Chery Omoda E5 vs Zeekr X

What's the difference?

The Chery Omoda E5 gets solid ticks for value, practicality, performance, efficiency and a great ownership promise. 

But its suspension compliance isn’t in line with class standards and some of its safety assist features aren’t as refined as they should be. Both of which matter in a car likely to be used by families day-to-day. Its price and specification are strong drawcards and that will get it over the line for many. But we think this Omoda E5 would still benefit from some judicious fine-tuning.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

It's a good thing in a small package, this Zeekr X, and there are a lot of things I like about it. In fact, the only sticking point for me is the price. But that's all about perspective. If you see this as a newcomer Chinese brand, then yes, there are a lot of more affordable options out there. But if you see it as a premium player, it's really a more affordable version of a Volvo.

Note: The author, Andrew Chesterton, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number of automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

While retaining the fundamental shape of its internal combustion siblings the Omoda E5 does away with the petrol-powered car’s huge, rear-sloping grille, replacing it with a wrap-around forward-pointing nose proudly branded with the model name and hiding a pop-out battery charging port door.

The rear is more or less unchanged save for some detail tweaks to the bumper design, with a more noticeable change being the addition of aero-inspired 18-inch rims which I for one like a lot.

Parts of the interior are markedly different to combustion Omoda models with the front of the cabin dominated by an enlarged twin-screen array, both 12.3-inch, one covering multimedia and another in front of the driver for instrumentation. 

The gearshift has also been moved to a steering column stalk which frees up additional space in the centre console.

Soft touch materials on the dash and upper part of the doors is a high quality touch often missing in this part of the market and overall this Omoda E5 has a contemporary exterior design (without necessarily breaking new ground) while the interior exudes a suitably techy vibe.

The visual changes aren’t massive. This AWD version welcomes a couple of new exterior colours, including the 'Matt Khaki Green' of our test car. It also gets the two-tone black roof and there are new 20-inch alloy designs.

Elsewhere, it's the futuristic-style of design we’re used to which differentiates the X from its Volvo EX30 twin under the skin.

Inside, this is a seriously well-equipped and polished-feeling small SUV, and — unlike some of the newcomer brands to Australia — it all feels very high quality and well put together. And that includes the material choices.

I don’t even hate the fact that most of the functions are controlled via this screen, thanks to the little shortcuts glued to the home screen. I do, however, hate the fact that there’s no easy way to change the wing mirrors or shortcuts for toning down some of the safety stuff.

That aside, though, it’s a nice and high-quality feeling space.

There’s plenty of space up front for the driver and co-pilot, the sleek, twin-screen dashtop array increasing the feeling of space and openness.

And when it comes to storage, there’s plenty with decent bins in the doors that have enough room for a medium-size bottle, a good-size glove box, two cupholders in the top of the centre console, a lidded (and cooled) storage box between the seats as well as a lower shelf under the upper ‘flying buttress’ part of the console unit.

For power and connectivity there are USB-A and -C inputs, located on the passenger side of the lower console, a USB-A plug in the mirror unit for a dashcam, a 12-volt socket and a wireless charging pad.

Move to the rear and at 183cm tall I have more than enough head and legroom behind the driver’s seat set to my position. That said, my legs sit up at a fairly steep angle, missing out on much support from the seat cushion.

Three full-size adults will be a short journey-only tight squeeze in the back, although a trio of up to mid-teenage kids will be fine.

For storage, again, there are bins in the doors with room for bottles, there’s a pair of cupholders in the fold-down centre armrest and map pockets in the front seat backs.

USB-A and -C jacks are onboard for power and adjustable ventilation for back-seaters is always a welcome addition.

Boot capacity with all seats up is 300 litres to the cargo cover which is appreciably less than its key competitors all of which hover around the 450-litre mark. 

That number rises to 1079 litres with the 60/40 split-folding second row backrest lowered and there’s a 19-litre frunk in the nose. And Chery deserves a big pat on the back for including a full-sized spare wheel because the Omoda E5 is the only EV on the market that does. 

And if you need to hook up that box trailer for a trip to the tip the E5 is rated to tow a 750kg unbraked trailer.

You know you're in a small vehicle when you can't fit two large (not those crazy American-style jumbo cups, just normal coffee-shop takeaway) coffees in the cupholders, but so it is with the Zeekr X.

The small SUV's 4432mm length, 1836mm in width and 1566mm height doesn't leave much room to spread out up front. There's ample room for driver and passenger, of course, but we are talking about a small vehicle here.

Clever storage helps to mitigate that, though, especially the super-deep storage space in the centre console and the very clever fridge that separates the driver and passenger seats.

