Geely Starray: Rise and shine

What is it?

With a name like a washing-up liquid, the Starray has bubbled up in the mid-size SUV segment as an effervescent plug-in hybrid.

Relatively new to Australia, the Chinese automobile manufacturer Geely has been in the business for almost half a century and owns brands like Volvo, Polestar, Zeekr and Lotus, so it should know a thing or two about ‘moving metal’.

What’s it cost?

The Starray EM-I is only the second Geely to be launched Down Under and comes in two variants – Complete and Inspire

At $37,490, plus on-road costs and $39,990, respectively, they are in the thick of the popular mid-size SUV market here.

Complete comes with a wide range of features, including a 15.4-inch infotainment screen, the gateway to Geely’s innovative Flyme operating system, surround view monitor, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and six-speaker audio.

Also standard are automatic climate control, LED headlights, satellite navigation and heated front seats, while moving up to the Inspire attracts a premium 16-speaker Flyme sound system, panoramic sunroof and head-up windscreen display.

Geely Connected Services is also on offer for the first two years of ownership, allowing buyers to access Geely App remote functions, in-unit streaming and apps, plus Over-The-Air updates.

Inspire, the test car, includes front seat ventilation, driver’s side memory, power tailgate and the ability to choose from 256 ambient light colours.

Geely says behind the design of the Starray EM-I is the desire to produce a vehicle that stands without losing the aerodynamic qualities of the body.

Up front is a prominent face, the result of a layered LED headlight set-up consisting of 264 individual beads lighting up to 148 metres ahead.

A sculpted shape takes care of aerodynamics of the vehicle with a drag coefficient of just 0.288 and fuel efficiency.

Out back of the Starray a body-width LED lightbar made up of 368 individual beads spanning 2240mm.

Inspire includes a panoramic sun roof, power tailgate and front parking sensors, while a standard looking SUV side view is given a lift by 19-inch alloy wheels.

The main screen dominates the central dashboard – not surprising as Geely runs Volvo and Polestar, early adopters of monster monitors in their vehicles.

Strangely, there’s a bit of a zoo here, with the main screen displaying wallpaper that includes pictures of fluffy animals, such as kittens, puppies and guinea pigs.

Tech support is via wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation, automatic climate control and six-speaker sound system, while Inspire is upgraded with Flyme 16-speaker premium sound.

An extensive suite of active and passive measures ensure occupants are under maximum protection.

Active features include automatic emergency braking, adaptive/intelligent cruise control, lane keeping assist, lane changing assist traffic sign recognition, surround view monitor with 3-D vehicle view and driver fatigue alert.

Passive safety comes with seven airbags, including two front, two side, two curtain and one centre fixtures.

What’s it go like?

The cabin speaks elegance and function, via a 15.4-inch touchscreen, 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster and a 13.8-inch head-up windscreen display.

The surroundings are highlighted with a modern, clean design and soft-touch materials.

Front seats are ventilated and the driver’s spot has memory.

Families are specially catered for with good head and legroom for rear passengers.

More than 30 storage areas are scattered around, including a boot with no room for a spare wheel.

Starray EM-I is powered by a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder petrol engine putting out 73kW of power and 125Nm of torque, mated with two electric motors developing 160kW and 262Nm and onto the front wheels.

Supporting the hybrid system is an 18.4 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery pack supplying vehicle -to-load (V2L) function with maximum powder output of 6kW.

The EM-i system works well in daily driving, tootling around town with brisk performance when overtaking.

EV mode has much to recommend it, including a substantive range of around 80km (combined range of 943km).

However, when the petrol engine fires up, it does so with a notably noisy note. Ditto coarse road surfaces.

The suspension serves up low-speed comfort but loses composure on uneven surfaces, which is not helped by a twitchy active cruise control.

The test car constantly warned of low tyre pressures on all four wheels despite repeated attention at the local free-air pump, while a search in the usual places for a real-time petrol tank flap release was in vain. It’s on the touchscreen, stupid boy!

The EM-I systems allows the driver to switch between three drive modes – Pure, Hybrid or Power.

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Pure is electric only, providing smoothness and efficiency; Hybrid seamlessly switches between electric and petrol for range and fuel economy; Power has electric and petrol combined for maximum performance.

Geely says the 18.4 kWh battery can be charged from 30 to 80 per cent in 20 minutes and performance remains consistent regardless of the battery’s state of charge.

A real-time experience with the test vehicle proved particularly un(Inspring).

Three of four charge points were out of action and the remaining one was occupied. The ICE under the bonnet got me home.