Geely EX2 Inspire is China’s top-selling EV, and after a week with it I’ve done nothing but smile.
Until recently most people had never heard of Geely, yet it owns or part-owns Volvo and Polestar, plus Lotus and Zeekr, and smart is a joint brand. The EX2 gets the benefit of all that shared engineering, and it’s built to a price without ever feeling built to a price. I think that’s why it outsells every other EV in China.
It’s roughly Nissan Leaf-sized, with an adorable little face, and it’s a much better car than Fiat’s 500 and the Mini it rivals for size.
EX2 Complete starts at $26,490 plus on-roads with 60kW/150Nm and a 35.3kWh battery rated at 252km WLTP. Our Geely EX2 Inspire is $30,990, or about $34,000 drive-away, and the extra money buys 85kW/150Nm and a bigger 47.1kWh LFP battery. The Inspire claims 345km WLTP, which is outrageously generous, as WLTP always is. By the end of my week the dash showed 100km left with 34% in the battery.
AC charging is 6.6kW and DC tops out at 80kW, which is very slow. Charging cables don’t come with the car.
Above: Geely EX2 inspire full Australian review
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ABOVE: 2026 EX2
It’s rear-wheel drive, with multi-link rear suspension. 0-100km/h takes a leisurely 11.5 seconds, and the kerb weight is a fairly light 1365kg.
Geely EX2 Inspire Saves in Places and Splurges in Others
Geely cheaped out in a few places. The lock and unlock button is on the driver’s door only, though the key fob and the Geely app do the same job. The detailing on the C-pillar is naff, but the black roof has a blue sparkle in it and it’s rather pretty. There’s no sunroof, and I didn’t miss it.
The tail is neat and tidy, and to my eye it looks like a smart. Up front there’s an enormous 70L frunk that takes a large duffel or 2 smaller bags, and you might squeeze in an overnight wheelie bag as well. That’s where I’d keep the charging cable. The tailgate is electric, which I still can’t quite believe at this price, and the rear seats split 60/40.
The back seat was the biggest surprise in our Geely EX2 Inspire. It’s deliciously quiet, and at 6ft I had loads of headroom and plenty of knee and foot room. There are seat pockets and big door bins for bottles and detritus, and the armrests are soft. Some of the plastic is scratchy and the rear window switches are back to front, but it all looks classy.
The front is just as roomy, but there’s no head-up display, only a driver display and a driver-monitoring camera on the pillar that watches me constantly. The console has a Qi wireless charger and cup holders, plus a smallish centre console bin. The piano black and the painted metal-look plastic will both scratch, and I’m not fussed on either.
The climate controls are physical, and with CarPlay running the car’s control bar and home button stay on screen, which I love. The car controls are always a tap away, and getting back to the phone is just as quick. The Geely app controls the car as well. There’s a 360-degree camera but no automated parking, which I don’t need.
Geely EX2 Inspire’s Flyme sound system sounded dreadful when I first got in. Once I added some bass in the sound settings it was better than it has any right to be.
One Button Silences Most of the Bongs
A drive setup button gathers the annoying alerts, such as driver state detection and the overspeed warning, into a single screen so you can switch them all off together. The pillar camera still produced a bong I couldn’t turn off.
Lane change assist has to be switched on every time, for reasons known only to Geely, but once it’s on it works every time. I filmed the car changing lanes by itself, and I still can’t get over automatic lane changes in a car at this price. It also has lane centring and blind spot monitoring.
Sport mode made little difference, though I left it in Sport anyway. There’s no one-pedal driving, but the regenerative braking is strong. Chinese cars used to be noisy, as did Kias and Hyundais, and this one is hushed.
Heated seats and a heated steering wheel, both with auto modes, are in the air-con menu under a seat button. There’s no seat cooling, which I don’t miss much, though I use it when a car has it. There’s no 12V outlet either, so my dash cam needed an adapter.
Geely EX2 Inspire Shows Why Legacy Brands Can’t Compete
Damien Meredith, the former Kia Australia COO, was quoted saying that within 3 years the legacy brands will have to consider how they’ll survive. Our Geely EX2 Inspire shows why. Its quality and technology are far beyond anything else at this price.
I’d call it a super mini, and it’s better made than the Mini and Fiat 500 I loved, at half the price. Both had very short range and cost $20,000 to $30,000 more than this. Honda’s own small EV, the Super-ONE, is $36,900 drive-away, about $3,000 more than the EX2 Inspire, for a 29.6kWh battery, four seats and 202km WLTP, which is about 150km in the real world.
Stellantis asked twice the EX2’s money for Fiat’s 500, so nobody bought them and it was discontinued in Australia. Citroen and Peugeot left, DS went some time ago, Chrysler and Dodge pulled out, and Holden is long gone.
Toyota and Honda bosses toured a Chinese factory and said they can’t compete with what they saw, and they’re right. Chinese makers take a car from development to production in 12 to 18 months, while a legacy brand needs years. Geely and BYD are vertically integrated, and BYD even runs its own car-carrier ships. Toyota, the world’s biggest car maker, is looking at about a 25% drop in worldwide profit, its sales are down 15.9% so far this year, and it’s defending a RAV4 price rise, and Geely’s own Starray EM-i extended range beats the RAV4.
Chinese-built cars are more than a third of Australian sales, counting Tesla and the other brands that build there. GM pulled out of right-hand-drive markets altogether and is now back in them. China’s home market slumped, so its car makers are expanding abroad, and Australia is one of their targets.
Likes
- Roomy, quiet back seat
- Automatic lane change
- Enormous frunk
Dislikes
- Very slow DC charging
- Scratch-prone piano black
- Lock button on driver’s door
Geely EX2 Inspire
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Price | $30,990 |
| Drive-away | ~$34,000 |
| Power/torque | 85kW/150Nm |
| Drive | Rear-wheel drive |
| Battery | 47.1kWh LFP |
| Range (WLTP) | 345km |
| AC charging | 6.6kW |
| DC charging | 80kW max |
| 0-100km/h | 11.5 seconds |
| Kerb weight | 1365kg |
| Rear suspension | Multi-link |
| Touchscreen | 14.6-inch |
| Frunk | 70L |
Geely EX2 Inspire vs Honda Super-ONE
| EX2 Inspire | Super-ONE | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $30,990 (~$34,000 drive-away) | $36,900 drive-away |
| Power/torque | 85kW/150Nm | 70kW/162Nm (Boost mode) |
| Drive | Rear-wheel drive | Front-wheel drive |
| Battery | 47.1kWh LFP | 29.6kWh |
| Range (WLTP) | 345km | 202km |
| AC charging | 6.6kW | 10kW |
| DC charging | 80kW max | 50kW max |
| Kerb weight | 1365kg | 1093kg |
| Seats | 5 | 4 |
Download Geely EX2 spec sheet HERE
Download Honda Super-ONE spec sheet HERE
More Geely Stories
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- Australia’s Car Market 46% Electrified in May
- Toyota RAV4 Price Rise Defended While Better Alternatives Pile Up
Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.
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