Weirdly, though, the space doesn’t feel overly tight in the back seat. We had a massive baby seat in there, and that fit without issue. And full size humans can genuinely get pretty comfortable. I'm 175cm, and I had enough knee and headroom.

In the boot, there’s 404 litres of volume with the rear seats upright and 1247 litres with them folded flat. And it’s worth pointing out this isn’t intended to be a family car, but there’s certainly enough space for the shopping... and a pram.

This is a small SUV with a LOT of stuff. There are two trims in the Zeekr X range – the entry-level rear-drive model is $48,900, drive-away, while the all-wheel drive version we've tested is $57,900 on the road.

The obvious comparison is to the Volvo EX30, which shares its platform with the Zeekr X through both brands' Chinese parent company Geely.

As of right now, the cheapest single-motor Volvo is $56,051, drive-away in NSW, or $49,990 plus on-roads, making the Zeekr version much, much cheaper.

Anyway, outside there are 19- or 20-inch alloys, though our test car is fitted with the optional 20-inch black alloys, paired with a black-with-red-highlights interior treatment, which adds $2000 to the price.

Ours is also fitted with the electric front doors which open or close at the push of a button, and back doors that unlatch, but don’t fully open, the same way, which adds another $2000.

Both trims also get heated and cooled front seats, and heating in the rear window seats, but this AWD version also adds a massage function for front seat riders. 

There’s also wireless charging, a 13-speaker Yamaha sound system and — very cool, literally — is the little drinks fridge between the front seats in the AWD variant.

Tech is handled by a 14.6-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and there’s a head-up display for the driver.

The Omoda E5 is powered by a single permanent magnet synchronous electric motor in the nose driving the front wheels through a single-speed reduction gear transmission.

Outputs of 150kW/340Nm are solid without being spectacular for a car of this size and close to 1.8-tonne weight.

The big news here is a more powerful rear motor – meaning you get more grunt whether you opt for the rear-wheel drive or this all-wheel drive.

In rear-drive form, that boosts your outputs from 200kW to 250kW, dropping the sprint to 100km/h to 5.6 seconds. In AWD guise, your new outputs are 365kW (up from 315kW) and 573Nm, and your sprint to 100km/h falls to 3.7 seconds.

The Omoda E5 is powered by a 61kWh lithium iron phosphate battery and it can accept an 80kW DC charge which translates to a 30-80 per cent charge time of around 28 minutes.

And the Type 2 port in the centre of the nose makes charging a breeze, allowing you to park in front of a charger without having to think about which side of the car the plug has to go into. 

Connect to AC at the E5’s maximum 9.9kW capacity and you’ll be looking at a 10-100 per cent charge time in excess of 30 hours.

Official energy consumption on the WLTP combined (urban/extra-urban) cycle is 15.5kWh/100km and claimed range is a handy 430km.

Over a mix of urban, suburban and freeway running on test we saw a real-world average of 16.8kWh/100km which is roughly what you’d expect for a reasonably rapid electric SUV of this size.

This is where it starts to get weird. The rear-drive Zeekr X is fitted with a 61kWh LFP battery, which can accept up to 230kW DC fast charging, taking you from 10 to 80 per cent charged in just 18 minutes. Total claimed range is 405km.

The flagship AWD, though, charges at a slower rate. It gets a 66kWh NMN battery and can only be charged at 150kW, meaning the same charge takes 30 minutes. Zeekr is promising a 415km driving range between charges.

Chery says the Omoda E5 will accelerate from 0-100km/h in 7.6 seconds which is pretty rapid and there’s plenty of thrust from a standing start and for dodgem car-style city manoeuvring. There’s also ample oomph for safe highway cruising and overtaking.

There are three powertrain modes - Eco / Normal / Sport - with the latter adding some extra urgency but there’s not a dramatic difference between the three. 

The column-mounted gear selector is in the style of a Mercedes lever rather than a rotary controller and it initially takes conscious effort to avoid flicking it like an oversize indicator stalk.

Once settled in, though, it becomes second-nature and its location frees up extra space for storage in the console between the front seats.  

Chery says it spent eight months on local testing and development of the suspension tune, powertrain integration and safety assistance systems and we believe the car could be better in aspects of all three.

The Omoda 5 rides on a platform designed to accommodate combustion and electric propulsion from day one and the front-wheel-drive E5 is suspended by struts at the front and multi-links at the rear.

It takes a lot to manage close to 1.8 tonnes of mass in a relatively small car. Walking the tightrope between body control and ride comfort is tricky with a beefy battery onboard and the E5’s around town ride is best described as jittery, upset by even moderately rough surfaces, although things improve as road speed rises.

