2026 Geely Starray EM-i Inspire review

Geely is a new name in Australia. Many people would not have heard of it before, unless, perhaps, as the parent company of Volvo and Polestar.

With many new brands entering the market over the last couple of years, each needs to do something to set itself apart from the crowd.

For Geely that means providing great value for money and practicality in its vehicles. It now has two on sale locally, the fully electric EX5, and this, the Starray EM-i plug-in hybrid, with the EX2 hatchback on the way.

What’s the Starray EM-i like, though? Should you have one over a more established rival like a Nissan X-Trail or a Toyota RAV4? And how does it stack up against other new entrants making a play for your cash? 

One thing Geely does well is pack a lot of features into a low asking price.

There are two grades in the Starray EM-i line-up: the Complete and Inspire.

The Complete starts from $37,490, while the Inspire, which I had on test, is priced from $39,990, both before on-road costs.

Geely also has an introductory offer, which includes a free charging cable and premium paint, the latter of which is usually $600 more.

Premium colours include Polar Black, Jungle Green, Glacier Blue, Volcanic Grey, and Cloudveil Silver, while Alpine White is standard.

The interior is Ebony Black, with Ivory White upholstery available as a no-cost option.

As standard, the Complete comes with a 15.4-inch infotainment display, 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster, wireless Apple CarPlay, a six-speaker sound system and satellite navigation.

It also features heated and powered front seats, 18-inch alloys, LED headlights, rear parking sensors, and a 360-degree camera.

The Inspire adds a panoramic sunroof, head-up display, driver's seat memory, ventilated front seats, a powered tailgate, a wireless phone charger, a 16-speaker Flyme sound system, front parking sensors, 256-colour interior ambient lighting, ventilated front seats, and 19-inch alloys.

Other affordable plug-in hybrid SUVs include: the BYD Sealion 6 Dynamic Extended Range, which starts from $46,990 (before on-road costs); the Chery Tiggo 7 Super Hybrid Ultimate, from $43,990 (drive-away); and the GWM Haval H6 Ultra PHEV, from $47,990 (drive-away).

While I think the ‘Super Hybrid’ naming convention sounds a little silly (and certainly it is not the only marque to go that way), in reality, the Geely Starray EM-i is quite efficient, so it seems fairly deserving of the title.

It is claimed to use just 2.4 litres per 100 kilometres (WLTP), but in testing I found the average to be 4.3L/100km, and 6L/100km at its worst. 

The 83km electric-only driving range claim seemed to be reasonably on the money, and if you only need to use the car around town, this would be more than enough if you keep the 18.4kWh battery topped up. 

You can opt to hold the battery’s state of charge to save electric power for later, such as for running errands, and use fuel for longer trips on the freeway.

Overall, Geely claims a combined driving range of 943km. I drove a total of 456km during the week and returned the car with 489km left in the tank. I charged the battery a couple of times, but not to 100 per cent, and drove in pure electric, hybrid and power (petrol) modes.

Any maths wizards out there, or anyone with a calculator to be fair, can tell you it should have had 487km left, so that’s not half bad in my book.

In comparison, the Sealion 6 is claimed to sip just 0.8L/100km, the Tiggo 7 1.4L/100km and the H6 1L/100km. However, bear in mind that real-world performance is often fairly far off the claim for plug-in hybrids.

Equally, all three competitors have higher electric-only driving range claims too. BYD says the Sealion 6 is capable of 140km, while Chery claims 93km from the Tiggo 7, and GWM Haval 106km from the H6. However, these are all against the more lenient NEDC standard, rather than WLTP of the Geely.

Geely has come into the Australian market with a strong warranty offering, hoping to give potential customers peace of mind that it’s serious about selling cars and is here to stay.

As such, the Starray EM-i is covered by a seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, with servicing every 12 months/15,000km, whichever comes first.

Also recognising that it has a way to go to become a household name, the brand is enticing buyers with a choice between a 3.88 per cent finance rate and three years of free servicing.

Chery and GWM offer the same warranty and servicing terms, while BYD covers the Sealion 6 with its six-year/150,000km warranty, and servicing is every 12 months or 20,000km.

Chery and BYD both offer slightly cheaper servicing over three years: the Tiggo 7 Super Hybrid costs $947, and the Sealion 6 costs $880, compared to the Starray EM-i, which will set you back $968 for the same period.

