Jaecoo E5 Review & Prices

The Jaecoo E5 is a small electric SUV that’s reasonably priced, reasonably practical and offers reasonable range. It doesn’t really stand out in any one particular area, but that’s actually where its appeal lies, because there’s not much to complain about, either – and would you just look at the price.

It’s a bit like buying a margherita pizza. Sure, there are head-turning pizzas with more glamorous toppings, but you just know the margherita will do the job.

Glance over the rest of the Small Electric SUV Pizzeria’s menu and you’ll find the similarly no frills MG S5 EV, the family favourite Ford Puma Gen-E and the super-trendy Renault 4. And if you’re not ready to go all-electric there’s the petrol-powered Jaecoo 5, which is a bit like shunning pizza and going for pasta instead.

Things don’t get off to a fantastic start for the Jaecoo E5, because it’s just rather bland to look at. The rear quarter has more than a hint of Range Rover Evoque about it, but while the petrol-powered Jaecoo 5’s massive grille somewhat apes the shrunken Range Rover aesthetic, the E5’s blanked off front end looks like the designers forgot to finish it.

Jaecoo E5: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 248 miles
Efficiency: 4.0 miles per kWh
Battery size: 61.1kWh
Max charge speed: 80kW
Charge time AC: 8hrs 10mins (7.4kW)
Charge time DC: 27min (30-80%)
Charge port location: right front
Power outputs: 207hp

It’s a bit better inside, with a simple dashboard and a large portrait-orientated infotainment screen in the centre. It’s really quick to respond to your inputs and pretty easy to navigate, with customisable shortcuts for things you use often. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard-fit too.

Despite the low price it doesn’t feel particularly cheap inside – not posh, either, but well put together with scratchy plastics largely relegated to the lower reaches of the cabin. There can be no complaints about cabin storage and it’s nice and roomy in the front. Rear seat space is good rather than great, but you shouldn’t have too many complaints from those in the back (so long as you don’t try to squeeze three in).

With 480 litres of boot space the Jaecoo E5 should have more than enough luggage capacity for most families, with plenty of under-floor storage too. That’s more capacity than both the MG S5 EV and Renault 4, though the Ford Puma Gen-E’s 556 litres is unbeatable at this price.

The official range figure is 248 miles, which is pretty good – you can go further in alternatives, but you’ll have to pay a bit more for a long-range MG S5 EV or Smart #1. More disappointing is the 80kW DC charging speed – anything below 100kW is pretty poor these days.

On the road the E5 is not quite as sure-footed and grown up as the likes of the Puma Gen-E or a Smart #1, being a touch jittery over rough roads, but for the most part it soaks up bumps nicely and the electric motors are smooth. It settles into a nice cruise on the motorway too, but twisty roads are its undoing, with the body leaning a lot in corners.

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Prices for the Jaecoo E5 start at just over £27,000 for the entry-level Pure trim and over £30,000 for the higher-spec Luxury model. That makes it temptingly cheap – on par with the smaller Renault 4 and a bit cheaper than the MG S5 EV.

However, at the time of writing the government’s electric car grant makes alternatives a bit more tempting, The main beneficiary of the grant is the Ford Puma Gen-E, because it gets the full £3,750 discount, making it even cheaper than the Jaecoo. The Renault, too, gets a smaller discount to drop prices below the E5.

Still, the Jaecoo E5 is good value for money. Standard equipment on Pure models includes the digital instrument display and 13.2-inch infotainment screen with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, as well as all the basic driver assistance features.

Luxury is the one to go for if your budget allows as you get much more assistance kit, including adaptive cruise control and parking cameras. Inside there’s synthetic leather seat upholstery, a Sony sound system, ventilated and heated seats and a panoramic sunroof.

The Jaecoo E5 is perfectly comfortable most of the time, but it’s really disappointing on a twisty road

In town

Busy city streets are where the Jaecoo E5 feels most at home. Because it’s relatively small and has good visibility, it’s really easy to place on the road so you’re not getting nervous in tight spaces. The smooth electric motors naturally work well here, too.

That said, the suspension never really settles on rough roads so the car can feel like it’s always fidgeting about in a way you don’t get with the more comfortable Smart #1.

City-friendly assistance kit is much more generous on the pricier Luxury trim, as you get all-round cameras to help with parking and narrow spaces, as well as a rear-view camera, though you do at least get parking sensors front and rear as standard.

On the motorway

The Jaecoo E5 is competent enough on the motorway, where the suspension settles down a bit making it a comfortable and relatively quiet place to spend time. Again though, if you want the best assistance kit you need to step up from the base model to get adaptive cruise control. If you do a lot of motorway miles you should try to stretch your budget to the Skoda Elroq, which feels a bit bigger and more composed at higher speeds.

