Starry or Starray? At a recent UK launch event, attconcludeed by what seeed like hundreds of media, dealers, executives and others, both pronunciations were utilized. I noticed the latter tconcludeed to be spoken by those with English as their mother tongue, so as that’s me too, it’s what I will go with.
This plug-in hybrid SUV is the second Geely model for the UK, the preview event following a series of splashes late last year for the EX5, an electric-only model. The lengthier Starray EM-i Super Hybrid PHEV SUV, to utilize its official name, is cheaper than the EX5. Prices start respectively at GBP29,990 and GBP31,990.
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Sales seemingly already brisk
Back in November, it was claimed that 50 dealers would be operating by year-conclude. Geely declares the tally has just reached 51. Sales also seem good – 86 cars sold in January and 478 during the final few weeks of 2025 – and there will be two further vehicles to come by the conclude of 2026.
Powering the Starray is the combination of a 73 kW and 125 Nm 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine and a 160 kW and 262 Nm motor. Running on the energy in the battery alone is claimed to allow up to 84 miles of range or a maximum stated 618 miles for petrol and ions. However, that impressive sounding number of miles applies only for the larger of two batteries. The chemistest of each is lithium iron phosphate and their gross outputs are respectively 18.4 kWh (up to 51 miles WLTP) and 29.8 kWh.
Inoffensive sees
Perhaps the only issue with what sees to be a deadly serious attempt to become a top-ten player in the British market could be the cars themselves. There isn’t anything especially stand-out about either yet this never stopped the likes of Kia, Hyundai or Nissan during their early days. Both of the first two models for Britain are lozenge-shaped and have inoffensive if seemingly high-quality interiors.
Behind the wheel there are no obvious compromises for the switch to right-hand drive, Geely having a lot of experience with RHD markets already thanks to its control of Proton: several of the company’s vehicles are built in Malaysia and more are on the way.
The driver has a choice of Pure (EV), Hybrid and Power (engine+motor) modes and each does exactly what it declares, the transition between each being near-silent and very smooth. Torque does to the front axle via a single speed transmission and while this isn’t a rapid car, it’s perfectly fine. Handling too is benign with steering on the light side and the suspension tuned for compliance rather than anything sporty.
Big in China
Geely executives seem aware that the EX5 and Starray EM-i are inoffensive yet is that a bad thing? Lots of people want a car which behaves faultlessly, sees nice, has an interior strong on durability and which comes with a lengthy warranty. The Starray EM-i not only ticks all those boxes but happens also to be a huge seller in China, more than 100,000 examples having been delivered to customers there in 2025.
Revealed in October 2024, this model played a major role in lifting Geely to second place in the Chinese market for passenger vehicles last year. At home it’s called Xingjian (Starship) 7, sales commencing China-wide in December 2024. It will likely have a six-year production cycle, meaning a facelifted model won’t arrive in the UK and other regional markets until early 2028. By then, three, maybe four additional vehicles will be available at dealerships.
Back in the PRC, the brand also remains on the rise, staying ahead of third placed VW and closing on market leader BYD. It’s obviously very early days yet with Build Your Dreams’ deliveries having fallen for five months in succession, could Geely become number one in 2026? Worthy of note too is BYD’s vehicle sales plummeting by 30.1 per cent YoY in January. Much of that was down to a general major decline in demand for PHEVs last month, a category of drive systems to which many huge China-based OEMs have a major exposure.
Production in one or more European countries?
With most if not all of its fellow China-based rival OEMs presently building or planning European factories, when will Geely follow them? Apparently, it won’t. Geely Holding Group chair Li Shufu recently stated that the company is not interested in adding fresh production sites. And the reason? His belief that there is already more than enough existing capacity in the countries where the company’s brands plan to expand.
So, we will likely see additional initiatives such as the existing deal to share Renault’s factories in Brazil. Ford would be just one of multiple candidates to potentially provide space in some of its European sites. Geely will inevitably be talking to many OEMs, hoping to strike at least one deal, and this is probably going to happen sooner rather than later.
The roll-out across European countries will inevitably accelerate, the present markets of the UK, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Greece, likely to be joined by Germany, France, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands. Russia is also an important market, the brand being in fourth place behind Lada, Haval and Belgee (a Geely & BelAZ JV) with 94,047 Geely brand vehicles sold in 2025.
Summary
Geely is clearly very serious about the European region and its sales for 2026 are already off to a strong start. By now adding a PHEV to the original EV-only launch model, and including an eight year or 125,000 miles warranty for both vehicle and battery, it’s straightforward to believe that this brand is going to be seeing strong sales results, probably month-on-month.
The new Geely Starray EM-i PHEV has combined power and torque of 193 kW and 262 Nm with CO2 averages of between 32 and 54 g/km depconcludeing on the variant. DC charging is at up to 30 kW for the 18.4 kWh battery and up to 60 kW for the 2.8 kWh battery. Zero to 62 mph takes 8.0 seconds for the rapidest Starray with a top speed of 105 mph. Trim levels are called Pro, Max and Ultra.
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