3, the MG ZS EV, the Leapmotor C10, and the Chery Omoda E5. Without a competitive price, the Geely will struggle, as there is not a lot to differentiate it from its rivals. It seems all the new SUV EVs look the same. The Geely EX5 is known as the Geely Galaxy in China, and it reached almost half a million sales last year.

Our sales rep told us that he had sold electric vehicles for several other automakers, and we found him quite knowledgeable. Although, he did frequently say that he couldn’t answer particular questions until after the launch. I asked why I should buy a Geely rather than, say, an Atto 3 or a Leapmotor C10. His answer: because of Geely’s association with Volvo, the car has a better fit and finish than the competition. Perhaps the Geely EX5 is Volvo’s second cousin on his mother’s side? Although, we are assured that Geely will be a standalone brand.

Perhaps a bit of background is in order for readers who have never heard of Geely. According to CleanTechnica’s Jose Pontes, Geely–Volvo was the third highest selling EV motor group in 2024, behind BYD and Tesla. That makes it a force to be reckoned with. And not just in the EV world — in 2024, Geely sold 1.5 million petrol-powered cars as well, for a total of 3.33 million vehicles globally. In 2002, Geely made the top ten in China. It’s not quite in the top ten globally yet, but close.

How have they achieved this electric vehicle podium position globally when almost no one in Australia has heard of them?

According to Wikipedia, Geely is privately owned by Li Shufu. Geely’s website has a great photo of the building in which they started — it almost looks like a mud hut — along with a timeline showing the company’s rapid acceleration. Geely has come a long way since starting out in 1986 as a manufacturer of refrigerator parts, using money borrowed from family. Geely graduated to motorcycles in 1994, and then to cars in 1997.

“The company manufactures and sells vehicles under the brands of Geely, Lynk & Co and Zeekr brands, which are part of the Geely Auto Group business unit, along with its subsidiaries and joint ventures such as Volvo Cars, Polestar, Proton, Smart, and Lotus, as well as commercial vehicles under the London EV Company, Radar Auto / Riddara and Farizon brands, and Benelli. It also holds a 17% stake in Aston Martin and owns half of Horse Powertrain, an engine manufacturing joint venture with Renault.”

That’s a lot of brands! In Australia we have Volvo and Polestar, of course. Geely is about to launch, and Zeekr is available in Sydney and Melbourne. I’m looking forward to having a look at them when they are available in Brisbane. The Radar ute has been promised, but we have not seen it here yet. Geely has shares in Daimler and Renault.

Back to the interview. As we walked into the dealership, we were hailed by the sales rep who had shown us the Renault Megane E-Tech just a few weeks before. He informed us that the E-Tech on the floor was the last one they would sell from this particular dealership. It is leaving to make room for the Geely. Methinks this is a sign of things to come, as Chinese brands replace firstly French brands, then work their way up to the Japanese. Your thoughts?

National training on the Geely will start soon, prior to the official launch. Our Geely sales rep was looking forward to spending more time with the car, when he can take it home and put it through its paces. So far, he has only had the short drive to the football stadium. He tells me that his main job is to understand the client’s “objectives” — their lifestyle needs. From his comments, I suspect that he thinks of EVs as city cars. (Just as the rep for the Kia EV5.)

So, of course, I could not resist telling him about our road trips to Winton and to Victoria. Then Majella opened her phone and showed him PlugShare and how it worked — his eyes opened wide. Hopefully he will share this information with his customers so they can see that an electric car can do just about as much as a petrol car. It’s not just a shopping cart.

Those who want a more technical review can access it here. Perhaps one of the most salient points is that Geely was quick to respond to criticism of the car’s suspension and sent a team of technicians to Australia to make sure the car suited the needs of our motorists and the condition of our roads. That sort of rapid response will certainly win customers.

But it will all come down to value for money. Rumour has it that Geely is considering launching at AU$43,490 (US$27,000) before on-road costs, significantly undercutting the Tesla Model Y (AU$63,400) and even the Leapmotor C10 (AU$45,888). But not the MG ZS EV (AU$35,000) or Chery Omoda E5 (AU$31,000). Both of these cars launched in the mid to high $40,000 range. As I said, we are in the middle of a price war. EVs are becoming cheaper than their petrol equivalents.