Geely Starray Hybrid Sydney to Melbourne Long Distance Review
[Applause] All right, guys. Today we are taking the Jile Star EMI for an epic adventure. And the first place I want to show you is one of my favorite places here in New South Wales. We’re starting at Stanbal Tops. So, this here is in the Wulingong region. It’s about an hour drive south of Sydney. So, it’s a perfect day trip, weekend getaway, whatever you want to do. It is amazing. I’m going to show you one of my favorite chicken shops here in Wllingong that I’ve been going to for over 10 years. And I’m excited because that shop has finished its renovation. So, it’s ready. From there, we will go through down to Wllingong and of course show you some of the beautiful forest areas around here. But, this is one amazing drive and one awesome place to put the Starray EMI through its paces and see if it’s a car that I would recommend to you. and a great place for me to share some of my favorite places for you here in New South Wales. So, without further ado, let’s hit the road. [Music] [Music] All right, guys. So, we’ve stopped in Aubry overnight on our way to Melbourne with this car as part of our review. Now, this particular car, because it’s a plug-in hybrid, you normally wouldn’t come to a DC charger as part of your experience in owning this car. ideally suited. Plugging it in at the hotel, plug it in at home, that’s really the AC side is where your cost saving is going to be. The petrol range on this means that you’re not really using that much fuel on the longer run. So, you’re about 5 to 5 1/2 L per 100. So, to do 100ks, it’s going to cost you roughly $9 give or take depending on the price of fuel on the day. For us to charge here to do that same 100 km, it’s going to cost almost $16. So that’s where it’s not really beneficial for you to come to a DC fast charger. And that’s one thing Gile does make very clear that you don’t want to be fast charging this car because really there’s no cost benefit unless it’s free DC charging. So for fleets, maybe that’s where it draws in, but petrol is ideally what you’re going to need to be running this car with. However, I wanted to just come and test it and charge just to see if it is actually capable of delivering the charging speed that it says it will. So let’s open up the app. Plugging it in was relatively simple. Currently at 34%. When we got here, the battery had 0 km till empty, but it was about 20ish% charge level. So, most of these super hybrids won’t allow you to deplete the battery below 20%, similar to a normal hybrid. Uh, so you’re always going to have something there. Uh, which is part of also why as you’re driving, you get a EV driving experience with the car rather than a petrol driving experience. even when you don’t have charge in the battery. It’s so far cost me $1.95 to go from 20% to 36%. We’re charging at 30 kW speeds, which is the full speed that the car is actually able to do. Delivered 2.76 kW hours of energy, and it’s taken 6 minutes and 12 seconds to get here. Now, Jill says that from 20% to 80%, we can do this in 20 minutes. So, we’ve come here to test that out. So, we’ll see how true that claim is. We’re almost at 40%, so I could see it in 20 minutes being at that full 80%. And then we’ll be on our way to Melbourne for the rest of the trip. Now, so far we’ve managed to get to about 800 km out of one tank and uh one battery charge. Uh we had about 60 km left of range after that. And I reckon because we were driving at 110 km an hour for all of that time, I reckon you could push closer to about 900 km if you’re doing more city-based driving. Uh that being said, that is excellent fuel consumption for an SUV on the highway at 110 km an hour. So, I quite like this car and I reckon if you’re considering one, take one for a drive. [Music] [Music] We’ve driven down from Sydney. We’re on our way to Melbourne as part of an epic long review of this particular car to see if it’s actually worth your while here in the Australian market now that it’s been launched. Sure, you could drive the car for a couple hundred ks around town and someone in the media could tell you whether it’s good or bad, but it’s not until you get out onto the highway, out onto these rural roads that you start understanding whether it’s good or bad. And that’s why we decided to bring the car out here. Styling wise, it is a beautiful, beautiful car, just like the environment around us. plenty of wildlife, plenty of birds that just absolutely make you appreciate nature. And that’s the great part about this particular car. Being a plug-in hybrid and in a new phase of super hybrids and EMIs, it makes you wonder just how more enjoyable the drive can be. When you can cruise through this, wind your windows down, and all you’re going to hear is a bit of tire noise, no petrol engine, and you’re just going to enjoy the sounds of nature. Now, this particular car is powered by a 1.5 L petrol naturally aspirated engine. It’s a four-cylinder. And look, we’ve driven up and down some of the part mountain passes around Wllingong, up and down the motorway on the drive down to this part of our trip so