2024 OMODA E5 EX | Electric Car Review

OMODA is new to New Zealand, however its parent company Chery is not. In 2022, Chery launched the OMODA marque in Russia, and it has been growing in popularity ever since. With new mid-sized SUV models, the C5 and E5, OMODA is taking New Zealand by storm with surprisingly affordable high spec vehicles. 

Omoda launched in New Zealand with the C5 and E5, the C5 has a 1.5 and 1.6-litre turbo petrol model and the E5 is a fully electric model. These types of vehicles are not new, but the prices they are available at are. The C5 is under $30k and the E5 is under $50k, both are packed with features you would only expect to see in high-priced European vehicles. Drivelife wants to find out what all the fuss is about and if this new brand is going to soon become a household name.

What We Like and Dislike About The 2024 Omoda E5 EX

What’s In 2024 OMODA E5 Range?

As previously mentioned, Omoda have two main models available in New Zealand, the OMODA C5 and E5. Both vehicles share the same chassis / drivetrain and some exterior styling queues. However, the two models are very different, with the main difference being the large honeycomb grille on the C5 versus the sleek, clean front to the E5. 

The C5 is the petrol model, and is powered by a 1.5 litre turbo petrol engine that produces 210Nm of torque and has a fuel consumption of 6.9 litres per 100km. What’s really impressive about the C5, is that it starts at $29,990 with the BX variant. There are two other variants available, the EX at $34,990 and the GT at $37,990. The GT model has a slightly larger engine, 1.6 litre turbo petrol engine for a bit more sportiness

The E5 is the full EV model, which is powered by a single electric motor that produces 340Nm of torque. The E5 start at $47,990 with the BX, and the EX at $54,990. What’s really impressive about both the C5 and E5 is the spec levels they both offer. 

2024 Omoda E5 EX Colour Range

The following colours are available for the E5 BX and EX:

• Lunar White
• Lunar White with a Black roof – $1000
• Martian Red
• Mercurial Grey
• Midnight Blue
• Saturn Silver
• Saturn Silver with a Black roof – $1000
• Space Black
• Titan Green

Both the BX and EX come with a fixed array of options, the only thing you can select is the colour. This means the only additional option available is to have a black roof or not, and even this is only available with Lunar White or Saturn Silver. The review vehicle DriveLife drive was the OMODA E5 EX, which retails for $55,990 + ORC.

For a full list of specs and options available for the OMODA E5 EX, head on over to Omoda’s New Zealand’s website.

How Does The 2024 OMODA E5 EX Compare To Its Competition?

The EV market is huge right now, and a mid-sized efficient daily driver is at the forefront of a lot of consumers minds right now. Where we used to put a lot of emphasis on brand or country of origin, it is not so much the case any more. The cars from China are really starting to make their mark. High quality, good specs and design. People are taking notice and once you look at the price, they start to look at these in a different light. 

Make/ Model	Battery Capacity kW-hr	Power/ Torque kW/Nm	0-100km/h seconds	Range (WLTP), km	Boot Space, litres	Price
Mini Cooper SE	54.2	160/330	6.7	402	210	$66,990
Cupra Born V+	77	170/310	7.0	548	385	$59,990
MG ZS EV Long Range	72.6	130/280	8.5	440	359	$59,990
BYD Atto 3 Extended	60	150/310	7.3	420	440	$59,990
BYD Dolphin Extended	60	150/310	7.0	427	345	$55,990
Omada E5 EX	61	150/340	7.6	430	300	$54,990
MG4 Essence 64	64	150/250	7.2	435	350	$54,990
Opel Corsa-e	50	100/260	8.1	383	309	$49,990
Omoda E5 BX	61	150/340	7.6	430	300	$47,990
Nissan Leaf e+	59	160/320	6.9	385	405	$36,990

Please note that DriveLife does its best to ensure the information above is correct at the time of publication, however, prices, specifications and models can change over time. Please bear that in mind when comparing models in the comparison table.

