The Chery Omoda E5 BX EV’s Unexpected Plot Twist

When Chery reached out with an offer to test drive their debut electric vehicle, the 2025 Omoda BX, I had no idea what to expect. But after a week behind the wheel, I walked away largely impressed, though not without a few caveats about this ambitious freshman effort.

Settling into the driver's seat, I was immediately struck by how much plusher and more refined the Omoda BX's cabin felt compared to some other EVs I've driven. Road noise was minimal, allowing me to enjoy a quiet, relaxing commute. And when I put my foot down, the instantaneous electric torque served up surprising power for confident merging and passing maneuvers. So far, so good.

However, my positive impressions hit a speed bump when, out of the blue, the Omoda's electrical systems went on the fritz, including the power steering. While I was able to muscle the car safely to the shoulder without the assist, it's not an experience I'd wish on anyone, especially not in a brand new vehicle.

On the plus side, Chery's partnership with NRMA for roadside assistance, an old employer of mine, of which I previously worked for 4-years, really shone in this moment.

After a quick call, an EV-specialized mobile mechanic arrived promptly and had me back up and running within an hour using little more than a 10mm socket to reset the electrical gremlins. As more and more people make the jump to EVs, this level of swift, knowledgeable roadside support will be a huge selling point.

In the experience, I had about as good of an experience as I could get, Chery has seemingly partnered with NRMA for their roadside assistance, and it was a good move, to have an EV-specialist on my side within an hour whilst half-way up Bells Line of Road (Bilpin, NSW) is a solid effort within its-self.

The interior is exciting, and step-forward compared to those like the MG HS EV.

Check out CarExplore's Omoda E5 BX Review Below

CarExplore.com.au Review of Chery Omoda E5 EV BX

A few other notes from my week with the Omoda BX

The lane keeping assist came across as a bit overeager, constantly nudging me back to center at the slightest drift. I'd prefer a system with lighter touch and more leeway before intervening.
I appreciated the crisp call quality through the infotainment system, but encountered a strange bug where the stereo would forget my previous music volume after each call, forcing me to adjust it back up each time. A small annoyance, but one I hope can be ironed out with a quick software patch.
Another call bug was after 5-10 minutes the call would experience a lag between talking and responses, it is something I am yet to experience before with defiance on pin-pointing the cause to a stereo-system.
Experimenting with the different drive modes, I noticed the steering weight and accelerator responsiveness change noticeably between Eco, Normal, and Sport settings. Personally, I preferred the livelier feel of Sport mode, but could see using Eco for longer drives to eke out more range.
There is a strange issue when accelerating more than your average take-off, that the Omoda BX would pull pull towards to left when left in Sports Mode, both Eco and Normal seemed to rule out this issue, which means it must be a steering issue setting when changed into sports mode.

Considering a lot of these mishaps can be fixed with a software update, I consider them teething issues for Chery's EV Take-over of the Electronic Vehicle market.