The 18-inch rims are shod with 215/55 Kumho PS71 EV rubber and despite its relatively stubby sidewall we’ve driven this tyre on other cars without issue, so it’s likely not the culprit.

Steering weight can be adjusted but road feel is modest and quick cornering isn’t the E5’s forte. But it’s not that kind of car. Urban duties rather than slicing through a favourite set of corners will be its more likely primary purpose, and for that, the steering’s fine. 

Then, no matter which drive mode you’ve selected, or the level of regen braking, it’s hard to be 100 per cent smooth with accelerator and brake inputs. They can be sharp on application and lift-off.

And when it comes to assist systems, lane-keeping intervention when using cruise control is abrupt and annoying. The centring function can be switched off but, ideally, you shouldn’t have to.

And likewise, the driver attention warning is intrusive. To the point where it fired an alert at times where I was looking directly at the road ahead. Again, it can be turned off (which is what I’d do 100 per cent of the time) but the calibration could be better.

Physical braking is by vented discs at the front and solid rotors at the rear and three levels of regen braking are available. Snag is you have to work through multiple screen options to get to the point where you can adjust it. Wheel-mounted paddles would be far more effective but the bean counters must have won the arm wrestle with engineering.

Once you apply the most aggressive regen level, even it is relatively low-key, so no i-Pedal-style single-pedal driving here.

In terms of miscellaneous observations, strategic inclusion of acoustic glass on the EX grade seems worthwhile as the mild highway wind noise we noticed on the BX wasn’t apparent in the top-spec model.

And the lack of a conventional dial for audio volume control is a miss. Far safer to quickly adjust a dial than sliders or buttons (even on the steering wheel).

Interesting to note Euro NCAP is lining up to make inclusion of physical controls for things like audio volume, turn signals, hazard lights, wipers and the horn mandatory for a maximum five-star safety assessment from 2026 onwards. 

Short answer? Pretty good, with some caveats.

I'm partial to a firmer ride. I find some Chinese car companies can feel like they get their suspension bits from Captain Snooze, such is the soft, pillowy ride served up. And to be honest, it makes me a little seasick at times.

The Zeekr is not like that. It has firmness dialled into the ride equation and can feel harsh at times, but also improves the drive experience, delivering connection and engagement at the cost of some sharpness on the wrong road. 

It's also faster than the model it replaces, but it's also one of those cars in which the real-life feeling doesn't quite match the on-paper promise.

This thing serves up supercar speed, but it doesn't feel like it from behind the wheel. Instead, the acceleration - especially from a rolling start - feels potent, but not biblical.

From a standing start it pauses for a moment, almost like an internal-combustion vehicle might, before delivering a quick (but not stratospheric) flow of power. None of that is a bad thing, by the way. Who wants their small SUV to accelerate like a supercar?

It's otherwise an entirely pleasant drive. The cabin is serene and quiet and it's a small car that doesn't feel like one. There's nothing light or tinny about the drive experience, instead there's a heft and quality.

The Zeekr X wears a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating, earned in 2024, which means the long list of required active safety stuff is present and accounted for, all wrapped up in what Zeekr calls its 'Intelligent Driving Assist System'.

There are five cameras, five radars and 12 sensors, which is a crazy number for a car this small.

And this is also not a car in which I was desperately trying to figure out how to deactivate any of the active safety systems – save the overzealous over-speed warning – which is a win these days, too. 

There are also seven airbags, including a centre front airbag.

The Zeekr X is fitted with ISOFIX anchors on the rear outboard seats and top tether anchorages for all rear seating positions.

Chery covers the Omoda E5 with a seven-year/unlimited km warranty, which is ahead of the mainstream market norm, with a separate eight-year/unlimited km warranty for the drive battery; again, ahead of the pack.

You’ll also pick up seven years roadside assist (if you service the car at a Chery dealership) and the brand’s seven-year capped-price servicing program is super-competitive. 

The scheduled service interval is 12 months/20,000km, which is shorter in terms of time than many EVs which stretch the interval to two years. But each workshop visit averages around $227 and that’s sharp.

Zeekr's coverage is an underwhelming five-year, unlimited-kilometres, while the drive battery is covered for eight-years or 160,000km. There’s five years' of roadside assistance thrown in, too.

Service intervals are 20,000km or 12 months, with five years' of ownership setting you back a hefty $3072; an average of $614 per workshop visit.

There are currently 16 Zeekr dealers in Australia - two of which are 'pop-up' sites rather than full retail centres.

Multiple locations in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane with the ACT, Adelaide and Perth also covered. Others include Geelong and the Sunshine Coast but so far you're out of luck in Tassie or the NT.