Geely Starray EM-i

2026 Geely Starray EM-i – Long-Term Review After Nearly 10,000 km We’ve now done close to 10,000 km in our Geely Starray EM-i, mostly daily city and suburban driving, so I thought it was time to write a proper owner review rather than something based on a test drive or the first few weeks. Overall, we’re happy with it. When you take into account the price, space, equipment and running costs, it’s very difficult to complain.

Electric driving – 8/10

This is where the Starray EM-i is at its best.

For normal suburban and city driving, running on the electric motor is smooth, quiet and very pleasant. The performance isn’t going to throw you back into your seat, but for everyday driving it has more than enough response.

The whole car just feels better when operating electrically.

Electric driving: 8/10.

Petrol engine driving – 6/10

Once the petrol engine becomes more involved, the experience isn’t quite as impressive.

It’s perfectly adequate and does what it needs to do, but the car feels noticeably less refined than it does when driving around town predominantly on electric power.

Petrol engine driving: 6/10.

Fuel economy – one of its biggest strengths

In our experience, the real-world fuel economy has been very good and seems to live up well to Geely’s claims.

Obviously everyone’s results will depend enormously on how and where they drive and how regularly they charge, but our Starray spends most of its life doing city and suburban driving and we charge it regularly.

From January through August, while approaching 10,000 km, I would estimate we’ve spent no more than about $150 on petrol.

For us, that’s a massive positive and one of the biggest selling points of the car.

Charging

We’ve just been using the basic charging cable supplied with the car and for the Starray it has been perfectly adequate.

Plug it in overnight and it’s ready to go again.

For the way we use the Starray, we haven’t felt any real need to install a faster home charger. If we moved to a full EV such as an EX5, we’d personally upgrade to a proper faster home charger, but for the Starray the supplied cable has done the job perfectly well.

City driving – 8/10

As a city and suburban family car, the Starray makes a lot of sense.

It’s quiet, comfortable, spacious and easy to drive. This is definitely where I think the car is at its strongest.

City driving: 8/10.

Long-distance driving – 6/10

For longer-distance driving, I’d rate it 6/10.

It will happily do longer trips and there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with it, but compared with driving around town, some of its weaknesses become more noticeable.

If most of my driving was long-distance or motorway driving rather than suburban Sydney driving, I probably wouldn’t rate the overall car as highly.

Handling – generally good

Handling is generally fine. It’s not a sports car and doesn’t pretend to be one, but for the type of vehicle it is I’ve got no major complaints.

One thing I particularly like is how well it controls its speed going downhill.

Some cars gradually gather speed on a descent and you find yourself constantly getting back onto the brakes. The Starray does a very good job of holding your speed rather than simply getting faster and faster because you’re going downhill.

It’s one of those little things you probably wouldn’t notice on a short test drive but that I really appreciate after living with the car.

Unfortunately, the handling is let down by one particular component.

Tyres – probably the worst feature of the car

The factory tyres would have to be one of my biggest complaints.

They’re terrible.

You can go around a normal left or right turn and, if you accelerate with any enthusiasm at all, the front wheels will spin.

I’m not talking about deliberately launching the car or driving aggressively. Normal acceleration while turning can be enough to overwhelm them.

For a car with an electric motor providing instant torque, tyre choice is important, and I think Geely has really let the car down here.

If there was one component I would change immediately to improve the driving experience, it would be the tyres.

Interior and second-row space – 10/10

The amount of interior space relative to the physical size of the car is one of its best features.

The second row in particular is excellent. For a car of this size, I’d give rear passenger space 10/10.

There is a genuinely impressive amount of room.

I’m 6’1” and have no problem getting comfortable in the driver’s seat. There is plenty of adjustment and space.

There is, however, one surprisingly annoying issue.

My partner and I both drive the car. After she’s driven it, I get back in and I’m basically squashed into her seating position until I manually select Profile 2.

The driver profiles/seating positions aren’t automatically linked to each driver’s key. I’ve had this functionality in my last four or five cars, so having to manually select my profile feels like a backwards step, particularly in a car that is otherwise so technology-focused.

It’s a relatively small thing, but it’s exactly the sort of thing you notice after living with a car for months rather than during a test drive.

Seat comfort

For everyday city and suburban driving, the seats are comfortable and I’ve got no real complaints.

On longer drives, I’d describe them as just OK rather than particularly good.

They’re certainly not uncomfortable, but if I was regularly spending several hours at a time behind the wheel, I’d probably want something a little better.

Boot space – Bullmastiff and Rottweiler tested!

We have a Bullmastiff and a Rottweiler, so boot space actually matters to us.

Both dogs fit in the back.

Just – but they fit!

That’s a pretty good real-world test of the cargo area and was part of the reason we moved away from our Volvo XC40 to the Starray.

There’s also a surprisingly useful amount of storage under the boot floor, which helps enormously when the main boot is occupied by two very large dogs.

We keep our first-aid kit under there along with two shallow storage boxes, and there’s room for a surprising amount of miscellaneous gear, particularly things we want with us on longer trips.

It means we can keep all that stuff stored out of sight without taking away the main boot space the dogs need.

If you can fit a Bullmastiff and a Rottweiler in the main boot while still having a first-aid kit, two storage boxes and other gear tucked away underneath, I think the designers have done a pretty good job of making use of the available space.

