Chery’s first electric vehicle (EV) in Australia is due this year, but the company is keeping tight lipped on how much it’ll cost.
“It will be competitive,” Chery Australia managing director Lucas Harris said of the Omoda E5, due here in the second half of 2024.
Chery had previously said the Omoda E5 would arrive here by mid-2024.
“I think the natural competitors are the [BYD] Atto 3 and the MG 4, so we’ll obviously be looking to how do we make sure that we’re competitive to get on the shopping list with customers,” said Mr Harris.
For reference, the MG 4 range opens at $39,990 before on-road costs, while the BYD Atto 3 opens at $48,011 before on-roads.
The Omoda E5 features an overhauled interior, as well as new front-end styling to distinguish it from the petrol-powered model on which it’s based.
Chery says it’ll offer the Omoda E5 in two trim levels.
The Omoda E5 features a single, front-mounted electric motor with 150kW of power and 340Nm of torque. This means it will have the most power and torque of any Omoda 5 variant in Australia.
Chery says it offers 430km of range on the stricter WLTP cycle, and supports charging at up to 9.9kW on AC power and 80kW using DC power.
However, it says the source of the Omoda E5’s battery for Australia is still being finalised, and didn’t confirm what chemistry it would use.
In China, the Omoda E5 will use a 61kWh lithium iron phosphate battery.
Chery says it’s working to finalise vehicle-to-load capability for the Omoda E5 for our market.
The 3.3kW V2L system would allow owners to plug in external appliances.
V2L technology is far from commonplace among EVs in Australia, and even rarer is a full-sized spare tyre – something the Omoda E5 is confirmed to be getting.
Chery currently backs its cars with a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, however most carmakers offer a separate warranty for their electric models’ batteries.
The company hasn’t confirmed what kind of warranty (or warranties) the Omoda E5 will have.
“In terms of warranty, we’re hammering out the final details at the moment. We want to try and make it as simple for customers as possible, so we’ll look to likely streamline the current warranty that we have on our other vehicles,” said Mr Harris.
“There may be some slight differences, but we’re working through that at the minute.
“What we don’t want to do is to have too many standards or variance on what that warranty might look like, so we’ll try and make that very easy for customers to understand.”
Chery says its retail network is well-placed to handle EVs, as most of its dealers are multi-franchise.
“So our work to do in terms of preparing them for electrification is going to be a little bit easier than others, and it’s really about making sure that we offer them relevant product training and making sure that really that they’re not EV-ready, but they’re Omoda E5-ready,” he said.
MORE: Everything Chery Omoda 5