Meanwhile, the Haval H6 costs $1030 for the first three visits.

The Geely Starray EM-i will cost $2015.49 to comprehensively insure based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

The Geely Starray EM-i is still very new in Australia, and as a result, hasn’t yet been crash-tested by ANCAP. 

Both the Complete and Inspire grades have a healthy list of safety equipment, as outlined in the table below.

All of the lane-assist technology seems to perform well. It is present without being overbearing, and the 360-degree camera's quality is very good.

However, there are a couple of nannying features that drove me crazy during my time with the car.

Traffic sign recognition regularly gets the speed wrong, and if you go even 1km/h over the limit for a second, it will be bonging at you incessantly.

Equally irritating is the driver attention monitor, which will chastise you for tilting your head even slightly, using your mirrors (god forbid), or looking at the cluster or infotainment screen for more than a second. 

You can, fortunately, turn it off, but the button to do that is buried deep in sub-menus, and it will come back on every time you restart the car.

However, while some vehicles won’t let you cover the driver monitor camera up and will scream if you even block it slightly, the Starray’s is unfazed by being impeded, so in theory, a bit of tape could solve all your problems.

Of course, it would be great if the technology worked without causing unnecessary stress and distraction, but in the meantime it is a good compromise.

The interior of the Geely Starray EM-i isn’t quite premium, but it’s well presented and very livable. 

The faux leather on the seats and doors is soft and padded, which makes the cabin an enjoyable place to be, especially for longer journeys.

This test car had the optional white upholstery, which looks lovely and helps the interior feel very bright, even with the panoramic sunroof blind closed, but would probably mark easily or get grubby over time.

I’m not a fan of fake wood panelling, but as it goes, the way it is used along the centre console is relatively inoffensive.

The use of space inside is where the Starray really shines. There is so much of it. 

There is a lot of room in the doors for bottles and all manner of other bits and bobs, and a floating centre console provides a wide opening for stashing larger items, in my case, a family pie from the bakery still fresh from the oven. 

A storage bin under the centre armrest and the glovebox are available for things you’d rather keep out of sight too.

There are a couple of letdowns, however. The two cupholders in the middle are too small to comfortably fit virtually all vessels but small coffee cups, and the rocker-style window switches go in the opposite direction to what you’d expect. Open is forwards and closed is backwards, which is awkward and not intuitive at all.

In the second row, occupants are pretty well catered for. The floor is flat, giving more leg and foot room for passengers, and there’s a lot of space for even taller adults. 

I can comfortably sit in the middle seat without being squished at all, which is a real bonus and impressive for a medium SUV, as this is normally only achieved in a large one.

The room in the doors is very generous, there are map pockets on both sides, which are nice and stretchy for putting more things in, and there are rear air vents, though no controls. Both rows of seats also benefit from one USB-C and one USB-A port.

Fitting child seats in the back is a mixed bag. The doors aren’t too heavy and open wide, so it’s easy to get kids in, but not all child seats fit well. 

My son’s booster went in just fine with a seatbelt, but my daughter’s front-facing convertible, using ISOFIX, wouldn’t sit flush against the car seat bench at the base because the backrest has no flexibility for adjustment. When I tightened the top tether, it lifted it up even more.

The boot space is very good too, and there’s a luggage cover to keep things hidden if you want to. 

The floor does slant upwards slightly at the back where it meets the seats, presumably to accommodate the battery. It looks a little odd, but it doesn’t really impede its use. 

We managed to chuck a whole beach day’s worth of stuff in there, including a gazebo, without having to think too hard about how to stack everything to make it fit.

The infotainment in the Starray EM-i is… quirky. But not in a bad way.

You can choose from a handful of scenes for the main screen’s wallpaper, as you might on a computer, including a few pictures of animals, such as cats, dogs and even guinea pigs.

My daughter loved the kitten in particular, so much so I had to have the front passenger seat forward whenever it wasn’t in use so she could see the screen from her back seat. 

The animals are clearly AI-generated rather than actual photos, which is slightly creepy for us adults, but the kids couldn’t tell the difference.

The screen itself is massive, and it’s bright and clear. It’s not exactly hard to navigate, but it can be fiddly to find things like how to turn off the driver monitor, and controls which should have buttons (or at the very least touchpoints that are permanently available on the main screen), such as the ventilated seats, are well hidden too.

