Geely EX2 review
The Geely EX2 might be one of the cheapest EVs on sale, but its mediocre range and bland styling let it down.
Our opinion on the Geely EX2
The Geely EX2 is a respectable but forgettable small EV that struggles to stand out from the crowd. There is some good news – standard tech and kit are good, there’s plenty of space to play with, plus it’s fine to drive, even if we do have higher expectations for something said to be tuned by Lotus. But the range and performance lag behind key rivals, the interior is bland, and there’s none of the charm or character that its similarly priced competitors have in spades.
About the Geely EX2
The Geely EX2 was the best-selling car in China last year, with nearly half a million flying out of showrooms. In the hope that its success will translate to global audiences, the Chinese goliath has brought its small all-electric hatchback to the UK, and Auto Express was among the very first to drive it here.
The smart, slightly cute but very generic and rather anonymous-looking EV is known as the Geome Xingyuan in China, where it’s available from the equivalent of just under £7,000 – which maybe helps explain its massive popularity.
It costs quite a bit more here, which is to be expected, but it could have done with undercutting the likes of the Renault 5 and Fiat Grande Panda Electric more than it does.
Performance & driving experience
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To drive, the EX2 is not as fun or refined as the Renault 5, but it’s generally pretty good. We wish it were a bit quicker and quieter at motorway speeds.
| Model | Power | 0-62mph | Top speed |
| Geely EX2 Pro | 80bhp | 14.2 seconds | 81mph |
| Geely EX2 Max | 114bhp | 11.5 seconds | 81mph |
| Geely EX Ultra | 114bhp | 11.5 seconds | 81mph |
Performance, 0-60mph acceleration and top speed
The EX2 is disappointing in terms of straight-line performance. The base model gets a mere 80bhp and 150Nm of torque, resulting in 0-62mph in more than 14 seconds. The others get 114bhp for 0-62mph in a still sluggish 11.5 seconds, and that lack of oomph is very frustrating when pulling out of junctions or trying to overtake.
We’re not expecting a small car like this to break the sound barrier away from the traffic lights, but the EX2 should feel more capable of merging with traffic than it does.
The Fiat Grande Panda, for comparison, is hardly a rocket ship, but its 10-second 0-62mph time is comfortably quicker than even the most powerful EX2. The Renault 5 is quicker still, doing the deed in either nine or 7.9 seconds depending on the version.
Town driving, visibility and parking
Unlike a lot of rivals, the EX2 has its motor at the rear. You won’t notice this most of the time, but due to the lack of the parts needed to transfer power from the motor to the front wheels, it’s possible to give the EX2 a tighter turning circle compared with its front-wheel drive competitors. This results in making manoeuvring around town a little bit easier in the EX2.
As a small car, parking will be straightforward enough, and is made easier by even the entry-level version having a rear parking camera, plus rear parking sensors. No EX2 has front parking sensors, which seems a shame. If you want a better idea of what’s going on at the front, you’ll need to upgrade to the range-topping Ultra with its 360-degree camera.
It’s easy to see around the EX2 without that, though – there’s a relatively tall glasshouse with reasonably thin pillars to give good visibility.
Country road driving and handling
The EX2 never fully settles down, resulting in an undulating ride even on smooth tarmac. It’s comfortable for the most part, handling potholes well, and not leaning too much through corners. There’s even a nice weight to the steering.
Credit for that goes to Lotus, which is part of the wider Geely family and tuned the car for European markets. The goal wasn’t to make this small runabout feel like an Elise, but simply to tighten things up, because Chinese cars typically have much softer, boat-like handling that wouldn’t suit our roads. Given Hethel’s sports car boffins' involvement, we’d have liked the ride to be a bit better sorted.
The first time we drove a Geely EX2 involved a brief test drive in China on a domestic market version on budget Linglong tyres, which thankfully have been swapped for grippier, more premium Yokohama boots on Europe-bound cars.
Motorway driving and long-distance comfort
The EX2’s general shortage of power will make overtaking on the motorway a dispiritingly drawn-out affair. It’s also quite noisy at cruising speeds – although we’ve not had a chance to test with our dB meter, we reckon the Renault 5 and Cupra Raval are more hushed in the same setting.
“The EX2 is said to have handling tweaks by Lotus. It’s a shame Hethel couldn’t do something about the car’s lack of straight-line performance as well.” - Ellis Hyde, news reporter.
Range, charging & running costs
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As with any electric car, the key to keeping the running costs down will be getting yourself on an electricity tariff with substantially cheaper overnight rates. Time things properly, which is easy to do with the Geely EX2’s scheduled charging feature, and the car could potentially be very cheap to run.
It helps that for every cheap kWh of off-peak electricity you put into the EX2, it’ll go far. Based on our testing, 4.6 miles per kWh is possible in a mix of conditions, which makes the claim range figures almost achievable, which isn’t often the case.
