Best Electric Cars

We bought a Jaecoo J5 EV this year. 6000km in and we love it. Outstanding value-for-money. Great tech. Huge sunroof with full shade. Sweet ride and… Read more

handling. Sound system is ordinary. Not a huge fan of the gear change on the steering column. We drove SEQ to Canberra return and it's smooth and relaxing on the highway. Stop every 2-3 hrs for 30-60 mins of charging. No worries. It gets more than 400km range around town in SEQ, but that will drop closer to 300km on highway speeds in southern NSW highlands temps 0-10 degrees celsius. It doesn't have scheduled charging, which is a problem.

First few weeks of ownership, and I have to say this is one incredibly well designed and well built EV, the inclusions and tech fitted for the price… Read more

are outstanding. Get 510klm EV range, 180KW fast charging at public chargers and 11KW home charging. The Aion V comes fully loaded with luxury finishes, real leather seats and a fridge, freezer, food warmer in the console, 3 x memory seat positions, heated and cooled seats, full glass moon roof, amongst some of the standard fitment, as well as the latest tech ADAS safety items that seem well developed and sorted with localised tune. The ride and tune of the suspension is a real surprise. The GAC dealer network is rapidly expanding, and my experience with the customer service and support has been excellent from GAC Australia, they are very receptive and certainly listening to owners feedback on their vehicles, that's really unusual these days, well done GAC Australia. I can highly recommend the GAC Brand and the Aion V Luxury SUV to anyone wanting a full EV that really does deliver on the adverting promise and marketing, its winner and a great family SUV.. + an 8 year unlimited Klm Warranty for peace of mind.. Peter Warren GAC dealer is fantastic, nothing requested has been too much trouble, thanks Minh Leang for all your help, and also the team at Peter Warren Automotive - GAC dealer.

What a cool little EV. Surprised these aren’t selling like hotcakes considering the value for money. They’re made in Poland by the Stellantis group… Read more

so they’re cool affordable quality for the same price as a used Tesla. It’s just a really fun car to get around in. An electric Jeep!! We love it

My partner and I upgraded our second car to an EV5 through Aaron at Keystar Kia. Aaron was very knowledgeable about the car, and availability for… Read more

delivery, very professional and friendly. The service in Finance from Katie was equally fantastic. She is very friendly, professional and helpful. The overall service was fantastic from Test Drive to Delivery. We definitely recommend Keystar Kia to anyone looking to buy their first car or upgrade.

The car is wonderful. Despite the anti-Chinese car rhetoric, decided to take the plunge on a BYD owned vehicle. Did the research and took for a 2… Read more

hour test drive. The car is as advertised. Daily commute to work is purely EV and by changing my electricity plan and using scheduled charging, costs are minimal to use - huge saving over previous Everest, especially with the Trump diesel increase. Taken to Newcastle and Canberra (high speed) and mild offroad. Tyres are very road biased and battery quickly depletes at high speed (to be expected). Fuel consumption only shows "last 50 kms" so hard to determine, but high speed road travel is between 8 and 11 l/100km - not bad for a 3t beast. Internally the ride is quiet and comfortable and an initial bugbear of the car not "remembering" settings from the last trip has been resolved via an OTA update. (Had to turn radio on each time, synch with car play etc. Now this is automated.) 3500km of driving has cost about $250 in E10 fuel. Electricity minimal due to solar / Tesla battery / scheduled 8¢ midnight to 6am charging. Have not yet charged at public charging station as cannot see the point of a 1000% increase over domestic charging. Now the downside ... ... In QLD there are 4 dealerships. In NSW only 1. The sales process was smooth, but upon delievery of the vehicle, damage where somebody had reversed into something solid, scratches on left hand side, no Windows tinted and a dealer that never calls back to resolve issues. I'd suggest the sales has been a significant success and too much for the dealership to handle, but p-poor post sales service. six weeks into ownership and despite numerouse phone calls and escalation, the silence is deafening. Such a shame for such a good product. Denza is trying to compete with the luxury brands, but the service response is far from this level.

I hope to amend this negativity in coming months as I am hoping this is a teething / gearing-up issue and not a sign of the way they do business.