There’s an on/off button for the climate system, but to adjust temperature, fan speed or anything else, you’re once again digging through menus, which is just a pain. 

The quick controls for things like driving modes, energy recovery and the like are handy to have close by, but can be distracting to use on the go.

A few times, because the wireless charger doesn’t have cooling, my phone got too hot, and the music was glitching. It could be a fault with Apple CarPlay, but I haven’t experienced it in other vehicles.

Otherwise, the quality of the Flyme audio system is pretty good, though it lacks decent bass. 

It’s not crystal clear, and I’m not sure I’d say it produces the concert-hall sound Geely claims it does, but it’s better than the standard systems in most cars, if not up there with the likes of Bowers and Wilkins, Bang & Olufsen and the like.

While the Starray EM-i has wireless Apple CarPlay, it does not have the equivalent Android Auto, which is expected early 2026 via an over-the-air update.

Geely offers owners access to its connected services through the Geely App, which features things like remote locking/unlocking, vehicle data, the ability to preset the climate control, schedule charging and more. It's free for two years on a trial after which there is a subscription fee for ongoing use of some features.

Although the Geely Starray EM-i has a lot of things to offer, a bold and exciting exterior isn’t really one of them.

The front is perhaps where it is most striking, with slim horizontal headlights, and daytime running lights that point from the air intakes on either side in towards the centre, where the traditional grille is replaced by a flat body-coloured panel with the Geely logo.

In profile, it could almost be anything, as there are no real distinguishing features, and at the back, the tail-lights are clean and understated.

The test car I had is decked out in Glacier Blue, a premium paint colour for $600 extra, which looks quite nice and is well complemented by the silver 19-inch alloy wheels and roof rails.

It is a medium SUV, and on the outside looks roughly the same size as many others, and it’s easy enough to park; however, it’s on the inside where the Starray does its best work.

The driving experience in the Geely Starray EM-i is largely very good, especially if most of your kilometres are done around town at lower speeds.

The ride is rather soft, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, it has a bit of bounce when there are undulations in the road surface, but the softness generally makes for a comfortable and smooth ride, and helps the Geely dismiss potholes and speed bumps with ease.

Rougher patches of road can make it feel quite jittery, though.

The steering is also quite light in either the Comfort or Standard settings, which is great for parking or negotiating tight spaces, but otherwise there is a level of disconnect.

More input around roundabouts or bends is needed than strictly should be necessary, and the body rolls a fair bit too. Sport steering adds weight, but doesn’t make it more direct.

The plug-in hybrid mid-sized SUV is powered by a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine producing 73kW/125Nm, paired with a single 160kW/262Nm electric motor driving the front wheels.

It has enough get-up-and-go for everyday driving, though it’s not aiming for the knock-your-socks-off experience that some offer, or the instant thrust of torque you’ll find in many full EVs.

The battery always maintains around 20 per cent, even when the range counter hits zero kilometres, so it still has some electric power available. When that does happen, the petrol engine is used to charge the battery, but it won’t nudge up the counter until plugged in.

The cabin is well insulated from noise of all kinds, and the engine is only noticeable when you really put your foot down or when driving on petrol power alone.

The level of quiet is actually very impressive for this price point. It is definitely one of the quietest vehicles I’ve experienced that wasn’t a luxury model.

Grip from the Goodyear Efficient Grip tyres is not great, with a lot of wheel spin if the surface is wet or just generally slippery, and the indicator is not self-cancelling, which can be quite annoying.

Find your nearest Geely dealer here to see the Starray EM-i in the metal and take one for a test drive.

New models, especially from new brands, always have their work cut out for them. People tend to stick to what they know, so convincing buyers to make the switch to something completely different can be tricky.

But Geely has got a lot right here with the Starray EM-i. It has lots of features, space, practicality, and a really competitive starting price. 

Add in a decent warranty, service terms that are on par in terms of both intervals and price, as well as the introductory offers the brand has going, and it has a lot to offer mid-sized SUV shoppers.

There are some improvements to be made in handling, and, like many cars nowadays, it suffers from too many functions in the infotainment system, but nothing deal-breaking – certainly nothing that is night-and-day different from many of the legacy brands. If you’re looking for a family car of this size, have a budget of roughly $40K, and want a plug-in hybrid, head to a Geely dealer and check it out for yourself.

A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.

Read more about Kathryn Fisk