Those range figures aren’t that great, though, making a costly stop at a public charger more likely on a longer journey. You’ll also be there a while, because the EX2’s rapid charging capacity is some way behind most rivals.
Electric range, battery life and charge time
The entry-level Pro model offers just 156 miles from its 35.4kWh battery, which is more in the ballpark of smaller and cheaper city cars such as the Honda Super-N and Renault Twingo. The equivalent Renault 5, Grande Panda and e-C3 all boast around 200 miles of range.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Geely predicts the base car will make up a tiny fraction of sales. Most people are likely to go for the upgraded Max and Ultra versions. These get a bigger 47.1kWh battery, but range only increases to 214 miles.
Again, this means the EX2 falls short of the competition. For instance, the Renault 5 with its bigger battery pack costs from £23,945 and can cover up to 252 miles. Similarly, higher-spec versions of the EV2, ID. Polo and Raval are good for roughly 280 miles on a single charge.
A 60kW rapid charging capability from the EX2 Pro might sound unimpressive, but it’s in similar territory to other small battery EVs. A peak 80kW for the Max and Ultra versions is equally underwhelming, when many rivals manage 100kW.
It’s also a bit disingenuous for Geely to quote a 30 to 80 per cent rapid-charge time for both battery sizes when 10 to 80 per cent is the norm, but this is a common theme with Chinese manufacturers. Under the more typical 10 to 80 per cent standard, it’ll take around 35 minutes to top up both versions of the B05, which is probably why Geely only quotes a 30 to 80 per cent time of 25 minutes.
Curiously, the AC charging limit is slightly below the 7.4kW maximum output of UK wallboxes, at 6.6kW. That won’t make a massive difference to the total charge time, though. It’ll take 6.5 hours to fully charge the Pro from empty, with the Max and Ultra taking 8.5 hours.
| Model | Battery size | Range | Insurance group |
| Geely EX2 Pro | 35.4kWh | 156 miles | 14E |
| Geely EX2 Max | 47.1kWh | 214 miles | 18E |
| Geely EX2 Ultra | 47.1kWh | 214 miles | 19E |
Insurance groups
The EX2 ranges from insurance group 14 to 19, which is quite low compared to the alternatives. The Grande Panda sits as high as group 23, while the Renault 4 is from 18 to 22 depending on the version.
Tax
The usual £200 a year for vehicle excise duty (VED) applies here, but that’s all - no version of the EX2 is anywhere near the £50,000 threshold for the government’s expensive vehicle tax supplement. As an electric vehicle, the EX2 has the lowest possible benefit-in-kind (BiK) tax rate, making it an affordable company car proposition.
Depreciation
After three years or 36,000 miles of use, the EX2 is set to retain 40.5 - 41.5 per cent of its original value depending on the version you get, with the Max version faring the best. That’s reasonable enough, with the Fiat Grande Panda only faring slightly better at 41 - 44 per cent, although the Renault 5 is ahead of both at 44.5- 46.5 per cent.
Interior, design & technology
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Much like the exterior, the EX2’s cabin is simple, smart and solid, if not particularly exciting or plush. There are physical buttons on the steering wheel and a small selection of others on the centre console. We think the illuminated constellation pattern on the dashboard and doors is a nice touch too – even if the idea seems to be pinched from Rolls-Royce.
Of course, even the best small EVs rely on a lot of plastic for their interior and can’t hide it. But the Renault 5 and Kia EV2 use fabrics to lift things and create a more interesting, inviting atmosphere, and that approach is more honest than the ultra-thin layer of synthetic leather in the Geely.
Interior and dashboard design
The EX2’s simplistic dashboard design with a large touchscreen in the middle is smart enough but not exactly distinctive – it’s scarcely different from what’s found in many other Chinese cars. While some might appreciate the simplicity, we can’t help but miss the fun and stylish nature of the cabins found inside rivals, including the Renault 5 and Fiat Grande Panda. We’d like more physical buttons, as well.
Materials and build quality
It’s a sea of plastic inside the EX2. The top of the dashboard, the doors, and the centre console all use hard, dull, cheap-feeling black plastic, and the dash has gloss piano-black surfaces that are guaranteed to attract dust and fingerprints. The rest of the trim does a poor job of imitating metal (or at least, we think that’s what it’s trying to). Everything feels well screwed together, though.
Infotainment, sat-nav and stereo
A 14.6-inch touchscreen is impressive for such a cheap car, and dwarfs the 10.25-inch display found in the Fiat Grande Panda. It’s bright and sharp, and all the menus load quickly, with big text and icons that are easy to tap while on the go. There are a lot of menus and sub-menus to navigate to adjust things, but the same is true for almost every Chinese car we’ve tested.