First Impressions Of The 2024 OMODA E5 EX

My first impressions were more focused on the name, and how to say it. It’s a three syllable word, and the right way to say it, is to pronounce the first “O”, “MO”, “DA”. Once I sorted that, I must admit that what I saw was not what I expected from the OMODA E5; take the badge off, and it could be a vehicle from any main stream European brand.

I like it, the front is clean, with solid lines running across the front and the two-tone body and roof giving it a nice sporty feel. I love the white as it really shows off the shapes and styling features with great contrast. 

What’s The Interior Like In The 2024 OMODA E5 EX VARIANT?

Inside the E5 EX, you’re greeted with a rather stylish synthetic leather front seats. Both front seats are electric, with the driver’s having 6-way controls and the passenger’s 4-way controls. Both front and rear seats are heated, which is impressive. Most cars that are double the price have the rear as an option. The front seats look and feel like leather, very well-built and confirmed to my body rather nicely, with great side support. I found these seats great, no issues or struggles to get comfortable. 

The rear is no different, not as contoured as the front, but just as comfy. You can seat 3 adults in the back without much fuss, and the legroom is impressive for a mid-sized car. Even with the driver’s seat back, I was still able to get into the back seat behind the driver. My daughter’s booster seat clicked into the ISO mounts with no issues, and she had no problem getting in and out of the car. Some cars don’t handle booster seats that well, as the seatbelt slips under the seat and most children can’t get to it when seated. My daughter had no issues, getting in and clicking her belt in all by herself. For more room in the boot, the rear seat also folds down with a 60/40 split, which is always handy as you never know when you need a bit more space when out shopping. 

The infotainment screen or central media screen is great in the sense of the size and how it is implemented into the dash. It has a bit of a Mercedes-Benz feel to it. The screen is bright and clear, but I feel the UI could do with a bit more user testing, just in terms of layout. It focuses a bit more on a nice wallpaper for the home screen than how well the apps are laid out. The bottom menu on the central screen is straightforward with access to phone, media, navigation, air-conditioning, vehicle settings, apps and the home screen. The air conditioning menu looks great, displaying where the airflow is going – but it is a bit overly complicated. It too also suffers a bit from the all-in-the-screen Tesla concept. It would be nice to have the seat heating controls as buttons instead of more menus and screen buttons.

The central console is simple, with a row of sleek silver buttons below the two cupholders. From right to left there is the power on and off button, drive mode button, hazard lights, rear window heating, front window heating and A/C on and off. Above the cupholder is a pad for wireless charging, and this is a 50W wireless charger for fast charging. 

Let’s just get back to that 5th button, the front window heating – I am impressed with this. The only other cars I have come across that have front screen window heating are all around $100k and up. And for the EX it’s standard, not even an option. That’s amazing value, and it worked really well, heating and clearing the front windscreen in a couple of minutes. It’s also a much better option than having the A/C heater blasting away on full, to try to clear up the windscreen. 

As the design of the vehicle slopes to the rear, this means the rear window has a steep angle on it, and a small view area. I was able to see clearly out of the rear, but since I am a tall driver, my head is almost at the same level as the rearview mirror. A shorter driver might find it hard to get the right angle to see cars close up due to the narrow rear window.

The EX also comes with a sunroof, nothing too fancy, just a typical tilt-and-slide sunroof with a manual shade cover when you want to block out the sun. The sunroof and the privacy glass for the rear of the vehicle is standard on the EX. 

The boot size is good at 300 litres. This is slightly below average for cars this size, but I realise that some of the boot space is taken up by the full-sized alloy spare wheel. This is something not many cars come with these days, especially fully EV ones, as they want to try and save weight. So that was rather nice to see and a good point of difference from the competition.

What’s The 2024 OMODA E5 EX Like To Drive?

At this point I will admit that I was concerned, a little bit of my brand bias here, as Chery were never known for a great driving car – but they did do cheap very well. So my expectations were low when it came to driving the OMODA E5 EX. I have to say that my expectations were exceeded. The E5 EX drives as well as any other EV vehicle I have driven, some more than double the price. It’s no sports car, it’s just got that right sweet spot for a great everyday vehicle.

