Geely EX2

Two colours are offered, grey or white. The finishes & equipment in general are plasticky but they look smart, modern & solidly finished. Some piano black areas will highlight fingerprints & dust, the constellation dash & door finishes look good & overall quality is acceptable especially at this price point.

The touchscreen is good. Easy to reach, responsive & the Geely software update now means that drives can turn off safety features more easily than in the EX5 & Starray when they came out. The steering wheel is clean but does contain the driver assist cruise control switches & media & volume buttons. Window & electric mirror switches are located in the doors & thankfully aren’t on the screen.

A line of climate, camera, EV & Home icons sit beneath the screen so short-cuts are made easier. We connected quickly & wirelessly to CarPlay. Our only gripe is that the drivers display features a very small font so is difficult to read.

Her is where the EX2 shines brightest. Small it may be but it’s Tardis-like interior means there’s loads of room up front for two adults & two six-footers will easily sit in the rear. Furthermore, Geely says there’s a total of 36 storage spaces dotted throughout this car, including a very cool drawer glovebox which is just large enough to fit the charging cable in. And you can add an extra 25-litre storage box underneath the rear seats if desired.

Negatives ? As with many Chinese cars the passenger seat felt too high & you can’t lower it unfortunately.

At 375 litres it’s 50 litres up on our Small Car of the Years Renault 5. Folded down you get 1,320 litres plus a useful 70 litres under the bonnet.

A circular test route saw us take in a variety of roads & the EX2 handled all comfortably. At the beginning we travelled along some undulating Cotswold B roads & the car felt comfortable, successfully masking the battery weight underneath. The steering’s a touch light & weightless so there’s not much feel as you go around a corner, but it doesn’t suffer too much body roll. The EX2 actually offers a harder over tarmac than many Chinese EV’s which makes it a touch more engaging & more European than some.

All-around vision is decent with plenty of glass. The gear selector is located on the right hand side of the steering wheel & is simple to use. Twin centre cup holders & the wireless charger sit between the front seats so we utilised these with bottles of water & my iPhone. A couple of hours Iinthe cabin passed quickly & the seats were comfortable & supportive.

If you’re looking for speed then the EX2 will disappoint. Our Ultra test car containing two passengers took at least 12 seconds to hit 60mph & also felt slow pulling out of junctions. Once up to speed it does at least stay there & the Adaptive Cruise Control is set-up nicely. Indeed, having turned off most of the annoying driver safety in the screen before we set off, the EX2 was surprisingly compliant as we drove around making a refreshing change from many new cars. No complaints here.

A test route of only 60 miles isn’t a great indicator but we were seeing return of 4.4 miles/kWh on a warm August day. We’d surmise that with the large battery, 180 miles is doable even in colder weather.

Cavernous cabin space for the sector. Very well equipped & generously priced. Clever interior touches such as the drawer glove-box lift the EX2 above other cabins in the sector.

A bit dull to drive & a touch bland inside. Acceleration is not a selling point. Driving range is only average for the sector.

Whilst Geely & others are launching electric models almost weekly, the EX2 whilst new in the UK, feels decidedly old-hat when compared to the likes of the Renault 5, Jeep Avenger Electric & Hyundai Inster, all of which come with a touch of pzazz. Will potential customers mind ? We don’t think so. The EX2 gives many exactly what they’re looking for, namely a spacious, well equipped, practical five-door hatchback at a seriously competitive price. From a fleet perspective, we’d expect the EX2 to be a popular user-chooser leasing choice as it’s a super-practical electric car that ticks plenty of boxes.