The driver’s display, on the other hand, uses a tiny font for the range and other info, making it hard to read at a glance. It also displays your speed to one side, whereas the centre of the screen is taken up by a graphic of the car and what’s around you. That seems a bit superfluous when you can see all of this in real life by simply looking out the windscreen – which we hope you’re doing anyway.
Boot space & practicality
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One of the benefits of the EX2 compared to rivals is its interior space, while the boot is a good chunk larger than the Renault 5, if not quite large enough to be class-leading.
There are a total of 36 storage spaces, and cubbies dotted throughout this car, including a unique drawer-style glovebox that’s large enough for the charging cable. Customers can also add an extra 25-litre storage box hidden under the rear seats.
Dimensions comparison | |||
| Model | Geely EX2 | Renault 5 | Fiat Grande Panda |
| Length | 4,135mm | 3,922mm | 3,999mm |
| Width | 1,805mm | 1,774mm | 1,763mm |
| Height | 1,580mm | 1,498mm | 1,586mm |
| Wheelbase | 2,650mm | 2,540mm | 2,540mm |
| Boot space | 375 litres | 326 litres | 361 litres |
Seats & passenger space
The EX2 is really spacious for a small electric car, especially compared to the Renault 5. As already noted, it is slightly bigger, but the difference inside is greater than you might expect – it feels like there’s considerably more room for passengers in the back of the Geely. Even six-foot tall adults will be comfortable, with legroom and headroom to spare.
Boot space
The 375-litre boot isn’t the biggest in this class, but its capacity is about 50 litres greater than the Renault 5’s, and very nearly as much as you get in a VW Golf, plus an extra 70 litres of storage under the bonnet. Fold the rear seats down, and you get 1,320 litres to play with, which is more than you get in a Golf. The incoming Leapmotor B03 beats the EX2, though, with 405 litres, or 510 if you include its underfloor compartment.
“Even though the EX2 is a bit bigger than most rivals, it’s still impressive to see how much space there is in the rear.” - Ellis Hyde, news reporter.
Reliability & safety
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The Geely EX2 was tested by Euro NCAP in 2026 as the Geely E2 (its model name in European Union countries), earning the full five stars. Its crash avoidance systems were only rated at 72 per cent, though.
On that subject, the EX2’s driver-assist tech still needs work. On multiple occasions during our time testing the car, the lane-keep assist suddenly and sharply turned the wheel if it didn’t believe the car was in the centre of the lane, while frequent messages from the driver attention monitoring system to take a break are very annoying.
With the EX2 being such a new model and the Geely brand having so little history in the UK, it’s difficult to tell what the car’s long-term reliability might be like. At least as an electric car, there are fewer moving parts, meaning less to go wrong. In any case, it’s reassuring that the warranty goes above and beyond what most competitors offer, lasting eight years or 125,000 miles, whichever comes first.
| Euro NCAP safety ratings | |
| Euro NCAP safety rating | Five stars |
| Safe driving | 80% |
| Crash avoidance | 72% |
| Crash protection | 86% |
| Post crash safety | 95% |
Buying, prices and deals
- Best buy: Geely EX2 Max
For £20,995, the EX2 Pro features a 14.6-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, an 8.8-inch driver’s display, electric seats with faux-leather upholstery and a suite of driver assistance systems that includes adaptive cruise control and blind-spot detection. Plus there’s an eight-year/125,000-mile warranty thrown in.
£23,490 Max trim simply adds the bigger battery and a more powerful motor, but the £25,490, range-topping Ultra version provides a few extra luxuries. It gets a heated steering wheel and front seats, cooled wireless phone charging, a 360-degree camera system, ambient lighting and a powered tailgate. There’s also a two-tone paint scheme.
Geely EX2 Alternatives
Obviously, we were aware that the EX2 wouldn’t be as cheap here as it is in China, but we didn’t expect it to cost from £20,990. Although that makes it one of the cheapest electric cars on sale, this price puts it in the territory of some seriously strong machinery.
The Renault 5 costs from £21,495, and because the larger battery version benefits from the full Band 1 Government Electric Car Grant, it isn’t much more at £24,045, which is roughly £500 more expensive than an EX2 with its bigger battery. It doesn’t have as much interior space as the EX2, nor is the interior tech as flashy, but it’s a much more rounded car.
The same can be said of the Fiat Grande Panda Electric, which starts from £21,495, and in the top-of-the-range La Prima trim it still undercuts the most expensive EX2.
The EX2 has plenty of competition from its compatriots, too. Although the MG4 Urban is a bit bigger, it’s priced similarly. Meanwhile, the Leapmotor B03 looks like it’ll be another very practical option, and we suspect it’ll also be in the low £20,000s.
Geely EX2 pictures
Frequently Asked Questions
The Geely EX2 is a good car, but its price pits it against some much more talented competition. For it to really make sense, you need to be able to make the most of its impressive interior space, and/or be able to secure a good deal.
Deals on the EX2 and alternatives
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