A small update - had first service and the technician there was very helpful and apologetic for poor service to date. Received a stone chip that migrated to a sizable crack (18"). Booked in with Obriens but they didn't even have the part on the system. 6 week delay as windscreen need to sail from China. With all this being said, still loving the car and after 4 months, done 8000 km. Going SYD to Longreach in 8 weeks so this will be a reasonable test.

Great small SUV for the price. Pros - drives superbly, like a knife through butter, plenty of pickup - not as squirty as the Volvo EX30, but… Read more

comparable to the EX40, BMW ix. Feels a little more lively than the Kia EV3.

Brakes are a little sluggish as they are for all EVs - on par with the Kia and Volvo.

After 10 years driving a Golf the transition was surprisingly pleasurable. We love the tight turning circle and easy Reverse, Drive and Regen button.

We love minimal bings and bongs and the option to one button on the screen switch off Lane Assist, Start Air Con, or recycle air.

The default sensor warning start to brake is excellent as is the side mirror blindspot warning and standard reverse parking camera. If you’re a nervous parker upgrade to experience the front and overhead cameras of a Polstar or BMW which also has a wide angle front view if you live on a blindspot.

Standard manual seats are very comfy - more than the BMW and Kia. No headrest pushing your head forward, or side swaddlers giving you a hunchback…

And the Cons? Sound system is average in all the cars we tested except the upgraded spec BMW. Our test drive rattled on the driver side and our own rattles on the left! Opening the window helps. Better than the pathetic EX30 tho…

Hate to join the pedantic haters but the driver cup holders are pathetic and too small. The door bottle holders are at 45 degrees so no help with open coffee.

The MAG phone charger is great but not quite enough room for 2 iphones side by side. And if you want to save power, you can’t switch it off and there’s nowhere else obvious to stash your phone.

Boot is slightly wider and deeper than our Golf and much higher - with handy side cubbies, reversible mat and netting in various forms for who knows what - Skoda’s “Simply Clever” is bizarre at times. (I’d rather have a button to switch off the air con without having to press twice and reach over to the far corner of the screen… Talking of Right-hand driving - google maps speed limit is on the far left so not much use for the driver) It’s a shame the rear seats don’t fold down flat. Boot is heavy and you have to really give it a thump to close - so if you’re short, old, often have kids in the back and you care about their longterm hearing - upgrade to the electric boot which also has the foot wave to open. As a surfer and muso and like most Aussies we often have laptops, surfboards, guitars in the car, so the $10k upgrade also has some useful if slightly daggy built in rear side window blinds - also great for littl’uns.

All these slight let downs and annoyances are totally acceptable for us - the swings and the roundabouts - when we consider all the EVs we researched and tested. However one showstopper/elephant in the room remains stubbornly, reminding us that despite hours watching youtube reviews and reading car mags and drooling over the Skoda website and several Saturdays in the company of some sometimes beyond useless car salesman, we may have picked a lemon… nor did our top sales person mention that much of the “Simply Clever” functionality on the info and navigation system is NOT available for Australia. With no date confirmed by VAG if we’ll ever have connected services, and for this reason - there is no MySkoda app. No MySkoda app means you can’t schedule charging from midnight to 6am to only pay evil AGL 8c rather than the usual 37c. (Unless you set a good old fashioned alarm to head out to the car in your pyjamas to start charging.) The car has a clock for christ’s sake - how hard is it? We don’t care about losing out on keyless entry, driver profiles for settings, but needing to have a phone on bluetooth - CONSTANTLY - to play music or use maps is annoying. And if you live in regional or remote Australia and you’re not with Telstra - you won’t have any maps! Do we care about wifi updates? Maybe not but it means and annoying visit to Skoda Service when they spruik service only required every 2 years… Our Skoda salesperson said “I just use Apple car play”, not oh BTW Ignore everything you read about the app and the location functionality on the infortainment where you would nort program in a “home” location with a charging schedule 12 midnight to 6am…. If MG and BYD can do it for about 33% cheaper, and offer free charging on the Evie network and a 10Y warranty , it beggars belief that VAG are taking Australian drivers seriously. #LemonEmoji

Excellent to drive, but battery efficiency needs improvement – As you’d hope from a Jaguar, the I-PACE is fantastically put together. The materials, lack of distinct panel gaps, trim pieces and screens are all… Read more

fitting when asking north of $150,000 for this EV.