far. I can tell you that it really isn’t many places where you’ll hear the engine working or kind of being pushed to its limits like a normal hybrid, for example. with the exception of coming back up out of Wooling Gong where it’s a really steep gradient and that’s where you start hearing a bit more of that engine noise inside the cabin. But for the most part, this is a silent drive because the beauty of a super hybrid is that while you get the traditional hybrid benefits of a petrol and a electric engine working together to give you some really good fuel consumption, you get the benefit of also an electric drive first instead of petrol drive first. So once you get to up to highway speeds, once you run out of the electric charge in the battery, you still have a car that drives like an EV. So you get quietness, you get a smooth, instant acceleration from the engine, but without the limitations of needing to find a plug when you come to a beautiful place like this where there’s no charges around. So that’s why we thought we’d bring it here. The car itself, absolutely beautifully styled and very similar to the EX5, which is much loved by a lot of Australians at the moment. full LED headlight and daytime running lights stack just through here and up here. You’ve got parking sensors down the bottom here. Now, moving through to the front, you do have a front camera here. You have parking sensors on the corners on either side here for clearance. And of course, you have no grill. So, yes, it does mean that you’ll catch most of the bugs that come on your car during the highway, particularly a nighttime drive in the country area like last night. However, it’s also relatively easy to wipe off because it is a flat surface. Rather than trying to wipe them off a grill, wipe them off the fins of a radiator. You’re going to have a fairly easy job to basically wipe them. So, pretty clean. Uh, let’s open up the bonnet. Now, underneath the bonnet, you’re going to have a manual strut. It’s a bit weird seeing that in a Chinese car because usually they have gas struts. So, I’m not entirely sure why they went that. might be cost, might be just basically fuel efficiency by having a slightly smaller amount of weight on board. Don’t know, but you have that. The engine itself is 193 kW, 292 new m of torque. And as I said, it’s a naturally aspirated 1.5 L petrol engine. So, not really too much to go wrong with it in terms of a turbo or anything like that as it gets older in life. Of course, it’s covered by an extensive new car warranty with the Gly warranty as well, which is on the screen right now. And to help it out on some of those steeper runs, but also just as it drives around, is an electric motor as well. Now, both of those drive the front wheels, giving you extra space throughout the rest of the car. The downside to that is potentially this car may benefit from having an all-wheel drive or even a rear wheel drive in certain scenarios, but so far we’ve been able to put it through quite a bit of testing and it’s been pretty good for most of the scenarios that we’ve thrown it at. But I really really like the overall design. And one of the other things I want to point out which helps to the quietness of the inside of the car, there’s a bit of sealing all the way around the outer edge here. Plenty of insulation underneath the bonnet just there as well. Just keeping everything nice and quiet and all the heat in one area rather than having a lot of noise protruding into the cabin area, particularly wind noise from any kind of gaps or anything like that. It’s one of the things that Julie is paying a lot of attention to is the 1enters and I really really like that. The other thing is the quality of their paintwork is some of the best in the industry at the moment from the Chinese manufacturers. So, Gile Group in general, Jile, Zika, uh, Volvo, Pstar just have some really high-end paint finishes and paint quality, and I think that will help the cars last just that little bit longer out in the Australian sun and the harsh Australian conditions. So, uh, another really good positive there. But let’s get round to the rest of the car. [Music] Moving to the rest of the car, starting at the tires, you will have 19-in alloy wheels paired with 19in Goodyear tires. So, you actually get some really good quality tires compared to some of the unknown brand names that sometimes appear on some of these cars. Uh, and I can tell you on the highway, they’ve been really quiet when it comes to tire noise. And even on these type of roads here, they’ve been pretty solid and reliable as well. So, pretty good going there. Side cameras on the wing mirrors, so you get 360° cameras. The handles, absolutely love that this car has traditional normal handles. So, you just open the door, close the door, open the door, close the door. There’s no guessing with weird pop outs and fun activations when it comes to the handles. They’re just normal. You’re not going to have to explain how to use this handle to anyone. Uh, you can push that there to lock and unlock the car as well with the smart key that comes with it. blind spot monitoring