Geely Starray Review & Prices

The Geely Starray is a plug-in hybrid SUV from one of China’s largest car brands. It’s Geely’s second model in the UK, following on from the all-electric EX5, and comes bearing really strong value, lots of room inside and a generous equipment list. But it’s not particularly fun to drive, and it goes up against some appealing alternatives - not least from other Chinese brands.

Choosing a new Chinese plug-in hybrid SUV at the moment is a lot like choosing a takeaway - Golden Dragon, Golden Mountain and Golden Palace all look the same, cost the same, and have the same menus, and thus it’s very similar with cars. The Starray, Chery Tiggo 7 and BYD Sealion 5 all come with plug-in hybrid engines, lots of space, and have starting prices within £5 of one another.

Other plug-in hybrid alternatives are numerous and varied, too. There are stalwarts like the Kia Sportage PHEV, posher options such as the Volkswagen Tiguan or value-focused brethren such as the Citroen C5 Aircross.

The Starray stands out in a few ways, but one of those isn’t the styling. It’s not ugly, but it is extremely anonymous - the body is mainly smooth curves, while the front and rear get the ever-present LED lightbars shared with so many SUVs.

The interior does a much more convincing job. The design is quite simple - it’s based around a large 15.4-inch touchscreen, and there are precious few physical buttons, so it’s about as minimalist as most of the alternatives. But there’s a pleasingly luxurious feel to the artificial leather, and build quality is excellent.

It’s also hugely spacious, with room for a six-foot adult to stretch out in the rear seats and a large boot.

Under the bonnet, the Starray gets a 1.5-litre petrol engine paired up to an electric motor and battery pack. You can go up to 52 miles on a charge in the entry-level model, but the top-end ‘Pro’ version gets a larger battery and an 84-mile range. That’s longer than any other PHEV bar the much pricier Chery Tiggo 9 and Omoda 9.

So you can go a good distance, but will you want to? Well, the Starray is comfortable enough around lumpy town roads thanks to soft suspension, and it’s also quite relaxed on the motorway. But it leans a lot in the bends if you take it too hard on a twisty road, and when the engine kicks in it can be very noisy - the hybrid system isn’t quite as smart as the Chery Tiggo 7’s.

Verdict

The truth is that there’s very little to separate this car from the alternatives from different Chinese brands such as the BYD Sealion 5 or Chery Tiggo 7 - it’s not something that enthusiastic drivers will enjoy, but for family car buyers, commuters and those who just want lots of equipment for not much money, the Geely Starray is a decent choice. The Chery Tiggo 7 would still be our choice of these three, though - or spend a little extra on Carwow's car of the year, the similar but even more practical Chery Tiggo 8.

You can get a great deal on a Geely Starray through Carwow - or check out our best Geely Starray leasing offers here. Browse our used Geelys for sale and remember that Carwow can even help you to sell your old car when the time comes for car-changing.

The Geely Starray starts at £29,990 - making it a whole five pounds cheaper than the entry-level BYD Sealion 5 or the Chery Tiggo 7 plug-in hybrid. Well, every little helps…

For that you get heated and electrically adjustable front seats, keyless entry and artificial leather upholstery. For an extra £3,000 you can step up to Max trim with a head-up display, panoramic sunroof and electric tailgate, while the top-spec Ultra costs £34,990 and gets the larger battery pack and the option of a lighter interior trim. The only optional extra on all three is paint.

So while it’s on a par with its competitors from other Chinese brands, the Starray is significantly cheaper than most other alternatives. The cheapest Citroen C5 Aircross PHEV is over £38,000 and the Kia Sportage PHEV is over £40,000. This makes the Starray seem pretty compelling value.

Comfortable round town and on the motorway, but the Geely Starray isn’t much fun to drive and can feel a bit wayward on a twisty road

In town

The Starray’s long electric range means that you can drive it like an EV round town most of the time. In the 84-mile model you’ve got ample to cross the whole of London without ever troubling the petrol engine.

The Starray’s electric motor is much more powerful than its petrol engine and for the most part does all the driving - the engine only kicks in when you really put your foot down, which you probably won’t want to do much because it’s quite noisy and unrefined.

On bumps and potholes around the city, the Starray’s soft suspension copes pretty well, but the car’s body does move around a lot. Visibility is pretty good, though, and the light steering makes it easy to thread through gaps and to park.

On the motorway

Getting up to speed depends on how much charge you have - if you’re using the electric motor, it’s swift and smooth, but with a flat battery the engine can chime in and become rather vocal making overtakes and sliproads a noisy experience.

Once up to speed it’s quiet enough, though, and the soft suspension makes for a pretty smooth experience - though rough surfaces can filter through to the cabin as an uncomfortable pitter-patter.

On a twisty road

Despite Geely saying that Lotus had a hand in tuning the Starray’s suspension and steering (Lotus is owned by Geely), the end result isn’t particularly dynamic. The Starray handles corners more nicely than a BYD Sealion 5 or a Chery Tiggo 7, but that’s not a high bar, and it’s a bit too roly-poly to feel particularly fun in the bends.