This car is devoid of any squeaks, rattles and road noise, which is a very important trait in a silent EV.

My disappointment came in the form of electrical issues I experienced during my week with the I-PACE. For around 15 minutes, I was unable to interact with the digital climate controls and centre touchscreen - a slight problem on a particularly hot day.

Some cars I test have screens that might glitch, that a simple off/on can fix. However this persistent issue only resolved itself after some time, regardless of whether the car was turned off or on or was locked or unlocked.

I would have been pretty disappointed if this was my car and I was experiencing stereotypical Jaguar electrical issues less than 1000km into my ownership.

This trim of the Jaguar I-PACE will cost you $142,580 before on-road costs and incentives.

Our car was fitted with an enormous shopping list of options (all listed further down), including a panoramic glass roof ($3580), air suspension ($2002), and a Meridian Sound System ($1200). That brought the total price to $161,055.

The warranty is 5 years/unlimited kilometres, and high voltage parts are covered over 8 years/160,000km.

Your service intervals aren’t that different from a petrol car, occurring every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first. However, what is a bonus is that your servicing is complimentary over 5 years or 200,000km.

It’s one of the better offers alongside those of brands like Genesis.

The added sound deadening and high quality materials ensure that the cabin of the I-PACE is silent. You can just feel it in your ear holes that Jaguar required this car to be as silent as a big cat hunting at night.

Although, that does change when you head into Dynamic mode, which activates some sound to be played through the speakers to enhance the feeling of speed.

I would also mention that the speaker upgrade is a must, especially if you’ve already committed to paying this much for an EV. I loved the rich sound this system generated; it’s a great way to make the most of a silent sound stage like this.

To my surprise, Jaguar have tuned these brakes to erode any sensation that this car has a heavy battery pack on board.

Yes, you do notice this car's weight at times, but those beefy brakes don’t make a fuss when being stomped on some backroads.

This AWD setup places two electric motors between both front and rear axles. With the car producing a combined output of 294kW (400hp) and 696Nm, you’re going to hit 100km/h in a brief 4.8 seconds.

This car feels every way as quick as Jaguar claims. It’s rapid, it’s exhilarating and it’s also unassuming to most punters who are up for a drag race from the lights.

This is a brilliant amount of power that absolutely helps the Jaguar achieve one of the most important characteristics of the brand: pace.

As an EV, you only have one forward gear to engage with, so there’s nothing more to say than it’s a perfectly smooth experience.

What I really loved was the way you select your shift into gear, all done by pressing buttons along a ‘bridge’ that emerges from the centre console to meet the dashboard.

Incredibly, the I-PACE manages to offer one of the best electric car driving experiences alongside something like the Kia EV6.

What you have is the best handling and driving EV you can buy. The way Jaguar has dialled in the chassis, steering and suspension of this car makes it quick to react but also extremely comfortable in mundane situations.

Air suspension helps with lowering the car for more dynamic handling, along with the adaptive dynamics package ($2002) fitted to our test car. I really haven’t had this much fun driving an EV through corners before.

I loved the driving position, the way you sit in the car to maximise the feel of the vehicle. This EV 1000% deserves to wear the Jaguar badge, and just makes me excited to see where the brand takes this electric platform into the future.

A slight kicker to all this positive stuff is the energy consumption. Jaguar claims 27.9kWh per 100km, a big difference to other EVs that usually hang just below 20kWh per 100km in their claimed figures.

You have a claimed 446km (WLTP) range from a humongous 90kWh battery.

I didn’t have the chance to range test this car, but I did find the projected range to slightly overstate the actual range I achieved in city driving. Regenerative braking helps keep some range when driving around town, but it’s not enough to bring that consumption figure down dramatically.

It is a little annoying too that this battery can only accept up to 100kW of DC charge, when other EVs are entering the realm of up to 350kW for fast charging.

I’ve always loved the interior of this EV, as it’s a bespoke design that hasn’t just been lifted from Jaguar’s other cars.

The new Pivi Pro software is a fantastic improvement from older cars, including connected services like weather and incorporating Amazon’s Alexa as a voice assistant. Over-the-air updates are also available, which the company has already used in the past to bring customers upgrades like wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto without having to visit a dealership.

