The E5 is intended to have a rather upmarket feel, and Hyundai and Kia are particular targets. However, there is a whiff of tackiness to the trim in our top-spec Noble prototype test car. Small details like the shiny chrome speaker covers and the wave pattern on some of the plastic trim... It's just trying a bit too hard in areas.
Still, the double wireless phone charging pad is great – especially as it has its own cooling vent to keep your phone from overheating – and there are some other neat touches, including screen brightness controls that are permanently visible on the panel next to the steering wheel. Talking about illumination, though, the backlit touch-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel disappear completely if it’s still light outside and you turn the headlights on. Don’t expect to be able to turn your music down when it’s foggy or raining heavily, then.
Naturally, there’s a huge, 12.3in touchscreen on top of the dashboard, which is housed together with the big driver’s information readout. Our car was yet to have its final software update, but even with the tweaks that we’re told will happen before the E5 hits dealerships, the system will like feel a touch dated. The graphics are a bit grainy, finding some of the settings takes too long (you have to prod at least three or four times to turn the lane-keeping assistance and speed limit warnings off) and the home menu icons and interior temperature controls are small and fiddly.
You will find the systems from Kia, Hyundai, Renault and, dare we say it, even Volkswagen usefully better. Still, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring are standard, so you won’t have to use the native system very often anyway.
Rear passenger space is okay. You will get a couple of six-footers in the back with relative ease, although head room is a bit tighter than in some rivals and there’s very little foot space beneath the front seats.
The boot has a paltry 292-litre claimed capacity, which is utterly woeful and more what you would expect in a city car than a family crossover. We’re a bit sceptical about that figure, though, and suspect that Omoda hasn’t included underfloor storage, as the boot really doesn’t look so bad to us. You will get your big shop in there, no worries. There’s also a small frunk, although it’s shallow enough that you will probably end up sticking your charging cables in the boot anyway.
And if you do lift that boot floor up... praise be to the car gods, it’s an electric car with a full-size spare wheel! We thought we would never see the day, and when the E5 comes to the UK, it’s possible that it will have a space-saver, but even that's a huge improvement on a tube of gunk or nothing at all.