Compared to a Kia Sportage or a Ford Kuga hybrid, the Starray isn’t much cop. But if you take twisty roads at a more relaxed pace, it’s absolutely fine.

Ample rear-seat space and a large boot with lots of underfloor space - but storage for smaller items is lacking

The Starray gets electrically adjustable front seats as standard, and there’s lots of space in them - tall drivers can get comfortable nice and easily, and there’s a decent amount of adjustment in the steering wheel too.

Visibility out is pretty good and the seats are comfy, though the strangely squared-off steering wheel isn’t the most comfortable to hold.

As for storage, the door bins and glovebox are only average in size - you can fit a one-litre bottle of water in both, but not much else. There’s also a pair of phone slots by the driver’s elbow, one of which has a wireless charging pad, and an under-armrest storage cubby plus a much larger one underneath the centre console. It’s storage for smaller items that’s lacking - you get two fairly puny cupholders, but nowhere to sling a wallet or even the car’s keys.

Space in the back seats

The Geely Starray’s rear seats are really spacious. A six-foot adult can stretch out, and there’s a little space under the front seats so you can put your feet under for even more legroom. Headroom is ample and you get a good view out.

The floor is also completely flat so it’s easy to scoot across to the other side, and that also means it’s easier to squeeze three people across the rear bench. It feels more spacious back here than the Chery Tiggo 7 or BYD Sealion 5, but just barely.

Boot space

The Geely Starray has a 428-litre boot, plus an extra 100 litres of space under the floor, putting overall capacity ahead of the BYD Seal U, Tiggo 7 and Sealion 5. The 507-litre MG HS is more roomy above the floor, though.

The seats fold easily and lie nice and flat, and an electric tailgate is standard from the mid-spec model upwards.

The Geely Starray’s interior feels well-built and the materials are nice, but the touchscreen is very frustrating to use

Just like the Geely EX5 (with which the Starray shares most of its interior fittings) the Starray’s interior feels a cut above the alternatives and much more expensive than its super-cheap price tag would suggest. The plastics used are high quality, and even the artificial leather upholstery feels softer and more convincing than on the alternatives.

Compared to the BYD Sealion 5 in particular, the Starray’s dashboard is stylish and features like the patterned trim and asymmetrical stitching on the seats add some visual appeal. It’s a shame that the light interior trim is only available as an option on the top-spec car.

The Starray’s interior is all controlled through the 15.4-inch touchscreen. It’s bright, clear, and responsive - but it’s a right pain in the bum to use. There are far too many menus, with fiddly lists of functions to scroll through and some items positioned where you wouldn’t expect them. You need to go through two separate menus just to turn on the heated seats, for example.

The physical controls are limited to those on the steering wheel as well as a couple of shortcut keys to demist the windows and a multifunction dial. Well, we say multifunction - it’s a glorified volume dial, but if you fiddle around with the touchscreen again it can scroll between drive modes or select a different photo to act as the background of the home screen.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto both feature, and operate wirelessly, so you can bypass Geely’s system for the most part - but you’ll still need to use it when you want to adjust the climate controls, or switch off the more annoying active safety features.

As with the EX5, though, standard equipment is a highlight. All models get electric front seats, keyless entry and wireless smartphone connectivity, mid-spec cars add a head-up display, panoramic roof and premium audio system - all of which are very nice to have.

There are two versions of the Geely Starray. Both use an electric motor paired up to a 1.5-litre petrol engine, putting out a total 214hp and making for pretty modest performance - but smooth acceleration, as the electric motor does most of the work.

The difference is in the battery sizes, with the Pro and Max models getting an 18.4kWh battery pack and the Ultra model having a beefier 28.9kWh. That’s good for a maximum all-electric range of 52 miles in the lesser model - on par with the BYD Sealion 5 and Chery Tiggo 7 - or a whopping 84 miles in the large-battery model.

That latter figure puts the Starray up near the top of the plug-in hybrid league tables for range. It’s bested only by the Chery Tiggo 9 and Omoda 9, as well as the smaller Audi A3 and VW Golf PHEVs.

It contributes to very low company car tax and, in theory, rock-bottom running costs provided you plug in regularly. Fuel economy is very changeable depending on your charging habits, but the Starray lacks the clever ‘Smart’ mode that you get on the Chery Tiggo 7, which maximises long-distance fuel economy.

The Geely Starray scored a full five stars in Euro NCAP’s crash testing when it was tested in 2025. A rating of 90% in the adult occupant protection category is particularly good.

All the safety equipment you’d expect is included, but there’s no shortcuts to quickly turn them on or off so you have to do a lot of fiddling around in the touchscreen menus. The bongs and beeps that they give out are particularly annoying, so you’ll probably want them turned off at the start of every drive.

Geely is one of the largest car brands in China, and has experience selling cars in the UK through the other brands it owns - Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, Smart and LEVC all fall under the Geely umbrella. So signs are promising that the Starray will be a relatively reliable car.

Geely’s certainly hoping so, offering one of the longest warranties in the business at eight years and 125,000 miles covering both the car and its battery. You also get two years of free servicing and four years of complimentary roadside assistance.