The layout of the drivers display is easy to read and customise, so you can have as much or as little information as you might need.

The way the screens in here are integrated is fairly impressive, apart from the climate control screen which feels a little out of place. Making up for that are the screens inside the climate control dials, which are multi-functional and help reduce the visual clutter here.

If you’re looking for the best EV money can buy, it’s not this Jaguar. You can spend less for better battery technology, but you're not getting the best car if you do that.

What this Jaguar is, is a fast, elegant, comfortable, ergonomic luxury car that just happens to be electric. The way Jaguar have implemented the EV drive train has been done so well that you genuinely have a product that feels class-leading in the way it drives and performs on the road.

I would love to see some progress in the battery technology department to improve range accuracy and efficiency, but other than that, I think the I-PACE is a worthy luxury EV deserving of your attention over what Audi and Mercedes-Benz have to offer at this moment.

*Disclaimer - I work for ProductReview as their independent car and motorbike expert. I borrow new cars and motorbikes from manufacturers and owners to review. I am not paid or incentivised by these brands to post reviews. I write and create content to provide insight and information about any new or used vehicle I can get my hands on.

2026 Geely Starray EM-i – Long-Term Review After Nearly 10,000 km We’ve now done close to 10,000 km in our Geely Starray EM-i, mostly daily city and… Read more

suburban driving, so I thought it was time to write a proper owner review rather than something based on a test drive or the first few weeks.

Overall, we’re happy with it. When you take into account the price, space, equipment and running costs, it’s very difficult to complain.

Electric driving – 8/10

This is where the Starray EM-i is at its best.

For normal suburban and city driving, running on the electric motor is smooth, quiet and very pleasant. The performance isn’t going to throw you back into your seat, but for everyday driving it has more than enough response.

The whole car just feels better when operating electrically.

Electric driving: 8/10.

Petrol engine driving – 6/10

Once the petrol engine becomes more involved, the experience isn’t quite as impressive.

It’s perfectly adequate and does what it needs to do, but the car feels noticeably less refined than it does when driving around town predominantly on electric power.

Petrol engine driving: 6/10.

Fuel economy – one of its biggest strengths

In our experience, the real-world fuel economy has been very good and seems to live up well to Geely’s claims.

Obviously everyone’s results will depend enormously on how and where they drive and how regularly they charge, but our Starray spends most of its life doing city and suburban driving and we charge it regularly.

From January through August, while approaching 10,000 km, I would estimate we’ve spent no more than about $150 on petrol.

For us, that’s a massive positive and one of the biggest selling points of the car.

Charging

We’ve just been using the basic charging cable supplied with the car and for the Starray it has been perfectly adequate.

Plug it in overnight and it’s ready to go again.

For the way we use the Starray, we haven’t felt any real need to install a faster home charger. If we moved to a full EV such as an EX5, we’d personally upgrade to a proper faster home charger, but for the Starray the supplied cable has done the job perfectly well.

City driving – 8/10

As a city and suburban family car, the Starray makes a lot of sense.

It’s quiet, comfortable, spacious and easy to drive. This is definitely where I think the car is at its strongest.

City driving: 8/10.

Long-distance driving – 6/10

For longer-distance driving, I’d rate it 6/10.

It will happily do longer trips and there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with it, but compared with driving around town, some of its weaknesses become more noticeable.

If most of my driving was long-distance or motorway driving rather than suburban Sydney driving, I probably wouldn’t rate the overall car as highly.

Handling – generally good

Handling is generally fine. It’s not a sports car and doesn’t pretend to be one, but for the type of vehicle it is I’ve got no major complaints.

One thing I particularly like is how well it controls its speed going downhill.

Some cars gradually gather speed on a descent and you find yourself constantly getting back onto the brakes. The Starray does a very good job of holding your speed rather than simply getting faster and faster because you’re going downhill.

It’s one of those little things you probably wouldn’t notice on a short test drive but that I really appreciate after living with the car.

Unfortunately, the handling is let down by one particular component.

Tyres – probably the worst feature of the car

The factory tyres would have to be one of my biggest complaints.

They’re terrible.

You can go around a normal left or right turn and, if you accelerate with any enthusiasm at all, the front wheels will spin.

I’m not talking about deliberately launching the car or driving aggressively. Normal acceleration while turning can be enough to overwhelm them.

