Electric cars are getting cheaper and cheaper, with price drops often spurred on by competitively priced Chinese EVs undercutting the whole market. Released in mid-2024 in the UK and late-2024 in Australia, Chery’s Omoda E5 is a great example of the latter… depending on where you live. It’s a mid-size SUV based on a gas-powered sibling, and depending on how it’s priced in your region, it’s either an exceptional value proposition or, unfortunately, very average.
The E5 is a particularly confusing car. Here in Australia, it’s either in-line with its closest competitors or well ahead of them. It’s easy to call the E5 one of the best cheap electric cars Down Under, and at AU$37,990 it’s the most affordable electric SUV, largely thanks to a discount that has recently been extended by the local distributor. Meanwhile in the UK, this car is known simply as the ‘Omoda E5’ (no Chery, as Omoda is the name of the local brand), and it costs a whopping £33,055 – a tough sell when you consider it’s in close competition with similar EVs offering better range and performance. It’s not sold in Europe and America thanks to both regions slapping big trade-restrictive tariffs on Chinese EVs.
It’s therefore a single car with two stories, and here in Australia, where we’ve been inundated with new automakers from the world’s second-largest economy, it’s a very good set of wheels. For anyone in the UK, however, the price might have you looking at the competition.
What makes the Chery Omoda E5 so attractive (and uninteresting)?
The Chery Omoda E5’s appeal comes down to two main things; it’s an SUV and it offers a fairly decent range expectation for its price. A 420km WLTP estimate for Australian models (or 257 miles for UK models) is satisfactory for an EV if you’re charging overnight and travelling to and from work, but it’s also a decent range limit if you want to chuck in some light holiday driving.
Making it an SUV is both burdensome and a boon; it’s unwieldy in inner city settings and difficult to park when cars are banked up against each other, but you’ve got a lot more space than a low hatchback would allow for (300L boot and 1,079L including rear seating). Australian parking spaces tend to be more spaced out, as are towns and places to visit, while things are much closer together across the UK given the greater population density, so we can appreciate the market differences here – and indeed why much cheaper EVs with much lower range expectations are available in Great Britain.
This clear difference in expectation from a car is at least partially to blame for why the Omoda E5 is such great value in Australia but tepid in the UK. In Australia, as the fourth-cheapest EV and the cheapest SUV (competing with the BYD Dolphin, MG4, GWM Ora and the BYD Atto 3), it’s certainly a contender EV for less strapped consumers.
Over in the UK, the Omoda E5 is competing with the similarly priced Kia EV3, Volvo EX30, MG4 and Jeep Avenger EV – and although it might offer more range than some of these models, it’s not winning in terms of ride feel, public charging speed and capacity.
We’ll get more into those criticisms in the next section because first, there are quite a few positives to talk about with the Chery Omoda E5.
To start with, the E5’s interior cabin is gorgeous and you certainly won’t feel as if this car is a ‘cheap’ option in the driver’s seat. The front seats are both comfortable, and the steering wheel is well laid out, with a fairly standard instrument cluster and an easy-to-use UI. It doesn’t have too many options to toggle off and on, but I was satisfied with the choices I was given.
Lane detection is sound and driver assistance alerts aren’t too intrusive. The reversing camera offered a fair enough quality and the button layout feels sensible; there aren’t many but the essentials are adequately covered. A 360º camera, electric tailgate and a moonroof are offered in the more expensive £34,555 / AU$39,990 higher-end model.
Aesthetically, the car is inoffensive and indeed more neutral than many of its contemporaries. It obviously lacks the obnoxious ‘Build Your Dreams’ lettering that older models of the BYD Atto 3 and BYD Dolphin had scrawled across the lights, and instead looks more akin to a Hyundai Tucson or a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross.
And for all the criticisms we’ll get into below, an efficiency of 15.5kWh/100km, as I observed in my mixed highway, suburban and inner city driving, is worthy of applause, as is the WLTP-rated 420km range estimation. That’s more than enough for a casual city tripper, which the car was for most of my testing, but was also satisfying for a 350km trip out of town.
I’ll be getting into it in a future article, but one final thing you must at least like about the Omoda E5 is that it comes with a full-size spare tyre in the boot – rather than axing the spare entirely and replacing it with a puncture repair kit (not even a space-saver wheel). Out of the more than 30 EVs I’ve reviewed across a vast price range, this is only the second EV to offer a full-size spare – the other being the 2024 Hyundai Kona EV. That certainly counts for something.
What makes the Chery Omoda E5 so disappointing?
The Chery Omoda E5 is let down by a combination of factors, and though none undermine it to the point that the car isn’t worth buying, all are definitely worthy of attention.
First up, the car is front-wheel drive, and while this isn’t a problem for casual, low energy driving, it does make itself obvious under heavy acceleration. Launching the car from a full stop or a gentle pace will cause a fair amount of torque steer – more than I’ve noticed from other cheap FWD EVs like the admittedly less-powerful BYD Dolphin or GWM Ora.
Secondary to acceleration, I think the car’s DC charging speed is a substantial letdown. A maximum charging capacity of 90kW isn’t ideal if you want to avoid lengthy stops at chargers, though thankfully it doesn’t have too sharp of a charging curve. Certain variants of the MG4 offer better charging capacities, up to 150kW, but 90kW is not exceptional. If anything, it’s the standard charge speed you’ll find in cheap EVs, and it’s unsatisfying when taking on a long trip.
The car is also not too impressive as an SUV, sporting less storage capacity than cheaper petrol-powered alternatives and less storage than even the aforementioned MG4 hatchback, which offers 350L in boot space and 1,117L with seating area.
Finally, and this is becoming more common among EVs, the E5 doesn’t come with an included charging cable in any region it’s sold in. This isn’t exceptional, but it does add at least a small cost consideration to your purchase if you plan to do any charging at home.
The only other criticism I have of the car feels very minor compared to these other things, but the charging port door is somewhat overdeveloped. The port, located on the grille of the car, is electrically opened via a button beside the driver’s door, and it folds upward. I’m worried about how long the door’s mechanism might last compared to one that simply pops out and opens to the side, but I’m also not a fan of its positioning; unless you have the muscle memory, it’s tough to get the cable in the port perfectly each time, and because it’s not raised slightly higher (like on the Nissan Leaf) it may be difficult to access in the first place.
But these all feel like particularly minor things; when weighing the good and the bad of the Omoda E5, you still get a really good car in Australia (and one that’s probably worth reconsidering in the UK).
Should you buy the Chery Omoda E5?
If you live in Australia, the Chery Omoda E5 might be the low-priced EV that convinces you to go electric. Practicality-wise, there are lifestyles where this car could be feasibly optimal. If you’re treating it as your run-around car for groceries, errands, and maybe some comfortable travel in and out of town, it could compliment a two-car household when paired with a vehicle capable of longer treks for holidays. The space, ride height, ride comfort and spare tyre are notable perks in the E5’s favour, making it rival cheap MG4 variants (AU$34,990), but also the slightly more pricey BYD Atto 3 Essential (AU$39,990).
But in the UK, the story is somewhat different. When you’re competing with the MG4 (£26,995), the Jeep Avenger EV (£29,999), the Volvo EX30 (£32,850) and the Kia EV3 (£32,995), the Omoda E5 isn’t overly attractive. It’s a fine car with a competitive range offering, but ride comfort and road feel is invariably bested by these alternatives.
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zac.kelly@futurenet.com (Zachariah Kelly)