The drive modes in the vehicle are a bit unnecessary; like most vehicles these days, it offers Eco, Normal and Sport. I spent 95% of my time in normal, as it felt great, with just the right balance of power and efficiency. Unless I feel a noticeable difference in the modes, I tend not to change them much, and the Eco and Sport didn’t really feel that much different. 

The steering on the E5 EX is light and smooth. That makes it’s a car that you don’t have to think much about when driving, it’s just nice and easy. The steering wheel on the E5 is simple, with audio controls on the right and cruise control features on the left. It’s also covered in synthetic leather, and heated. I also like that OMODA didn’t waste time on silly paddles for brake regen setting or other modes. Just kept it simple.

I am so impressed with the range of comfort options on this car – front and rear heated seats, heated steering wheel and heated mirrors, such good value. 

The driver’s display is a bit different to what we normally see; in the OMODA E5, the driver’s display is a white screen. At first, I thought this was odd and would be a bit too bright, but it didn’t phase me at all. The screen’s layout is modern, orientated around a 3D model of the E5 EX. On the left you have speed, power use, drive mode, and battery level. On the right you have vehicle status, and audio. Along the top of the screen lies the typical selection of lights on gear selection, time and outside temperature. It’s different, clean, and I liked it. 

The overall ride quality is great, road noise in the cabin is low and the noise from the electric motor is a faint hum in the background. The suspension was right where it needed to be, just enough to soak up the bumps in the road, without having too much roll in the corners. 

Under the bonnet there is a small storage area for your charging cables, it did the job well, but I would have liked to see more storage up here instead of the large amount of plastic. But perhaps the motor is too big to allow any more storage. Since I am touching on the charging, right at the front just under the OMODA logo is where the charging port is located. The only way to open this is with a button in the cabin you can activate this, but there is nothing on the key fob, which I thought was a missed opportunity. The panel pops up and reveals the charging port. My only concern about this would be with other people, I can see this being damaged easily, as it’s mounted on two plastic hinges and needs to stay up when charging. 

Energy economy is great, and with a full battery range was displayed at 400km. Over the course of my week behind the wheel, with a mix of around town and motorway driving. This brought the battery to 45% of the battery with 166km to go, which is pretty much on par with what it estimates from the full battery. OMODA advertises the combined battery usage at 15.5 kWh/100km. My real-world testing produced a figure of 18.5 kWh/100km, which was not that far off.

The range of three or four letter driver aids in the Omoda E5 EX is impressive, with 15 systems as standard.

• Forward Collision Warning (FCW)
• Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB)
• Emergency Lane Keeping (ELK)
• Lane Departure Warning (LDW)
• Lane Departure Prevention (LDP)
• Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)
• Traffic Jam Assist (TJA)
• Integrated Cruise Assist (ICA)
• Blind Spot Detection (BSD)
• Lane Change Assist (LCA)
• Rear Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA)
• Rear Cross Traffic Braking (RCTB)
• Speed Limit Information Function (SLIF)
• Speed Control Assist (SCF)
• Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR)
• Driver Monitoring System (DMS)
• Intelligent Headlamp Control (IHC) Smart High beam. 

Such good value to have all of those as standard on the BX and EX variants.

2024 OMODA E5 EX – Specifications

Vehicle Type	Medium SUV
Starting Price	$54,990
Price as Tested	$54,990
Engine	Electric Motor
Power, Torque kW/Nm	130/340
Transmission	EV
Spare Wheel	Full Size
Kerb Weight, Kg	1,785
Length x Width x Height mm	4,424 x 1,830 x 2,630
Boot Space / Cargo Capacity, Litres (seats up/seats down)	300/NA
Energy Economy, kWh/100km	Advertised Spec – Combined – 15.5 Real-World Test – Combined –  18.5 Low Usage: 6-10 / Medium Usage 11-19 / High Usage 19+
Towing Capacity Kg, unbraked/braked	N/A
Turning circle metres	10.2 Small: 6-10m / Medium 10-12m / Large 12m+
Warranty	8 years, 160,000km Battery Warranty
Safety information	ANCAP Rating – 5 stars – Link Rightcar.govt.nz – 5 Stars – QNE236