Geely EX2 2026 review | Decent, well-priced electric small car
Geely EX2 cars for sale
3.0
Expert review
Pros
Spacious interior by small car standards
Good luggage capacity spread across the boot and ‘frunk’
Lots of standard equipment
Cons
Lacks the power and range of rivals
Heating controls are in the touchscreen
Missing the character of a Renault 5
The CarGurus verdict
The Geely EX2 is a very well-priced small electric car. It doesn’t have the sheer character of something like a Renault 5, but counters this with much more space inside and better practicality, particularly for those in the rear. It drives quite nicely too – it doesn’t have the verve of a Renault 5 either, and there’s a pronounced shortfall in performance, but it is certainly smooth, refined and comfortable.
The challenge for some will be the range, which is around 40 miles behind key rivals. But then, they cost more as a result, and if you keep the Geely EX2 in its natural city environment, a 214-mile range becomes less of an issue. Add in the car’s generous equipment levels and promise of low running costs, and it emerges as a solid choice for those seeking good value for money.
What is the Geely EX2?
The Geely EX2 is a supermini-sized electric car from this new Chinese car brand. Supermini small cars are the best-selling type of new car in Britain, and electric cars are the fastest-growing fuel type, so Geely has clearly put two and two together. The formula’s already worked in China; the EX2 is the best-selling car of all over there.
Geely EX2 prices are an immediate headline-grabber, as they start from just £20,990. That’s less than £1000 more than the cheapest petrol-powered Vauxhall Corsa, Britain’s best-selling supermini of all. Mind you, that’s for an EX2 with a small 35.3kWh battery and a range of just 155 miles. The Geely EX2 Max, whose bigger 47.1kWh battery gives a range of 214 miles, costs from £23,490. This is still cheap enough to be of interest to many; the cheapest Vauxhall Corsa Electric is almost £27,500...
The Geely EX2 is a neat-looking car, with a smooth, slippery shape. The design doesn’t stand out, although you can make it more impactful with some bright pastel colours including mint green and pink. The dedicated electric car design also means it’s particularly roomy inside, and it even has a handy front boot, or ‘frunk’. Equipment levels are very generous, and you’ll be amazed at what you get for your money on the range-topping versions.
The Geely EX2 feels suitably futuristic inside, too. The design draws from the larger Geely EX5 and Starray family SUVs, with a raised centre console and button-free, touchscreen-focused layout. All versions get posh-feeling synthetic leather upholstery.
There are a steadily growing number of rivals to the electric Geely EX2. The Vauxhall Corsa Electric is the most obvious, and there’s the Citroen e-C3 and Peugeot e-208 too, along with the retro-infused Renault 5 and Renault 4. The Volkswagen ID.Polo EV is coming soon, and Hyundai offers the Inster, although EVs from fellow Chinese brands are thinner on the ground – there’s only really the BYD Dolphin Surf, which is a smaller and less supermini-like car. Does this give Geely a first-mover advantage? Read on to find out.
How practical is it?
The Geely EX2 is a small car star when it comes to interior space. It measures 4,135mm long, making it a little bigger than a regular supermini such as the Vauxhall Corsa, although still usefully shorter than a Volkswagen Golf family car. And, thanks to Geely’s dedicated electric car underpinnings, there genuinely is family car levels of interior space, both front and rear.
Those in the front have a nice high-set seating position, made to feel even airier by the deep windscreen. With a tall, wide centre console, it has SUV-like vibes, and it’s similarly easy to get in and out of thanks to the wide door openings. It’s a similar story in the rear, where there’s a tremendous amount of legroom and, thanks to a flat floor and lots of space under the front seats, a real sense of airiness. The only grumble is headroom that might be a little tight for the very tall, and a header rail that encroaches a little too much into the cabin – some may have to duck slightly for a clear view out, and watch your head when getting in the back, too.
There are lots of clever stowage spaces inside. A novel feature is that instead of a regular glovebox, the Geely EX2 has a slide-out drawer on the passenger side. It’s a useful 30cm x 30cm space, and has a felt lining to stop things ratting around. It’s ideal for stowing laptops or tablet devices (although it’s not lockable).
Other clever spaces include a 20-litre stowage area beneath the ‘floating’ centre console, a five-litre space under the centre armrest (it’s deep enough to hold water bottles upright) – and a snazzy 28-litre stowage box for underneath the rear seat that will be available as an option. There are useful door pockets both front and rear, although there's no fold-down centre armrest.
