If you’re in the Philippines, it’s hard to talk about Geely without mentioning the Coolray.

A few years ago, it was Geely that was arguably ruling over all Chinese auto brands in the country with the Coolray as its champion. The design was original. The quality was great. The powertrain was exciting, and they’ve got the pricing spot on.

Pound for pound, the Coolray was really impressive; so much so that it was our top pick back in 2020. We saw it as the car that set the bar for other Chinese brands to follow. However, Geely’s reign would be short-lived. Not because the Coolray stopped being cool, but the former distributor had a series of aftersales issues piled up one after another without a proper resolution. This left a huge dent (or rather crater) on Geely’s reputation in the country.

In this industry, if you cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Other Chinese brands eventually caught up and took Geely’s throne (particularly BYD) when electrification finally took off in the market. While all that was happening, Geely had to do a hard reset - one that involved transitioning its business model from a distributor to a subsidiary, and rebuild everything from scratch. 

Geely is still in that process, but the perfect storm had already come. The ongoing fuel crisis means the market is in demand for plug-in hybrid vehicles, and it just so happens the brand just launched the EX5 EM-i. Will this be Geely’s next great warrior after the Coolray?

The EX5 comes in two flavors in the Philippine market - one is a full EV, and this one we're testing is the plug-in hybrid version, called the EX5 EM-i. EM-i stands for e-Motive Intelligence, which is Geely speak for a smart, modern PHEV system that bridges the gap between combustion engines and full EVs.

Walking up to the EX5 EM-i for the first time, it’s clear that it has more subdued styling than the Coolray, though I find this plug-in hybrid version’s face to have a bit more character than the EX5 EV, as the light bar connecting the DRLs added some more styling to what’s rather a plain design for the front of the EX5.

The sides of the EX5 are a contrast to the Coolray’s boy-racer styling. It has softer lines, more rounded curves, and none of those red stripes and protruding spoilers are found around the body. The EX5 looks more mature; it’s the kind where an aftermarket wheel from BBS or HRE would fit better than a TE37. There’s even some semblance of a Porsche Macan on the rear quarter, giving hints that it was designed with European influence.

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Size-wise, the Geely EX5 EM-i measures more than 4.7 meters long, 1.9 meters wide, and almost 1.7 meters tall, and has a ground clearance of 172 mm. This makes it bigger than the Coolray and inches closer to the Sealion 5 / Sealion 6 territory.

Stepping inside the EX5 EM-i, it welcomes you to a clean and modern interior. The leatherette upholstery and the soft surfaces feel nice to the touch, and have a degree of fit and finish that you would expect from more expensive vehicles.

Opting for the top-of-the-line Max variant gives you things like a heads-up display, panoramic sunroof, a 16-speaker Flyme sound system with some of those mounted on the headrests, leather seats with power, cooling, and heating function on the front seats, plus 256-color ambient lighting, which really gives that sosyal feel inside. The EX5 EM-i also comes with privacy glass on the rear doors from the factory, so that’s a great bonus.

Space is also in abundance onboard the EX5, particularly in the second row. Legroom is generous, with proper thigh support and cushioning on the seats. Cargo space is measured at around 91 cm long, 109 cm wide, and 74 cm tall with all the seats up. Folding the second row seats flat will increase cargo length to 156 cm, and cargo height to 84 cm with the floor board at its lowest mount.

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Whichever variant you choose, there’s a 10-inch driver display and a 15.6-inch touchscreen for infotainment with Geely’s Flyme OS, featuring wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as a 360-degree camera. 

All of the vehicle’s functions can be found on the screen, even controlling the wipers and headlights can be found there. While the display is crisp and responds quickly to your inputs, Geely could really make do with simplifying the submenus for changing vehicle functions to minimize screen time while driving. Or rather, they should place more buttons on the dashboard to do those things.

If you’re looking at this as your next vehicle, take it from me – take time to read the manual or explore the settings on the touchscreen. There are plenty of things to discover and optimize your driving experience there.

Under the hood of the EX5 EM-i is a 1.5-liter, naturally aspirated four-cylinder gasoline engine and an electric motor powered by an 18.4 kWh LFP battery that makes up Geely’s Super Hybrid system, or EM-i. The engine alone makes 99 PS and 125 Nm of torque, while the electric motor puts out 218 PS and 262 Nm of torque.

On the road, the EX5 EM-i feels pleasantly uneventful to drive because it’s just so quiet, especially in Pure EV mode. You get that feeling you’re nicely cocooned inside with its superb NVH - it must have been the Volvo influence speaking in silence.

The EX5 is not as athletic or engaging as the Coolray was before, but the car speaks with its refinement. The suspension is tuned for comfort, so you’d expect more noticeable pitching and rolling over bigger bumps and expansion joints, but the tradeoff is that it does a good job absorbing and soaking up road imperfections to return a smooth ride.

It’s just an inoffensive thing to drive most of the time, and the regenerative braking modes are also pretty moderate. Even in the highest setting, you still have to assist in slowing the EX5 down, especially when going downhill on a mountain road. 

The EX5 can get pretty lively on the initial getaway, but the instant torque from the electric motor can light up the front tires quite quickly, though. Once it reaches higher speeds, the EX5 transitions to delivering power in a more linear fashion.

Efficiency is where the EX5 excels, as I was able to do 83 km on pure EV mode with the screen displaying I did 5.8 km per kWh. Once the battery charges dropped and switched to Hybrid mode, the EX5 still delivers 16 km/l on city driving, and stretches to 24 km/l on highway runs. The battery can be replenished through the Force Charge mode on the screen, but expect a pretty big FC penalty when the engine stays on even at a complete stop. 

As for its intelligent driving features, the default settings on the forward collision, rear cross traffic, and lane departure can get pretty intrusive on your natural driving, especially with the way motorists behave in our country. The good thing here is that there are degrees of sensitivity that you can change.

When you adjust the sensitivity to low, the safety systems feel like they’re just in the background, and step in when you really can’t do the avoidance by yourself. The settings also get saved, so you won’t have to adjust them again next time.

Had Geely come up with the EX5 EM-i earlier than BYD did with the Sealion 6, we might have been looking at this as another game-changer after the Coolray, setting the standard for PHEV crossovers to follow. We all know who came in first, though, but the EX5 EM-i definitely has what it takes to bring the fight to the Sealion 6 when we talk car for car. It all just depends on what buyers prioritize more in terms of the two characters, but they're pretty close.

Aside from its apparent screen reliance, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, and it’s really well equipped for its price of PHP 1,468,000 for the Max, and an even more attractive PHP 1,288,000 for the entry Pro variant. That may have smaller wheels and a shorter feature list, but it has the same overall range, meaning you’d still really get a lot of car for the money.  

What Geely needs to do next is to avoid the very pitfall that caused all their troubles in previous years – aftersales. With the EX5, they have a chance to redeem themselves by having the right car at the right time. I just really hope they don’t eff it up.

I can already read online confessions of disgruntled owners of its rival brand having to wait months to order collision repair parts, and some reliability issues surfacing, particularly with their PHEV system. Geely should by now have learned how to put out the smoke before it turns into a full blown inferno.