For a car with an electric motor providing instant torque, tyre choice is important, and I think Geely has really let the car down here.

If there was one component I would change immediately to improve the driving experience, it would be the tyres.

Interior and second-row space – 10/10

The amount of interior space relative to the physical size of the car is one of its best features.

The second row in particular is excellent. For a car of this size, I’d give rear passenger space 10/10.

There is a genuinely impressive amount of room.

I’m 6’1” and have no problem getting comfortable in the driver’s seat. There is plenty of adjustment and space.

There is, however, one surprisingly annoying issue.

My partner and I both drive the car. After she’s driven it, I get back in and I’m basically squashed into her seating position until I manually select Profile 2.

The driver profiles/seating positions aren’t automatically linked to each driver’s key. I’ve had this functionality in my last four or five cars, so having to manually select my profile feels like a backwards step, particularly in a car that is otherwise so technology-focused.

It’s a relatively small thing, but it’s exactly the sort of thing you notice after living with a car for months rather than during a test drive.

Seat comfort

For everyday city and suburban driving, the seats are comfortable and I’ve got no real complaints.

On longer drives, I’d describe them as just OK rather than particularly good.

They’re certainly not uncomfortable, but if I was regularly spending several hours at a time behind the wheel, I’d probably want something a little better.

Boot space – Bullmastiff and Rottweiler tested!

We have a Bullmastiff and a Rottweiler, so boot space actually matters to us.

Both dogs fit in the back.

Just – but they fit!

That’s a pretty good real-world test of the cargo area and was part of the reason we moved away from our Volvo XC40 to the Starray.

There’s also a surprisingly useful amount of storage under the boot floor, which helps enormously when the main boot is occupied by two very large dogs.

We keep our first-aid kit under there along with two shallow storage boxes, and there’s room for a surprising amount of miscellaneous gear, particularly things we want with us on longer trips.

It means we can keep all that stuff stored out of sight without taking away the main boot space the dogs need.

If you can fit a Bullmastiff and a Rottweiler in the main boot while still having a first-aid kit, two storage boxes and other gear tucked away underneath, I think the designers have done a pretty good job of making use of the available space.

Air conditioning – very good, outside temperature reading not so much

The air conditioning is good.

It’s not an enormous car, so it doesn’t have a massive cabin to cool, and we’ve found the A/C gets the job done very well.

One related annoyance, though, is the outside temperature reading.

Ours seems to be way off a lot of the time. It doesn’t affect the actual driving experience, but it’s another one of those little details that makes you wonder why something so basic isn’t more accurate.

Heated seats – disappointing

This is one feature I really don’t like.

In several of my previous cars, the heated seats have heated from the lower seat area right up through your back. In the Starray, the heat seems to concentrate mainly on your bum and very lower back.

Rather than being relaxing, I actually find it uncomfortable.

The controls are also unnecessarily buried. To get to the heated-seat controls you have to go through multiple presses on the touchscreen.

Considering the enormous central screen, I don’t understand why Geely can’t simply provide permanent heated-seat controls along the bottom or side of the display. There is certainly enough screen real estate.

It’s a good example of something being moved into a touchscreen simply because it can be, rather than because it’s actually more convenient.

Sound system – awesome

The sound system deserves a mention because it’s awesome.

For a car at this price point, I’ve been genuinely impressed with it. If you enjoy your music in the car, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

360° and reversing cameras – good, but occasionally frustrating

The 360° camera and reversing camera are good and make the car very easy to manoeuvre and park.

My complaint is the occasional delay.

Sometimes when you select reverse there can be a one-to-two-second delay before the camera appears on the screen.

One or two seconds doesn’t sound like much until you’re sitting there waiting for a reversing camera you’ve already told the car you need. In everyday use it’s surprisingly annoying.

When the cameras are actually on screen, though, I’ve been happy with them.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto – good when connected, stupid when choosing a phone

When connected, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto work well.

The problem is that my partner uses Android Auto and I use Apple CarPlay.

Sometimes I’ll get into the car by myself and it will spend five minutes or more trying to connect to her Android phone even though she isn’t even in the car, rather than simply connecting to the iPhone that is actually sitting in the vehicle.

That’s just stupid.

