The Omoda E5 is intended to have a more upscale appeal, and Hyundai and Kia are a particular target. However, there’s a hint of tackiness in the equipment on our top-of-the-line Noble Prototype test car. Small details like the chrome speaker covers from China and the wave pattern on some plastic panels. In certain areas it is a little too strenuous.
Still, the dual wireless phone charging pad is great – especially because it has its own cooling vent to prevent your phone from overheating – and there are a few other nice touches, including screen brightness controls permanently located on the control panel next to the steering wheel is visible. Speaking of lighting: the backlit, touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel disappear completely when it’s still light outside and you turn on the headlights. So don’t expect to be able to turn your music down when it’s foggy or raining heavily.
Of course, there’s a huge 12.3-inch touchscreen at the top of the dash, housed alongside the large driver display. Our car hadn’t yet received a final software update, but even with the tweaks we’re told will be made before the model hits dealers, the system will feel a bit dated. The graphics are a bit grainy, some of the car’s settings take too long to find (you have to press at least three or four times to turn off the lane departure warning and speed limit warnings), and the icons in the home menu and on the temperature control screen are small and fiddly. It’s actually reminiscent of MG’s touchscreen software when the MG4 first came out, and you’ll find the systems from Kia, Hyundai, Renault and (dare I say it…) even Volkswagen clearly are better. Still, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, so you don’t need to use the native system very often anyway.
The space for the rear passengers is fine. It’s relatively easy to get space for a couple of 6 feet tall in the back seat, although the headroom is slightly less than some competitors and the foot space under the front seats is very limited.
The boot has a paltry 292 liters capacity, which is absolutely pathetic and more in line with what you’d expect from a city car than a family crossover. However, we are a bit skeptical about this figure and suspect that Omoda didn’t include any storage space under the floor, as the trunk doesn’t look that bad to us; You will get the big store there, don’t worry. There’s also a small trunk, but it’s so shallow that you’ll probably stick your charging cables in the trunk anyway.
And if you lift the trunk floor – praise the car gods, it’s an electric car with a full-size spare tire! We thought we’d never see the day, and when the E5 comes to the UK it’s possible it will save space, but even that’s a huge improvement over a tube of junk, or nothing at all.