on the external wing mirror. And with the rear doors, they do open nice and wide. So, you will have relatively easy access getting in and out of the car. So, that makes it nice and easy for families with kids. For the back, you have one electric charging port on the right hand side. AC charging is good for 6.6 kW speeds, singlephase from home. You also have DC charging. Now, the DC charging for the uh 18.3 kWh battery that forms the plug-in hybrid component side of it, that there is limited to 30 kW speeds, and you will have a charging time for 20% to 80% of the battery in about 20 minutes. Now, I don’t think most of you will really need to fast charge this out on the road. Um, I think this is very much charge it at home. That’s going to be the most cost effective way. Moving around to the back. Right now, it’s incredibly dusty because we are out in the middle of nowhere, but when it’s clean, you have these beautiful rear tail lights. You also have rear parking sensors and a camera at the back, plus a big jilly written logo. A lot of these Chinese brands are now feeling a bit more confident. So, they’re bringing proper lettered brand names to their cars to help them stand out and for people to go, that’s a Jill or that’s whatever other brand. Starray prominently on the right hand side as also with the EMI. Now looking at the rear of this car, we’ve been on some really dusty roads for most of the morning. This car has done a good job at keeping most of that rear windscreen free of too much excess dust cuz normally what I find when we review on these type of roads, that dust cloud behind settles on that back windscreen. Uh so this is a great job there. Plus, obviously, it has a windscreen wiper to wipe away what you don’t want in your way as well. Uh, I want to also point out one thing. We’ll open the boot. It’s an automatic electronic tailgate that goes up and down. So, nice and easy there. The dust sealing around is really, really good. So, you’re not going to get any dust intrusion into the car. Uh, I’ve found that the seals work really, really well all around the car. So, that’s one thing that they do really well. A lot of four-wheel drives don’t actually do that well with dust ceiling. Uh particularly cars like my previous model Land Cruiser for example. Uh in terms of boot capacity, what a boot. So this is with the cargo blind at its fully extended position just to keep some of the heat and eyes off the load. But let me run you through what I have in the back here. I have a new Samsonite Parallux 55 cm carry-on bag. I have my Octallite Neo75 cm checked bag which is a medium to large size suitcase. I have my Samsonite SAM backpack and I also have an Octallite Neo 55 cm cabin bag just there. Separate to these three suitcases and one backpack behind it is sitting in 81 cm Proxus suitcase. So you have two large suitcases, medium to large. So, that’s the space that you’re going to have in the back of the Star. Plenty for lots of family adventures. And as you can see, even poorly packing it is you’re not going to have to play a lot of Tetris to kind of make stuff fit. There is so much room. The other cool thing is there’s a floor shelf that goes here. So, if you don’t want this depth and you just want a flat level floor so that you can fold the seats down, you can also do that and it will fold them flat and you’re good to go. Now, in the back of the Star, this is a journey for us. So, I have another large suitcase in here because my videographer is with me. But the back seat is incredibly comfortable. I’m 5’10. The front seat is at my seating position. And this is how much seating space I have. Plus, these marshmallow seats in the back allow you to sink in and just feel incredibly comfortable with your seating. And open the sunroof blind. Okay. And the best part about this car is it comes with voice command controls, but also a panoramic roof and sunroof. So, you can open this blind the whole way if you want the full roof to be open and allowing light in. Or you can just open up and allow a little bit of air in while the rest of the windows are closed. Hey, Jilly, please continue. Close the sunroof. Okay. And the voice commands that the Jile system come with allow you to have quite a lot of control without having to touch the screen at all. Absolutely brilliant. Now, moving through to the inside of the Star, it’s actually quite a comfortable interior. And this particular one has the light interior trim as well. I really, really like it. However, for families, I could see how some families may not like having such a light interior that they have to constantly maintain and manage. So, I would recommend going the darker interior. But if you’re not tied down with kids, get yourself a light interior and live a little door pockets. Absolutely fantastic. So that’s one 600 mil water bottle. You can technically put another one just behind it, but there’s a little lump there to stop the bottles from rolling around. So that’s what I’ve got fitting here. I’ve got another 600 mil bottle. We are on a road trip after all. Uh I’ve got the mic case. I’ve got another phone. I’ve got some