► Geely Auto’s next UK car driven in China
► Plug-in hybrid family SUV goes for comfort
► And a low price: it starts at £29,990
The war on car prices continues, with Geely Auto firing one hell of a shot at the cost of a plug-in hybrid. This is the Starray EM-i – the brand’s second car to launch in the UK market, coming armed with a sub-£30k price (just), plenty of space and tech on board.
We’ve test driven the Starray EM-i in China ahead of cars launching in the UK later in 2026. Is it worth a look?
At a glance
Pros: Comfortable and quiet; feels well-made; roomy
Cons: Soggy steering; a bit roly-poly; we didn’t drive it for very long
What’s new?
Geely Auto is going to have a busy couple of years ahead, launching a barrage of cars in the UK between now and 2028. This is Geely Auto’s second car to launch in the UK market, and you’d be forgiven for thinking it looks and feels a lot like its first: the EX5. We certainly thought that when looking at it, anyway.
The Starray EM-I is essentially a medium-sized family crossover that comes exclusively with a plug-in hybrid powertrain (that’s what the EM-I tag means), and is designed to appeal to buyers that aren’t quite ready for an EV. It’s also launching with an extremely competitive price here in the UK: £29,990. More on that later.
After that will be the EX2 – an electric supermini – with more to come in 2027, too.
What are the specs?
The Starray EM-I combines a 1.5-litre four-cylinder developing 98bhp and a 214bhp electric motor working together via an ‘E-DHT’ (or electric dedicated hybrid transmission) that juggles both power sources in one and effectively uses the e-motor as the main propulsion source as much as it can.
The Pro and the Max specifications use an 18.4kWh battery pack, while the top-shelf Ultra version uses a larger 28.9kWh pack. Geely Auto claims 51.6 miles of electric-only range from the smaller battery and up to 84.5 miles for the larger one.
What’s it like to drive?
It’s worth saying that we didn’t really drive it for long, but our experience of it on a test track in China gave us some early impressions. Geely Auto UK’s marketing director Tianxiao Yan tells us that the brand has taken feedback from the EX5 and applied some mechanical tweaks to the handling via Lotus engineers.
More than anything else, the Starray is cool, calm and largely collected. What impresses is that it’s comfortable, even when you throw it at some chunky obstacles designed to unsettle cars. It’s smooth and easy-going to drive just like the electric EX5 version, with the ride feeling plump enough not to cause the car to wallow or bottom out easily. At motorway cruising speeds it’s particularly impressive but, rather predictably, if you throw it hard into a corner it’ll tilt and lean a little more than we’d like.
It’s also perfectly quick enough, surging forward with reasonable and very smooth urgency – and is very keen not to engage the petrol engine whenever possible. When it does kick in, it’s largely quiet and in the background unless you floor it. If you do, it does drone somewhat. The weakest link feels like the steering, though, which feels a little vague and slightly mushy.
Other than that, though, the Starray is largely inoffensive – just like its electric EX5 counterpart. It’s trading on equipment and space for the money, rather than having even a crumb of real driver involvement – something we assure you this doesn’t have.
What’s the interior like?
Again, it’s largely like the EX5 electric car. What impresses is the material quality inside; there are a lot of soft-touch materials and chunky-feeling buttons on the weirdly-shaped steering wheel, with a (very) select few physical controls on the dashboard. The most noticeable is a large click-wheel that can be used for audio volume and can be configured to control other functions like fan speed.
We didn’t get a lot of time to play around with the infotainment screen but, again, it’s largely the same as the EX5. That’s not entirely a good thing, as some of the menus and navigations are a little confusing and take some time to get used to.
The driving position offers good adjustment even for tall drivers via the standard electric front seats, and legroom in the back is good for adults, too.
Before you buy
Prices for the Starray EM-I have already been announced in the UK, with an entry-level Pro version clocking in at £29,990. Max spec lifts the price to £32,990, while top-spec Ultra sits at £34,990.
Pro spec is already pretty well-equipped with heated electric front seats, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as keyless entry. Max adds a head-up display and wireless charger. Ultra is all about those mechanical upgrades mentioned further up – there’s no difference in equipment here. Geely Auto UK says the Starray EM-I also comes with an eight-year, 125,000-mile warranty.
For reference, that entry-price undercuts a Jaecoo 7 by around £5k and MG’s HS PHEV by £2k. Chery’s Tiggo 7 PHEV and the brand new BYD Sealion 5 are both a fiver more. Want something European? Something like a VW Tiguan e-Hybrid is around £13k extra.
The only plug-in hybrid that’ll likely be cheaper than this in the UK will be the BYD Atto 2, but it is a smaller car.
Verdict: Geely Starray EM-i
In many ways, the Starray EM-i is perfectly fine. It’s roomy, feels like it’s built well and the plug-in hybrid powertrain is smooth. Is it interesting? Not remotely. But it’s not trying to be; it’s designed to be painless family transport that can go further than a comparable EV can, and it manages to undercut high-selling family SUVs from rival Chinese brands that have become popular here.
We’ll have to hold off a little on a definitive view of how it drives until we get to test it in the UK, but the Starray EM-i didn’t really do much to offend… or excite.
