Forgettable Holden making a comeback: The Captiva is returning but as an all electric Chinese Chevrolet rival to the 2025 Geely EX5 and Leapmotor C10

The Captiva is back, but not as you know it.

Chevrolet has given the former Holden family SUV a new lease on life, but this time as an electric car from one of its Chinese joint ventures.

The old Holden Captiva wasn’t well loved by the end of its tenure in Australia, with a history of reliability issues. It was a rebadged Daewoo that was poorly received by critics.

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The all electric Captiva is based on the Wuling Starlight S, which is the product of GM’s joint venture with SAIC. The latter is also the owner of MG.

The new Captiva is destined for international markets in South and Central America, the Middle East and Africa. 

It’s unlikely to make its way to Australia where GM’s focus is the launch of the upmarket Cadillac brand as well as the high-performance Corvette and remanufactured Silverado pick-up.

It’s a sporty looking SUV with narrow, sharp LED headlights and a punch upper grille design.

The rear end is very similar to the Starlight S with a smooth, rounded rear end typical of Chinese electric cars.

It is likely to mimic the Starlight S underneath with a 60kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery at its core. 

In China this delivers a driving range of up to 510km in the Starlight S via the China Light-duty test Cycle (CLTC), which is more generous than the benchmark WLTP testing protocol.

Max charge rate hasn’t been detailed but it is claimed to add 200km of range in 15 minutes, which is about 40 per cent of the battery capacity or the equivalent of about 100kW charging speed.

Power comes from a single front mounted electric motor that delivers 150kW and 310Nm. It can hit 100km/h in 7.7 seconds on the way to a top speed of 175km/h.