2027 Geely EX5 Facelift Surfaces in China: 245kW Rear Motor, Roof LiDAR and Door Handles You Can Grab

Image credit: Geely Australia. Current Australian MY26 EX5 shown. The facelifted car detailed below is a China-market reveal and has not been photographed here.

Geely's cheapest electric SUV is about to get a brain and a personality transplant, and Australian buyers who just signed for an EX5 on the MY26 update need to know what is coming. Chinese regulatory paperwork lodged on 12 June 2026 shows a facelifted EX5 with a 245kW rear motor, a new rear-drive chassis, a roof-mounted LiDAR sensor and a redesigned front end. Geely Australia has not put its hand up for any of it yet, which is the interesting part. The car our showrooms currently sell from $41,990 before on-roads keeps the old 160kW front-drive package, and the cheap-EV gap between Australia and China just grew wider.

The facelift is the kind of mid-life rework you would normally call "new generation" if the badge sat on a German car. Different powertrain layout, different power output, different fascia, different interior trim, different ADAS hardware. The body is mostly carry-over, but everything that makes the car drive and think has changed. Whether or not it lands here, the spec sheet sets a benchmark our local EX5 is now measured against.

What the MIIT filing actually shows

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publishes regulatory dossiers ahead of a car going on sale, and the EX5 filing (sold in China as the Geely Galaxy E5) lists hardware in enough detail to lock in the headline numbers. Here is what is in the paperwork.

The big change: 245kW out the back

Moving the motor from the front axle to the rear is the headline. The current Australian EX5 is a single-motor front-drive crossover making 160kW and 320Nm, good for 0 to 100 km/h in 7.4 to 7.6 seconds depending on grade. The new China car gets a single 245kW unit at the rear, which is an 85kW lift and a fundamentally different driving feel. Front-drive crossovers tend to scrub wide and chirp inside wheels under load. Rear-drive crossovers feel more planted under power, more neutral on entry, and they let the front tyres concentrate on steering.

The 0 to 100 figure has not been published yet, but 245kW into a 1,750 to 1,830kg kerb weight should comfortably duck into the low-to-mid 5-second range. That is Tesla Model Y RWD territory, not budget electric SUV territory. The top-speed lift from 175 km/h to about 201 km/h tells the same story.

Battery options were not pinned down in the filing, but Geely has previously made 49.5kWh, 60.2kWh and 68.4kWh versions of its Aegis Short Blade LFP pack available on the Galaxy E5 in China. Australian cars currently use the 68.4kWh version after the MY26 update, with up to 475km WLTP on the Complete. China gets a longer CLTC cycle, so direct comparisons are noisy, but a bigger pack with a more efficient rear drive layout should land north of 500km WLTP if the same hardware ever made it here.

LiDAR on the roof and a different ADAS philosophy

The most visible change up top is a small LiDAR dome ahead of the windscreen. LiDAR fires laser pulses across the road and uses the return data to build a live 3D map of what is around the car. The roof position gives the sensor a clean view across cars and over crests. In China the unit feeds Geely's higher-tier driver assistance stack, with city-level automated lane changes, unsupervised parking and intersection support.

Australian buyers should not assume the same ADAS will follow if Geely ships the hardware here. Local Level 2+ approvals are slow and our road code does not treat hands-off driving the same way the Chinese cities do. The most likely path is that Australia gets the LiDAR hardware as part of the bill of materials, but the software stack runs in a more conservative Level 2 mode similar to what is already in the EX5 Inspire. That would still mean a meaningful upgrade on parking and stop-and-go traffic.

Why the door handles are back

Flush, pop-out door handles look modern but they have been creating drama in China. They jam in cold weather, they delay rescuers in crashes, and the country's safety regulator has new rules taking effect on 1 January 2027 that effectively force carmakers to either keep them or add a backup mechanical pull. Plenty of brands have simply gone back to traditional handles. The new EX5 is in that camp, with proper pull-style handles on all four doors. That is good news for kids with wet hands, for cold-fingered tradies and for cars left at the airport for a fortnight.

Australia has not flagged any equivalent rule, but local buyers tend to mirror Chinese taste once the change becomes the new normal. Expect more conventional handles to roll across Geely's entire range during 2027.