There needs to be a better system for recognising which devices are actually present and connecting accordingly, or at least an easier way of prioritising the current driver’s phone.

Geely app – pretty bad, but does the job

The Geely app isn’t one of the highlights of the ownership experience.

I’d describe it as pretty bad, but functional.

It does what we need it to do, so I can’t say it’s useless, but compared with how polished the actual car can feel in some areas, the app experience feels like an area that needs considerably more work.

Controls – one Volvo habit you need to break quickly

I like that the indicators are on the left-hand stalk.

Our other car is a Volvo XC90, so moving between the cars feels natural in that respect.

There is, however, a very unfortunate similarity in control placement.

The Geely’s drive/park control is basically where the windscreen wiper control is on the Volvo.

So muscle memory from the Volvo can result in reaching for what you think is the windscreen washer/wiper control and instead operating the Geely’s transmission control.

It won’t suddenly stop the car, thankfully, but it can cause the car to jolt, which teaches you pretty quickly not to make that mistake again!

Obviously this isn’t a fault with the Geely itself, but it’s something worth mentioning for anyone moving regularly between a Geely and a Volvo.

Cruise control

I can’t really give the cruise-control system a fair long-term rating.

Most of our nearly 10,000 km has been city and suburban driving rather than long motorway trips, so I simply haven’t used the cruise control enough to form a proper opinion.

I’d rather leave that unrated than pretend I’ve tested it extensively when I haven’t.

Safety technology – don’t expect a Volvo just because of the connection

This was probably one of my bigger misconceptions before buying the car.

Given Geely’s ownership of Volvo, I thought more of Volvo’s safety philosophy and technology might have filtered down into the Starray.

Don’t buy it expecting a cheaper Volvo.

There are plenty of warnings and driver-assistance features, but the way they operate doesn’t feel anything like the systems in our Volvos.

The Starray will display warnings such as “BRAKE NOW” and provide audible or physical warnings, but in my experience I haven’t experienced the same sort of active emergency intervention that I’ve experienced in Volvo vehicles.

The safety systems may tick plenty of boxes on a specifications sheet, but from behind the wheel I don’t have the same sense of active safety intervention that I get from our Volvo XC90 or previously got from the XC40.

Reliability – no issues so far

We’re approaching 10,000 km and haven’t had any reliability issues.

There are software and usability things I’d like Geely to improve, but mechanically nothing has failed and the car has done what it’s supposed to do.

Obviously 10,000 km isn’t enough to judge how it will hold up over five or ten years, but so far I have no complaints about reliability.

Compared with our previous Volvo XC40

Our previous 2021 Volvo XC40 Inscription was a better overall car. It was more polished and refined, but it was also a more expensive premium vehicle, so I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect the Starray to match it.

The Starray’s strength is how much car you’re getting for the money. In some practical areas, particularly interior and rear-seat space, it actually suits our needs better.

Overall

Electric driving: 8/10 Petrol driving: 6/10 City driving: 8/10 Long-distance driving: 6/10 Second-row space for the size of the car: 10/10

The Starray EM-i isn’t perfect. The factory tyres are probably my biggest complaint, followed by some of the software and usability annoyances.

But as an everyday family car, particularly for predominantly city and suburban driving with regular home charging, it does its job extremely well.

For the price, I’m impressed and after nearly 10,000 km I certainly don’t regret buying it.

Pro: Long range, excellent acceleration, All optional features included, quiet you can not tell when the charging engine is running. Cons: … Read more

Make sure you have the Jaecoo dealer support guy number programed to you phone because you'll be calling them often:

- Brakes won't released unless seatbelt is secured. this also applies to other features. - Change from reverse (R) to drive (D) is not always seamless. At times I found myself stuck in the middle of the road because D wouldn't engage, had to go to N first then brake then it let me select D. - All windows have the vendors watermark on them I was not able to remove. - Steering wheel levers are from generic left hand drive, Indicator, wiper control on left side. column gear shift on right side. need time to get use to. - Steering wheel over responsive you get jolted from side to side on slight movement. - The Head Up display has no Auto dimming, at night the display is super bright. There's manual setting option buried in the setting menu. - No sunglass storage usually found on any cheap car above the rearview mirror. - No grab handles on driver side. - No water jets for rear window.

Personally I find this car more suitable for Tech Savvies