800,000 Chinese buyers can’t be wrong: Geely’s $32,990 EX2 driven

Geely has confirmed New Zealand pricing for its EX2 small electric hatchback. The entry EX2 Complete is $32,990 plus on-road costs, and the higher-specification EX2 Inspire is $37,990 plus on-roads.

Geely names the MG4 and GWM Ora as its targets, though on price the closer natural rival is BYD’s Atto 1. We drove both variants at the Australian launch in Sydney, and went in expecting very little. That turned out to be a mistake.

The most popular car you have never thought about

Here is a number worth sitting with. Geely has sold more than 800,000 of these in China in 21 months. That is more than Nissan managed across the entire life of the 350Z, and more than every Tesla Model S ever built. This anonymous-looking little hatchback is one of the best-selling cars in the world right now, and until the launch presentation we could not have told you why.

Because honestly, just look at it. It’s certainly tidy, but not radical in terms of design. It’s city friendly, sure, sitting at 4,135mm long on a 2,645mm wheelbase with LED lights all round, an active grille shutter (which I didn’t expect at this price), but admittedly its styled to both offend and excite… well, nobody. But looks can be deceiving and in the case of the EX2, the most interesting bits are all hidden underneath.

Rear wheel drive at Corolla money

The EX2 is rear wheel drive, which is nearly unheard of in this class, with a rear-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor making 60kW and 150Nm in the Complete or 85kW and the same torque in the Inspire.

Don’t get excited about the straight-line numbers. The Complete takes a fairly glacial 14.2 seconds to reach 100km/h, the Inspire 11.5, and both are limited to 130km/h. But around town, where this car will live, it feels far perkier than the spec sheet suggests, with keen response between 40 and 60km/h and enough shove to make gaps in traffic easy.

The chassis is where Geely has spent the money. Almost everything at this price uses a torsion beam rear axle, essentially a solid bar connecting the back wheels. The EX2 gets proper five-link independent rear suspension, and combined with a low-mounted battery and a tare weight of just 1,290kg (Complete) or 1,365kg (Inspire), it rides and corners like a car from the class above. We aimed it at a deliberately rough back road on the launch route and it stayed composed where a torsion-beam car would have been hopping about.

And then there is the turning circle: 9.9 metres. In a supermarket car park, that alone might sell the car.

Battery, range and charging

Both variants use lithium iron phosphate batteries, the hard-wearing chemistry we would want in a car destined for a decade of school runs. The Complete carries 35.35kWh for a WLTP range of 252km. The Inspire’s 47.14kWh pack is rated at 345km. Take roughly 15 percent off for real-world New Zealand driving and the Inspire still covers a week of commuting without drama.

Charging is where the price shows. DC peaks at 60kW on the Complete and 80kW on the Inspire, with Geely claiming around 25 minutes for a 30 to 80 percent top-up. Fine for the occasional road trip, not a car for regular Auckland-to-Wellington runs. AC charging is modest too, so most owners will simply plug in overnight and never think about it.

The fun extras help. There is 3.3kW vehicle-to-load, so the EX2 can run your pie warmer at the beach, and a camping mode that keeps the climate control going overnight while everything else sleeps. Over-the-air updates and an app store are standard, and the “Hey Geely” voice assistant deserves a special mention: it is the fastest and most accurate we have used in any car at any price, and it controls nearly everything.

Living with it

The cabin is dominated by a 14.6 inch touchscreen and 8.8 inch instrument cluster, with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on both grades. It is quiet at speed, the packaging is clever, the back seat is genuinely adult-friendly for the footprint, and the boot holds 375 litres, or 1,320 with the seats folded. There is even a 70 litre frunk.

Our favourite detail costs nothing: the driver assistance nannies can be silenced in two taps through a programmable shortcut. Plenty of cars at three times the price still make you dig through menus at every start-up.

Now the gripes. The dashboard reflects badly in direct sun. The glovebox is a shallow drawer that the front passenger cannot actually reach, so it is good for storing potatoes and not much else. Rear passengers get one USB port and no fold-down armrest. Regenerative braking is mild even at its strongest setting, with no one-pedal mode; our informal coast-to-a-red-light test ended with the emergency braking stepping in, which is not how one-pedal driving is supposed to work. There is no sunroof at any price, and Geely has not published a tow rating.

One more thing to note: no ANCAP rating yet. Geely is targeting five stars, and the ingredients look right, with 64 percent high-strength steel and seven airbags including a centre bag, plus the full active safety suite on both grades. Until it is tested, treat five stars as an ambition, not a fact.

Which one, and against what?

With most budget car reviews, we often find the best value in the entry level models, but in the case of the EX2 we suggest the Inspire model may be the better value pick. This is because the Complete model gives up the surround-view camera, wireless phone charging, power tailgate, heated front seats and steering wheel, alloy wheels, rain-sensing wipers and the six-speaker stereo, plus 25kW and 93km of range. The $5,000 walk to the Inspire is the easiest recommendation in this review.

On the wider market, some honesty is required. The MG4 and Ora sit a half-step up, with bigger batteries, more range, more power and faster charging, and the MG4 is a physically larger car. The EX2 does not beat them on capability; it undercuts them on price and asks whether you really needed the extra.

The closer fight is with the Atto 1, which shares the EX2’s city-car brief, LFP battery and vehicle-to-load trick. Against it, the Geely is bigger inside and out, goes further in Inspire form, and has suspension hardware the BYD simply does not offer. The Dolphin splits the difference, with more battery than the EX2 for Inspire money but a plainer chassis.

We arrived in Sydney expecting another forgettable small EV. We left understanding why 800,000 Chinese buyers disagreed. The EX2 is not fast, not glamorous and not a tourer, but it does nearly everything a small car needs to do just a little better than the cars it is chasing. Whether Kiwi buyers notice is now Geely NZ’s problem to solve.

The Geely EX2 Complete ($32,990) and Inspire ($37,990) are priced plus on-road costs. Premium paint is $950 on all colours except Moon White.

Specifications: Geely EX2

	Complete	Inspire
Price	$32,990 + ORC	$37,990 + ORC
Motor	Single permanent magnet synchronous, rear-mounted	Single permanent magnet synchronous, rear-mounted
Power	60kW	85kW
Torque	150Nm	150Nm
Drivetrain	Single-speed, RWD	Single-speed, RWD
Battery	35.35kWh LFP	47.14kWh LFP
Range (WLTP)	252km	345km
Energy consumption (WLTP)	15.9kWh/100km	15.5kWh/100km
Charging AC / DC max	6kW / 60kW	6kW / 80kW
V2L	3.3kW	3.3kW
0-100km/h	14.2s	11.5s
Top speed (limited)	130km/h	130km/h
Suspension F/R	MacPherson strut / multi-link	MacPherson strut / multi-link
Brakes F/R	Ventilated disc / solid disc	Ventilated disc / solid disc
Wheels	16-inch steel, 205/60	16-inch alloy, 205/60
Turning circle	9.9m	9.9m
L / W / H	4,135 / 1,805 / 1,580mm	4,135 / 1,805 / 1,580mm
Wheelbase	2,645mm	2,645mm
Ground clearance	134mm	136mm
Tare weight	1,290kg	1,365kg
Luggage (seats up / down / frunk)	375L / 1,320L / 70L	375L / 1,320L / 70L
Airbags	7	7
ANCAP	Not yet rated	Not yet rated
Service intervals	TBC	TBC
Warranty	TBC	TBC