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The Omoda E5, one of the UK’s best-selling EVs, has received a number of updates since it first went on sale, so is it now a more competitive electric family car?
The Omoda E5 went on sale in the UK in 2025. It’s already had some updates, “in response to customer feedback” according to Omoda, although these are generally fairly minor, including a slightly longer range (267 miles compared to 257 miles thanks to improved battery energy density), faster DC charging (80 kW to 130 kW), a standard heat pump on top trims, revised interior design, tweaks to ride comfort and driving refinement, increased boot space, and refreshed alloy wheel designs.
Omoda, established in 2022, is a brand of the Chinese company Chery, which is one of the country’s biggest automotive manufacturers. The Omoda E5 (along with the petrol model) was the first Omoda model to be introduced in the UK and, along with the Jaecoo E5, it has enjoyed high levels of UK sales.
The Omoda E5 shares the same platform with the Jaecoo E5, which means a 61 kWh CATL battery, a 186 PS electric motor and front-wheel drive. There’s not a huge amount of legroom for rear seat passengers, but the boot size has increased from 372 litres to 430 litres, mainly due to the full-size spare wheel that sat under the boot floor of our last Omoda E5 test car being ditched. You gain space here, for example to store the charging cable, but you lose space under the bonnet because the small 19-litre frunk on the previous E5 model has disappeared, in order to make space for a heat pump.
In the cabin there’s some storage space under the floating centre console, and one difference between the Omoda E5 and the Jaecoo E5 is the touchscreen, which is landscape format in the Omoda rather than the portrait of the Jaecoo. The interior quality is what you would expect from an EV that has affordability as one of its primary goals.
The towing weight of the Omoda E5 has increased from 450kg to 750kg, both of these figures are unbraked.
The Omoda E5 is easy to drive and can transport five people and their luggage perfectly capably, with comfortable ride quality being one of the car’s main qualities. The E5 even feels like it has some agility in the handling department, no doubt helped by the 1,710 kg kerb weight, which is lighter than many other EVs.
However the suspension (and the steering) being tuned for comfort means that it isn’t focused on delivering sharp dynamics through the corners, when it can feel bouncy rather than planted to the road.
Performance is sufficient, with a 0-62 mph time of 7.2 seconds; it even feels responsive in Eco mode (the default mode when you start the car), although you also have Normal and Sport modes to choose from. If you do select Sport, the front-wheel drive chassis means that wheelspin and torque steer is always possible under acceleration, especially on wet roads. Interestingly, the 2026 E5 model has 288 Nm of torque, but the previous E5 that we tested had 340 Nm.
The Omoda E5 can also cope with motorways, but some road noise is evident on certain road surfaces at motorway speeds.
The E5 has a very small number of physical buttons, including one for the drive modes. It also has physical controls for the mirrors (and lights), which is much better than the large number of Chinese EVs which require you to go hunting in the touchscreen for mirror controls.
However the E5 has virtually all other controls on the 12.3-inch touchscreen, and when you’re using Apple CarPlay, there are no climate controls visible. To view these, you need to swipe up from the bottom of the screen, which is just one extra thing to do when you’re driving; why not have them permanently at the bottom of the screen? It’s also necessary to swipe down to get rid of the climate controls, which isn’t the easiest thing to do when driving.
There can be a lot of beeps, as well as physical interventions with driver assistance functions such as the lane departure warning system, and to switch off such features there’s a lot of searching through many ADAS menus and a lot of button-pressing. You feel as though you’re reaching out to touch the screen too often; better screen and physical shortcuts are needed, especially when Apple CarPlay is in use.
Another example of why better organisation of car controls is needed is that there’s no obvious way to change the level of brake regeneration. There’s no setting for this on the gear selector, there are no steering wheel-mounted paddles, and there are no easy-to-find controls on the touchscreen. However this is actually possible if you find controls for Energy Recovery Level buried in the touchscreen menus.
Another issue is when you stop at junctions an image of the car pops up and covers the map, so you can’t see where you’re going.
The 2026 Omoda E5 has a WLTP combined electric driving range of 267 miles (10 miles more than the previous model thanks to a battery with improved energy density). After a week on test the real-world driving range averaged 240 miles.
The 2026 E5 has energy efficiency of 3.8 miles/kWh, a slight improvement on the 3.5 miles/kWh of the previous model.
The E5 has a maximum DC rapid charging rate of 130 kW (improved from 80 kW), which should deliver a 30% to 80% charge in around 25-28 minutes. It can also AC charge at up to 10.3 kW.
A heat pump, for better cold-weather efficiency, is now included as standard equipment on the top-of-the-range Omoda E5 Noble (as tested) AND The E5 has vehicle to load (V2L) capability, up to 3.3kW.
The 2026 Omoda E5 is available in two grades, ‘Knight’ (replacing Comfort), priced at £33,065, and ‘Noble’, as tested, priced at £34,565. Noble adds 19-inch wheels, roof rails, 360-degree HD cameras, power sunroof and powered tailgate, Sony premium sound system, heated and ventilated front synthetic leather seats and a heat pump.
Comfort trim doesn’t include heated seats or heated steering wheel – two items of equipment that are essential on EVs to minimise loss of range from cabin heating in cold weather, and there’s also no heat pump with Comfort trim.
All versions are supported by OMODA UK’s 7-year/100,000-mile vehicle warranty, with an additional 8-year/100,000-mile battery warranty for electrified models.
The Omoda E5 is one of the UK’s best-selling EVs, with value for money being a key reason for this. Overall, the 2026 Omoda E5 offers a comfortable driving experience and space for five people and their luggage. Updates include the driving range improving very slightly, from 257 to 267 miles, and the DC charging speed has shot up from 80 kW to 130 kW. One area that still needs improvement is better permanent shortcuts for key car controls (physical and/or on-screen), especially climate controls that are more easily visible and accessible when Apple CarPlay is in use, but also easier access is needed to switch off all the beeps and boings from the various over-intrusive driver assistance systems. Although prices for the E5 start at £33,065, the higher spec ‘Noble’ model for £34,565 is probably the one to go for. The 2026 Omoda E5 is awarded a Green Car Guide rating of 7 out of 10.
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Paul Clarke, GreenCarGuide Editor