space behind there. So, there’s quite a lot of space in that door pocket, which makes it super easy. Power windows, mirrors, and central locking are all located just here, which is nice and easy to access. The door handle is pretty solid and traditional, which is again brilliant. It has the J Flyme sound system. It is a brilliant sound system in the Inspire model, which is what this one is. And it just delivers a really good overall listening experience. And you’ve got some customizations there that you can use as well. Now, let’s see what the driver seats like. Now, in terms of the interior, you have a comfortable seating experience. Electric seats over here. You do have adjustments for the seat in the center, which is in the infotainment display. So, things like your heated seats or your ventilation functionality, that will be directly in that center stack. Steering wheel is a manual adjustment, which is fantastic cuz it means you can put it where you want. And it is tilt and reach adjustable as well. So really good overall sitting position and driving experience. Gear shifter stalk on the right hand side. Volume controls and track settings on the right hand side. Also here, uh I do wish that with Chinese brands in general that they would actually label these or at least align them to what other brands are doing cuz most of the time it’s very hard to understand what it actually does. J is one of the few that actually has labeled the left hand one so that you can at least know that that’s the cruise control. Whether you’ve selected adaptive cruise control or intelligent cruise control, uh you at least know that that’s what that one does over here. And it will control things like the distance that you want it to slow down or speed up at when there’s an object in front of you, like a car for example, traveling on the highway. It does really well at holding the speed. The one thing I will say is uh in this particular model and I didn’t really pick that up in the EX5. So it may be a difference between the Star and the EX5 is the steering kind of it makes regular corrections but they kind of feel a little bit too much. Uh and that’s one thing that I have fed the feedback through to J and they have assured me that they will work on it as well. In the past when I’ve fed feedback to them they have actually worked on it. So, I have a lot of confidence that they will actually do something about it or at least investigate it. Um, it doesn’t yank you into another lane or back into your lane. So, at least it doesn’t do that, but it’s just these small little nuances that sometimes you pick up on when you’re on a long drive. So, for most people, they probably wouldn’t even pick it up. If you have a driver assistance camera or monitor just here, that can be deactivated by the controls as well. The other bit of feedback I have passed on to Julie, it’d be nice to be able to have the driver assistance monitor as well as the the speed alert to just be a visual warning instead of having to have the audio alert come up all the time. Uh, and to have be able to have a default setting where you can have just set it how you want it and it stays like that all the time. So, but again, they’ve assured me that they’ll pass that feedback on and that they’ll work on it and we’ll see. But I have all the level of confidence that we might see some changes in those features in the near future. Now come around to the middle. Let me show you through the center and what you get here. Now in the center of the car, you have this beautiful console here. I like how they’ve not gone for the gloss black and that there’s not really that much gloss black all around. So it’s great. There is some on the doors here which I forgot to mention and a little bit up here on the dash. I’m not a fan of it and I kind of wish they wouldn’t have gone that cuz I think it kind of just kills the vibe a little bit. I like how the ambient lighting follows the whole way across the dash and on the sides. So sometimes when you go to indicate and for example you have something in your blind spot, the lighting acts as a secondary alert system for you, not just the external blind spot monitoring. So it does everything to try to give you as much opportunity to be safe. Basically, uh if you are coming up to a car that has slowed down dramatically and you need to apply brakes, that light bar also will flash red for you as well. Again, adding another layer of alert, um which is fantastic. Uh the cup holder is located just here, which is a really weird way for me to open that. Just open it with a hand. Uh bottles just there. Uh now, this is the coffee cup that my videographer had before. That’s the size that you will have there. Nothing’s going to move around. Uh you’re going to have pretty stable coffee and drinks. Uh the one thing I will say is two of these larger drinks side by side can be done, but they are a little bit tight. So, you just need to be careful lifting them in and out when they have lids like this. Uh, but outside of that, that’s okay. Wireless charging pad just here. Uh, obviously, this is the key, so you will want to get a