2024 Chery Omoda E5 review
The latest super-hyped EV to hit Australia has made one thing about buying a new car abundantly clear.
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Chinese electric cars – like this new Chery Omoda E5 – are in danger of going unnoticed in an increasingly bulging crowd.
New ‘affordable’ EVs are spreading like wildfire, many from brands that didn’t exist in Australia five minutes ago.
This Chery’s rivals include the BYD Atto 3, MG ZS, MG4 and Smart #1, while Chinese EV newbie brands XPeng and Zeekr arrive soon.
Some of you may not have even heard of the above … car buying was easier when the choice was basically Commodore, Falcon or Corolla.
Chery’s E5 is an electric version of its petrol Omoda 5 small SUV, which sells in respectable numbers due to sharp looks, low price and generous features.
The formula has not changed for the electric E5.
It starts from $42,990 before on-roads, or around $45,500 to drive-away.
That’s a $10k premium over similar-specified petrol versions.
It buys a quite spacious SUV with 61kWh battery that travels 430km between charges; offers a healthy 150kW and 340Nm from a front-mounted electric motor, and has a reassuring seven-year warranty.
Its styling could be mistaken for any number of sharp, LED-equipped SUVs, but is attractive enough with 18-inch aero alloys and jazzy colours like Titan green and Martian red.
Positives? Its nose pops up to reveal charging ports – handy for access at charging stations – while there’s a full-size spare under its not massive 300L boot floor.
Aussies don’t like being robbed of proper spares, and this is the first electric car to sport a full-sizer. In these homogenised times, that’s a winning point of difference for the Omoda. But let’s get Chery picking.
After a few hundred kilometres driving Canberra’s streets and surrounding countryside, the E5 didn’t feel the finished article.
Seats are comfortable and performance quite zippy, but ride quality and numerous unnecessarily-baffling driver assist systems conspire to spoil the journey.
In town it feels too firm and jittery, there’s marked wind noise on highways, and it’s not a car that loves cornering.
The E5 doesn’t feel as planted as most EVs with their low centre of gravity, and steering feels very vague, even after battling through screen menus to find a sharper mode.
Ah, the screens.
Two 12.3-inch efforts – covering infotainment and driver display – merge into one, giving a bang up-to-date look. Housed within are controls and settings for no fewer than 18 driver aids.
You’ll want to familiarise yourself with them. Chery insists it’s worked hard to remedy its cars’ assist technology (oft criticised for being distractingly overbearing), but they still make a terrible fuss. Lane departure prevention panics unless you’re dead centre of the road, and the driver monitor punishes anything but brief glances away. Ironically, your eyes are distracted while you’re prodding the screen trying to disable the systems.
It’s hard to drive with finesse as it jerks slightly when coming off the gas, while it won’t completely stop using regeneration – unlike other EVs.
Paddle shifter control would solve this, but Chery insists on sending this control – of course – through a screen.
If you can tolerate these aspects, you’re left with a good value offering. Even the entry-level BX’s cabin presents well, with soft plastics, leather bolsters for fabric seats, a suede-like wireless phone charger, sat-nav and Sony audio.
An extra $3k for the EX looks like money well spent: power tailgate, synthetic heated leather seats, 360-degree camera, ambient lighting and power sunroof arrive.
The EX also gets a heated faux leather steering wheel; a vast improvement on the BX’s too-cheap polyurethane one – it should be nowhere near a car costing over $40k.
Cabin storage is ample, and being Mazda CX-30-sized, there’s good leg and head room for two adults in the back.
Our test showed 400km was a realistic EV range – ample for most buyers, and showing solid efficiency.
But maximum charging speed is a disappointing 80kW, taking 30 minutes to go from 30 to 80 per cent charge.
Originally published as 2024 Chery Omoda E5 review
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