Styling and interior changes

The body itself is mostly carry-over. The clearest tells are at the nose, where a new front bumper carries a full-width black blade that kicks up at the corners to wrap the air-curtain inlets, and a redesigned lower air dam. The charging port has been relocated. Side profile and tail are nearly identical to the current car, which means the EX5 keeps its tidy 4.6m footprint and short overhangs.

Inside, the filing does not show every screen and trim, but Chinese press cars have a refreshed centre console layout. The 15.4-inch screen is expected to carry over, along with a 10.25-inch driver display. Expect the AI assistant to keep working as it does on the MY26 car, since the current Australian EX5 already runs the Flyme Auto software stack out of the Star Multimedia GeForce Edition flagship in China.

Safety status

The current Australian EX5 carries a 5-star ANCAP rating issued in March 2025 under the 2023 to 2025 protocol, with 86 per cent adult occupant, 87 per cent child occupant, 83 per cent vulnerable road user and 85 per cent safety assist. The facelifted China car is not yet rated by any independent body. ANCAP would only assess it once a local launch was confirmed. For now it is fair to say the facelift inherits the same body shell and most of the same passive safety package, but ANCAP would have to re-test the safety-assist subscore because the LiDAR-fed driver assistance system is a different stack.

How it compares against the cheap-EV class on CarSorted

Here is the part that matters for buyers cross-shopping on CarSorted right now. The facelifted China car is not on sale here, but its specs reset the bar for what a sub-$50,000 electric SUV could look like. Against what you can actually order in an Australian showroom today, the numbers stack up like this.

On paper the facelifted car would land between an MG S6 EV and a small Tesla on outright punch, with a longer warranty and a cheaper service plan than either. The current EX5 still represents the cheapest 475km LFP EV you can buy here. If Geely ships the facelift to Australia inside 12 months, the line that has separated the cheap end from the mid-pack of EVs gets blurry fast.

Warranty and ownership context

Whatever Geely brings here will keep the same ownership package as the current car: seven years and unlimited kilometres on the vehicle, eight years on the high-voltage battery, plus five years of roadside assist when you service inside the Geely network. Capped-price servicing currently runs at $1,990 for the first five years on the EX5. None of that changes on the back of a Chinese filing. The numbers are worth knowing because the EX5's total cost of ownership over five years sits roughly $3,000 below the equivalent Atto 3 once warranty, servicing and insurance are normalised on CarSorted.

What this means for buyers

Three buyer types should care about this filing right now.

If you have an EX5 order in for delivery this month or next: sit tight. The car you are getting is the freshly updated MY26 with the bigger 68.4kWh pack, 475km WLTP and the latest software. The facelift has only just hit Chinese regulatory paperwork. A right-hand-drive engineering programme, ADR certification and a separate ANCAP assessment all sit between MIIT filings and Australian deliveries, so realistically the facelifted car is a 2027 conversation at the earliest. You are not buying obsolescence.

If you are cross-shopping at $45,000 and can wait six to twelve months: add the facelifted EX5 to your watch list alongside the MG S6 EV Essence RWD ($49,990 drive-away), the Tesla Model Y RWD ($65,900 before on-roads) and the BYD Sealion 7 Premium ($54,990 before on-roads). The CarSorted Atto 3 vs EX5 comparison already shows how the current Geely takes the value crown. A 245kW rear-drive version with LiDAR would have it competing with cars $15,000 to $20,000 more expensive.

If you are watching what cheap EVs are about to do to the market: this is the second strong signal from China in a fortnight. The first was the BYD Sealion 7 Premium gaining a longer-range pack at the same money. The pattern is clear. Sub-$50,000 Chinese EVs are no longer the entry-level alternative to a Tesla. They are setting up to be the value play across the whole mainstream new-car market once they bring full local ANCAP testing and dealer support into line. You can already see the early shape of that on our CarSorted directory filter for electric SUVs under $50,000.

For now the buying advice is simple. The current EX5 is still the cheapest 475km LFP EV in any Australian dealership, the MY26 update only landed earlier this month, and the deal does not get less attractive because a Chinese regulator stamped a different version. Take a look at the full Geely EX5 listing on CarSorted for the live pricing, warranty and finance comparison against rivals, and use our comparison tool to put the EX5 head to head against the Atto 3, MG S6 EV or Tesla Model Y RWD before you sign.