The 375-litre boot sounds decent on paper, but it’s short and a little shallow beneath the parcel shelf (which also doesn’t appear to have strings that lift it up clear when the boot’s opened). Fold the rear seats and it expands to a generous 1,320 litres, and Geely’s rightly proud of the 70-litre front boot, or ‘frunk’. This is big and deep enough for a couple of shopping bags – even maybe a carry-on suitcase – and, if you remember it’s there, is a useful everyday space.
Most will default to the boot, though – particularly as Ultra models have the noteworthy feature of a power tailgate. This is unique in the supermini small car sector and a really useful everyday convenience detail.
What's it like to drive?
The Geely EX2 is smooth, comfort-oriented car to drive. Although it’s been stiffened up compared to Chinese-market models, the suspension is still squidgy, so it will lean into corners, with lively body motions (and jostled passengers) if you’re eager with the steering. Best instead to relax and drive in the smoother manner that best suits the EX2.
For a small car, it rides very well. The absorbent 16-inch wheels help here, as does a fairly high-end suspension setup that includes a multi-link rear setup. Occasionally it can feel a little bobbly over rough surfaces at slower speeds, but once on the move, it proves impressively adept at soaking up broken British roads. The Geely EX2 takes the edge off potholes and doesn’t crash over rough surfaces. It feels as adept as a much larger car.
The Geely EX2 has a small, flat-bottom steering wheel which controls a particularly light and artificial-feeling setup. You can add more weight in ‘Sport’ mode, but not more feedback. Saying that, the well-judged suspension setup means it’s an accurate car to steer and feels natural when being threaded through bends – helped by its rear-wheel drive setup. This also yields a very tight turning circle of less than 10 metres; it’s really useful in tight car parks.
The Geely EX2 is no performance car. We haven’t driven the entry-level 80bhp version, with its yawning 14.2-second 0-62mph time, but even the higher-power 114bhp version isn’t exactly a rocketship. It’s particularly meek when pulling away from junctions – almost as if the power is being capped. You can press the accelerator pedal fully down yet won’t feel the surge of full power until a second or so later. Bear this in mind at busy roundabouts. At least, once it’s going, pulling power is reasonable, but the lack of eagerness when pulling away is disappointing.
On paper, the Geely EX2 has an 80mph speed limiter. However, anecdotal evidence is that this is a somewhat ‘soft’ limiter, and the car will travel faster – certainly quickly enough to put your driving licence at risk here in the UK.
Overall refinement is generally impressive. Because the motor is tucked away under the boot, the Geely EX2 is near-silent at city speeds, with negligible motor noise and little road noise, either. Experience it for the first time on a test drive and you’ll get luxury car vibes. Even at higher speeds, noise levels are reasonable – this would be a good small car candidate for a premium sound system to capitalise on this (you only get four speakers as standard, or six speakers on Ultra).
The Geely EX2 offers the practicality of DC rapid charging, but the speeds aren’t very fast – just 60kW on the smaller 35.3kWh battery, and 80kW on the 47.1kWh battery. Saying that, because the batteries aren’t huge, this should still be fast enough to go from 30-80% in around 25 minutes.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
As is the way with so many modern cars, there are few physical buttons inside. Nearly everything is controlled through the touchscreen, even down to the heater. Given the size of the screen, it’s a shame the heater settings are not bigger, as it’s easy to ‘miss’ them when on the move: at least climate control is standard, so you shouldn’t have to mess with the heater settings too much. There are steering wheel buttons, but they're not very clearly marked; they might offer more functionality than we discovered in a two-hour test drive.
The Geely EX2 is available in three trims, called Pro, Max and Ultra. They all feature a large-format 14.6-inch touchscreen inside, complemented by an 8.8-inch driver display. This gives the Geely EX2 quite a high-tech feel inside, certainly considering its price point.
The technology itself doesn’t disappoint, either. The screen is crisp and bright – locate the home screen button, hidden by your left hand on the steering wheel, and you can enjoy some beautifully punchy screen wallpapers to brighten your everyday drives. There’s a permanently-displayed menu bar at the bottom, which makes navigation easier, and while there’s a lot of menus to scroll through, it’s reasonably logical to use.
Geely boasts it can issue over-the-air software updates in weeks rather than months or years. A recent UK update has made disabling the ADAS tech, such as lane-keep assist and speed limit warning, much easier: simply press the ‘car’ icon at the bottom of the display to toggle off the functions you find most irritating.
