The Omoda E5 is meant to have a somewhat upmarket really feel, and Hyundai and Kia are a selected goal. However, there’s a whiff of tackiness to the trim in our top-spec Noble prototype take a look at automotive. Small particulars just like the chiny, chrome speaker covers, and the wave sample on a number of the plastic trim. It’s attempting a bit too laborious, in areas.
Still, the double wi-fi telephone charging pad is nice – particularly because it has its personal cooling vent, to maintain your telephone from overheating – and there are another neat touches together with display brightness controls which are completely seen on the panel subsequent to the steering wheel. Talking about illumination, although, the back-lit, touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel disappear fully if it’s nonetheless mild outdoors and also you flip the headlights on. Don’t anticipate to have the ability to flip your music down when it’s foggy or raining closely, then.
Naturally, there’s an enormous, 12.3-inch touchscreen on high of the sprint, which is housed along with the large driver’s readout. Our automotive was but to have its last software program replace, however even with the tweaks that we’re advised will occur earlier than the mannequin hits dealerships, the system will like really feel a contact dated. The graphics are a bit grainy, discovering a number of the automotive’s settings takes too lengthy (you must prod at the very least three- or 4 occasions to show lane-keep help and pace restrict warnings off), and the house menu icons and in-screen temperature controls are small and fiddly. It’s harking back to MG’s touchscreen software program again when the MG4 was first launched, in truth, and also you’ll discover the methods from Kia, Hyundai, Renault and (dare we are saying it…) even Volkswagen, usefully higher. Still, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are customary, so that you received’t have to make use of the native system fairly often, anyway.
Rear passenger house is okay. You’ll get a few six-footers within the again with relative ease, though headroom is a bit tighter than in some rivals and there’s little or no foot house beneath the entrance seats.
The boot has a paltry 292-litre claimed capability, which is completely woeful and extra what you’d anticipate in a metropolis automotive than a household crossover. We’re a bit sceptical about that determine, although, and suspect that Omoda hasn’t included underfloor storage, because the boot actually doesn’t look so dangerous to us; you’ll get the large store in there, no worries. There’s additionally a small frunk, though it’s shallow sufficient that you simply’ll most likely find yourself sticking your charging cables within the boot, anyway.
And should you do carry that boot ground up – reward be to the automotive gods, it’s an electrical automotive with a full-size spare! We thought we’d by no means see the day, and when the E5 involves the UK it’s attainable that it’ll be a space-saver, however even that could be a large enchancment on a tube of gunk, or nothing in any respect.