Air conditioning – very good, outside temperature reading not so much

The air conditioning is good.

It’s not an enormous car, so it doesn’t have a massive cabin to cool, and we’ve found the A/C gets the job done very well.

One related annoyance, though, is the outside temperature reading.

Ours seems to be way off a lot of the time. It doesn’t affect the actual driving experience, but it’s another one of those little details that makes you wonder why something so basic isn’t more accurate.

Heated seats – disappointing

This is one feature I really don’t like.

In several of my previous cars, the heated seats have heated from the lower seat area right up through your back. In the Starray, the heat seems to concentrate mainly on your bum and very lower back.

Rather than being relaxing, I actually find it uncomfortable.

The controls are also unnecessarily buried. To get to the heated-seat controls you have to go through multiple presses on the touchscreen.

Considering the enormous central screen, I don’t understand why Geely can’t simply provide permanent heated-seat controls along the bottom or side of the display. There is certainly enough screen real estate.

It’s a good example of something being moved into a touchscreen simply because it can be, rather than because it’s actually more convenient.

Sound system – awesome

The sound system deserves a mention because it’s awesome.

For a car at this price point, I’ve been genuinely impressed with it. If you enjoy your music in the car, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

360° and reversing cameras – good, but occasionally frustrating

The 360° camera and reversing camera are good and make the car very easy to manoeuvre and park.

My complaint is the occasional delay.

Sometimes when you select reverse there can be a one-to-two-second delay before the camera appears on the screen.

One or two seconds doesn’t sound like much until you’re sitting there waiting for a reversing camera you’ve already told the car you need. In everyday use it’s surprisingly annoying.

When the cameras are actually on screen, though, I’ve been happy with them.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – good when connected, stupid when choosing a phone

When connected, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto work well.

The problem is that my partner uses Android Auto and I use Apple CarPlay.

Sometimes I’ll get into the car by myself and it will spend five minutes or more trying to connect to her Android phone even though she isn’t even in the car, rather than simply connecting to the iPhone that is actually sitting in the vehicle.

That’s just stupid.

There needs to be a better system for recognising which devices are actually present and connecting accordingly, or at least an easier way of prioritising the current driver’s phone.

Geely app – pretty bad, but does the job

The Geely app isn’t one of the highlights of the ownership experience.

I’d describe it as pretty bad, but functional.

It does what we need it to do, so I can’t say it’s useless, but compared with how polished the actual car can feel in some areas, the app experience feels like an area that needs considerably more work.

Controls – one Volvo habit you need to break quickly

I like that the indicators are on the left-hand stalk.

Our other car is a Volvo XC90, so moving between the cars feels natural in that respect.

There is, however, a very unfortunate similarity in control placement.

The Geely’s drive/park control is basically where the windscreen wiper control is on the Volvo.

So muscle memory from the Volvo can result in reaching for what you think is the windscreen washer/wiper control and instead operating the Geely’s transmission control.

It won’t suddenly stop the car, thankfully, but it can cause the car to jolt, which teaches you pretty quickly not to make that mistake again!

Obviously this isn’t a fault with the Geely itself, but it’s something worth mentioning for anyone moving regularly between a Geely and a Volvo.

Cruise control

I can’t really give the cruise-control system a fair long-term rating.

Most of our nearly 10,000 km has been city and suburban driving rather than long motorway trips, so I simply haven’t used the cruise control enough to form a proper opinion.

I’d rather leave that unrated than pretend I’ve tested it extensively when I haven’t.

Safety technology – don’t expect a Volvo just because of the connection

This was probably one of my bigger misconceptions before buying the car.

Given Geely’s ownership of Volvo, I thought more of Volvo’s safety philosophy and technology might have filtered down into the Starray.

Don’t buy it expecting a cheaper Volvo.

There are plenty of warnings and driver-assistance features, but the way they operate doesn’t feel anything like the systems in our Volvos.

The Starray will display warnings such as “BRAKE NOW” and provide audible or physical warnings, but in my experience I haven’t experienced the same sort of active emergency intervention that I’ve experienced in Volvo vehicles.

The safety systems may tick plenty of boxes on a specifications sheet, but from behind the wheel I don’t have the same sense of active safety intervention that I get from our Volvo XC90 or previously got from the XC40.

Reliability – no issues so far

We’re approaching 10,000 km and haven’t had any reliability issues.

There are software and usability things I’d like Geely to improve, but mechanically nothing has failed and the car has done what it’s supposed to do.

Obviously 10,000 km isn’t enough to judge how it will hold up over five or ten years, but so far I have no complaints about reliability.

Compared with our previous Volvo XC40

Our previous 2021 Volvo XC40 Inscription was a better overall car. It was more polished and refined, but it was also a more expensive premium vehicle, so I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect the Starray to match it.

The Starray’s strength is how much car you’re getting for the money. In some practical areas, particularly interior and rear-seat space, it actually suits our needs better.

Overall

Electric driving: 8/10 Petrol driving: 6/10 City driving: 8/10 Long-distance driving: 6/10 Second-row space for the size of the car: 10/10

The Starray EM-i isn’t perfect. The factory tyres are probably my biggest complaint, followed by some of the software and usability annoyances.

But as an everyday family car, particularly for predominantly city and suburban driving with regular home charging, it does its job extremely well.

For the price, I’m impressed and after nearly 10,000 km I certainly don’t regret buying it.