key case for it. You have a secondary slot just there where you can just rest whatever you want. Uh, and down here, plenty of storage in that center console area. There’s also some storage underneath this center console where you have a USBC and a USBA power outlet. Uh, and overall heads-up display for the driver means that you can have a really nice comfortable driving position without having to worry too much about what’s happening here. You can close this blind using a normal button. You don’t have to go into here to close it, and you don’t have to rely on voice commands either. You can if you want, but you don’t need to. The other cool thing is to unlock your fuel flap. It is located here in the dash display. To unlock your electric charger is just here. uh to increase your speed for your fan and your temperature is just here as well as the shortcut buttons for your car settings including the seating functionality, but also the driver assist modes if you need to turn them off. So, it’s pretty straightforward in being able to use it and if you want to use Apple CarPlay, you can quickly use it just there. One other thing I will point out when Apple CarPlay is active and you have it here for example, the great thing is is where it all is you have your air con controls down the bottom still and your car controls. So you don’t have to get out of that to go into the car menu to then go into these other menus. You can just tap to increase or decrease your fan speed if you want directly from here without getting out of your Apple CarPlay. The other cool thing is if you need to then go here and quickly make an adjustment to lights or anything else that you need to, you can do and you can go back to your Apple CarPlay as well. If you’re not using Apple CarPlay and you just want to use Bluetooth, J has made it super simple. So, if you’re not using Apple CarPlay and you just want to use the Bluetooth system, they’ve made it super simple for you to pair your phone. So, you literally just press that and then from there you just edit the list and add your phone. Makes it super simple. Let’s look at the reverse camera now. Now, when we put this car into reverse, the camera system is awesome. It’s super clear. It gives you a nice big view, and it allows you to see around the car exactly how you need to see. And then when you go into drive, it will also give you that forward vision and the movable and adjustable guidelines. Again, making it super simple for families trying to park in busy areas. So, all in all, I really like it. But let’s go for a drive and let’s see what the car is actually like. So, what’s the Star actually like to drive? Well, I actually quite like it. You have your heads-up display displaying directly where you need it to be, and it’s at a brightness level that regardless of the time of day and the position of the sun, you’re going to see the actual numbers on the windscreen, uh, even on some of the lower settings of light. So, that’s, I think, brilliant. The steering itself is pretty direct. Um, it’s not a go-kart by any measure. It’s a family SUV and that’s exactly how the steering feels. It’s meant to be effortless and it’s meant to just be a daily car. Uh so it drives well and at highway and motorway speeds it does really really good at just making the drive pretty effortless. The one thing I will say is personally I think I could use just a little bit of a longer uh steering column uh so that the adjustment was just that little bit longer. uh not too much, just you know, a couple inches. And outside of that, the position of the seat is great. I miss the massage function that this doesn’t get that the EX5 does get. Uh it is quite a refined interior cabin uh when it comes to noises and rattles. There’s really none. The only rattles that we’re getting at the moment is literally our suitcases and the stuff that we’ve got in the back. Uh and even then, that’s at a minimum. The dash itself is not reflective, so you’re not going to get a lot of reflection onto the windscreen and then onto your face. The car bounces around a little bit on some of these roads with a little bit more undulations. And that’s just because of the softer suspension configuration that J has opted for here in Australia. It is a little bit tighter than the softer suspension that they have in the Chinese model. Uh but I still think it needs a little bit more refinement uh on these type of roads. But in the city, it does really really well. You feel a little bit of the kind of like cloudlike drive which some people will really like. Uh the seats are ergonomic and marshmallow seats so you sink into them which couples really well with that suspension. Uh it really only is until you come out to these country roads where they are poorly man like maintained and really you know all over the place with bumps. The other thing I’ll say is the heating and the ventilation function for the seats is absolutely fantastic. Um, the heating is just where you need it to kind of loosen up your muscles a little bit on a longer drive. Uh, which is really good. Um, efficiency has been really interesting. So, on just