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are included, and if you go back into the ‘car’ side of things, moving back into smartphone mirroring is made easier by a shortcut button at the top of the screen (although could we have it a little larger, Geely?). A wireless charging pad is standard on Ultra models, and the grippy rubber mat even has sections to hold your phone in place as you discover how much the EX2 rolls during enthusiastic cornering.
Geely’s ‘Flyme’ infotainment system also includes an app store. This allows natives apps to be downloaded, including Spotify, Amazon Music and others. YouTube can be installed too, so you can stream videos while you’re charging.
Pro and Max models have exactly the same level of standard equipment – the only difference is the battery size. And what an impressive array of standard kit it is, including electric front seats, synthetic leather upholstery, 16-inch alloys, rear privacy glass, climate control, a safety pack that includes blind spot assist and reversing camera, power-fold door mirrors and that 14.6-inch touchscreen.
Key equipment additions for the Geely EX2 Ultra include two-tone paint, metal-look side skirts, heated front seats and steering wheel, 256-colour interior ambient lighting, wireless smartphone charging and a more advanced 360-degree camera with Range Rover-style transparent chassis view (it lets you ‘see underneath the car’). Uniquely, the Geely EX2 Ultra also has a power tailgate – the only supermini-sized car to do so. With a £25,490 price tag, it's easy to see why Geely expects this version to be the most popular.
The standard interior colourscheme is grey, but for £200, Geely EX2 Ultra buyers can option a brighter off-white colourscheme.
Geely EX2 running costs
As an electric small car, the Geely EX2 should be cheap to run in terms of powering (or 'fuelling') it. The motors are efficient, and because it doesn’t have any particular focus on performance, real-world efficiency should be decent.
Cut-price home charging is boosted by the ability to schedule charging times during off-peak energy periods. Geely dealers are set up to offer a range of home charging solutions too, meaning you can arrange for a wallbox to be installed if you’re buying your first new EV.
Other factors in the Geely EX2’s favour include all versions running the same sensibly-sized 16-inch wheel; prices for the 205/60 R16 Yokohama tyres start from an affordable £70. Geely says premium Yokohama tyres were chosen for the UK, rather than the alternative Linglong rubber, both because of better availability over here as well as better performance.
Geely has worked with security and safety experts Thatcham which, along with the limited performance of the entry-level model, has helped it achieve a 14E insurance rating for the basic Pro. This increases to a still-reasonable 18E for the Max, while the ultra is 19E. As for servicing, two-year intervals and the relatively maintenance-free makeup of EVs should both help keep costs in check.
Geely EX2 reliability
The Geely EX2 comes with a comprehensive eight-year, 125,000-mile new car warranty. The battery is also guaranteed for eight years – and Geely also offers four years’ roadside assistance.
This should help provide long-term reassurance for this new-to-the-UK brand, as it’s too soon to have any sort of idea on its real-world reliability. Saying that, being an electric car means there’s less mechanically to go wrong – and huge sales in China mean this is a model that’s already been very well-proven in the world’s largest new car market.
- The Geely EX2 has a top speed electronically limited to 80mph. Some will insist this is not an issue in the UK, where the legal speed limit is 70mph, but it’s still worth bearing in mind. Acceleration of the low-power ‘Pro’ model is very lethargic, too; ‘Max’ and ‘Ultra’ are more acceptable.
- The Geely EX2 has premium car features as standard, including Volvo-like blind spot assist indicators in the door mirrors, and a BMW-like app store built into the infotainment. The rear cross traffic alert is a useful safety feature too: it bleeps if it detects oncoming cars when you're backing out of a space (and the front cross traffic assist feature is handy when edging forward out of blind junctions). Remember, all Geely EX2 have a colour reversing camera as well.
- Geely may be new in the UK, but it’s actually been making cars for over 40 years. What’s more, Geely Auto’s giant Geely Holding parent firm actually owns brands you will be familiar with, including Volvo, Polestar, Lotus and the LEVC taxi firm.
- If you want the most affordable: the Geely EX2 is the most affordable, costing from just £20,990. If having the absolute-cheapest version is important, this is the one to go for – but make sure its limited range and performance won’t be too much of a hindrance.
- If you want best value for money: the Geely EX2 Max is the one to go for. It has that all-important longer range, yet still comes in at a reasonable £23,490.
- If you want the most for your money: the Geely EX2 Ultra is the one for you – and the version insiders expect to sell the most of. It builds on the ample equipment of the regular model with genuine luxury car features, while still achieving a reasonable £25,490 list price.