electric mode at 110 ks an hour, which is usually the least efficient speed that any car can do, whether it’s petrol, diesel, or electric, it was returning 19.9 kW hours per 100 km. But then on the motorway, I’ve had as low as 3.2 L per 100 km as a combined hybrid reading once my battery got to 20% and it went to 0 km range and it had to use the hybrid system because this car uses the hybrid system once you get to 20% of the of the electric battery. It kicks it over into the petrol and electric mode. Uh that gives you some really good fuel consumption, but it maintains the full electric characteristics of the drive. Uh, so I really really like that. Now, if you’re considering a plug-in hybrid, uh, and you don’t have power points at home that you can charge from because maybe you live in apartments, don’t worry. You’re going to get really good fuel consumption and a better drive than a standard hybrid if you go for the plug-in hybrid and never plug it in. So, you can still manage the car and use it that way. But if you are a lucky person that can plug in and charge at home, you have the potential to save quite a lot of money on fuel because you can just charge and drive the first 90ks of every day without any like petrol at all. Uh making it really good. Um look, the other thing as well is the steering assist. While it works pretty good most of the time, some of the bank angles that we have here in Australia and the lane markings make it less refined and make you want to kind of take over a little bit more. So, uh, that is one thing that you should be mindful of. Um, and then the only other thing is I’ve noticed it does all right with body roll. It has a little bit, but it does better than I thought for an SUV. So, again, really good in that side of things as well. Is it the most sportslike SUV on the market that you’re going to drive? No. You know, it’s not a Lamborghini Urus. It’s not a Ferrari Purus. It’s not even a BMW X5 M50D. The car is a family SUV. So, it’s not going to handle like a sports car, but it is going to handle in an exceptionally comfortable way for you and your family to have a great time wherever you’re going. Or if you’re a fleet buyer and you’re considering this for your employees, they’re going to have a great time being in a very comfortable car and at motorway speeds or city speeds, they’re going to have a really good experience. Plus, the driver’s headrest has speakers in it so that if you want to listen and talk on a Bluetooth call and you don’t want to have your passenger hearing it, you can literally just have it by programming it. The car will work out that there’s someone in the passenger seat the minute that they sit in it and they’ll just redirect your calls directly here if that’s what you choose. So, a brilliant feature by the team at Jill. So, there you have it, guys. That’s what I think of the Jill Starray. I highly recommend you take one for a drive. I really really like the car and I in the last 800 ks or so of driving the car, 900 I think now, I’ve actually gotten to appreciate the fact that you have that flexibility of having a petrol car and the lack of limitations I guess from having a petrol car while having all of the benefits of an electric car in the sense of you have that instant acceleration. You have plenty of power to overtake on the highway and around town, and you can also run it on just electricity for Monday to Friday to save you money on fuel at home. So, it’s really the best of both worlds. So, just like the name, and to be as cheesy as I can in the wrapping up of this video, the Starray really is a ray of sunshine and a star of the show. So, until next time, guys. Thank you for watching and make sure you leave any comments in the comment section with questions or with requests for other cars that you’d like to see. [Music]
Join me as I take the 2026 Geely Starray Inspire plug-in hybrid on a 1200km drive from Sydney to Melbourne, testing this plug-in hybrid SUV across highways, backroads and unsealed tracks.
In this full review I explore how the Starray EM-i performs as a long-distance tourer, how efficient it really is, and what happens when you drive it charged and when you don’t.
What’s covered:
– Real-world EV-only range and fuel efficiency when the battery runs out
– Comfort and handling on sealed and unsealed roads
– Smart tech, infotainment and driver assistance features
– Charging experience on the road
– Overall practicality and whether it’s a genuine family SUV contender
Chapters:
0:38 Intro & trip overview
1:35 Charging & EV range test
5:20 Exterior Impressions
5:38 Price and Power Specifications
12:40 Cargo Space
14:16 Rear Seat Comfort
15:37 Front Seat Comfort
21:18 Infotainment
27:30 Verdict – pros, cons and who it’s for
Don’t forget to like, comment and subscribe to Road Trip Reviews for more real-world car reviews and road trip content from across Australia.
#GeelyStarray #GeelyAustralia #HybridSUV #PHEV #RoadTripReviews #CarReview #SydneyToMelbourne #HybridSUVAustralia #PlugInHybrid #SUVReview #EVRangeTest #LongDistanceDrive #FamilySUV #GeelyReview #AustraliaCarReview #CarTech #HybridEfficiency