On a twisty road

Twisty roads prove the Jaecoo E5’s undoing, so if you’re looking for something that encourages you to take the scenic route home from the school run then you’ll want the Ford Puma Gen-E. It’s fine if you’re taking things steady, with the suspension dealing fairly well with large undulations in the road, but as soon as you start to pick up the pace the body leans too much and the vague steering makes it tricky to place accurately and confidently in your lane.

Loads of storage and a good-sized boot, but rear seat space isn’t amazing

Those in the front of the Jaecoo E5 have the most space, and there’s decent enough adjustability in the steering wheel and seat to get comfortable. However, the seat is quite high even in its lowest setting. That’s good for visibility, but taller drivers might find this feels awkward – at six feet tall I felt like I was sitting on top of the car rather than in it.

Cabin storage is excellent, with about 35 individual places to store things across the car. In the front that means you get big door bins, two cup holders, a useful area under the centre console and even a tricky-to-access hidden area behind the screen. The glovebox isn’t particularly big though, and has an annoying damped action that makes it open really slowly.

Space in the back seats

Rear seat space is adequate but not as roomy as the MG S5 EV, and the floor is a bit high so you don’t get great under-thigh support. You shouldn’t get too many complaints from those in the back though, unless you try to squeeze three across the rear bench. The person in the middle also gets a hard, raised seat that’s not going to be particularly comfortable for longer journeys.

There’s enough space for a bulky child seat inside but accessing the rear isn’t the easiest thanks to the narrow door opening. If you regularly swap a seat between cars that could get annoying.

The door bins are big enough for small bottles, and you get pockets in the seats ahead of you. A single old school USB-A slot is a bit stingy, though.

Boot space

With 480 litres of boot space, the Jaecoo E5 has more luggage capacity than most alternatives. That’s more room than you get in the MG S5 EV (453 litres) and Renault 4 (420 litres), and way more than the Smart #1 (273 litres) and Jeep Avenger Electric (355 litres). If you need maximum space though, the Ford Puma Gen-E makes them all look tiny with 556 litres of space in the boot.

The bumper is a bit high but it’s not too bad for lifting heavy items in, because the floor lines up with the bumper. If you want a bit more space you can lower the boot floor, which is a neat feature. There is a lot of space beneath the boot but there’s no lining, so you’re just placing items on metal and they’ll roll around when you’re driving.

Folding the rear seats is easy enough via a latch by the headrest, and doing so creates a flat floor that makes it easy to push large items in.

Cheap in places but the cabin feels quality overall, and the infotainment is quick

The interior has a simple, inoffensive design, with a slim upright dashboard section for the vents and no unnecessary swoops and swishes – it’s all very much function over form.

There are cheap materials to be found, such as lower on the centre console and the door bins, but everything you touch regularly is more than good enough for the price. There are soft fabrics on the arm rests, colour-contrasted stitching and big comfy seats.

The main attraction is the portrait-oriented infotainment touchscreen. At 13.2 inches it’s big without being too intrusive and sits nicely nestled in your peripheral vision. It’s actually a refreshing change from the widescreen TVs plonked atop the dashboard in most modern cars.

It’s impressively quick and responsive to your inputs, and the software is fairly intuitive to navigate. There are useful shortcuts that you access by swiping down from the top of the screen, and you can change them to functions you use regularly to save time. The graphics feel a bit like an off-the-shelf Android tablet, though.

Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are fitted as standard and work seamlessly. However, it would be nice to have permanent shortcuts to get in and out of the phone mirroring as you get with most modern systems. It’s currently a bit of a faff if you need to get back to the Jaecoo menus to adjust something.

Similarly the lack of physical climate controls is annoying, because you have to swipe up on the screen to display the temperature and make adjustments.

Pet owners might be enticed by the scratch- and wear-resistant upholstery and the multiple pet accessories you can get from Jaecoo dealers. There’s also a pet mode that keeps the car interior cool. Another neat feature is the ‘camping mode’, which lets you play music outside the car.

Whichever trim you go for, the Jaecoo E5 comes with a 61.1kWh battery providing an official range of up to 248 miles. During our testing in the Kent countryside we saw efficiency of 3.7 miles per kWh, which would give you about 225 miles of range. That’s about 90% of the claimed figure, which is better than most cars, which typically manage 80%.

Although this puts the E5 in the ballpark of alternatives, none of them will go further on a charge without you paying more than you would for the Jaecoo. The closest is the MG S5 EV, which can go up to 298 miles for just over £31k, so it’s worth a look if you’re shopping for a Luxury-spec E5 and can stretch your budget a little further.

More disappointing is the fast charging speed, which isn’t very fast at all. At just 80kW it lags well behind most modern electric cars, which means it’s not ideal if you do a lot of miles and will need to use public chargers often.

Being an electric car means you’ll pay the lowest first year road tax rate and it is in the lowest Benefit-in-Kind rate for company car drivers, too.

The Jaecoo E5 has not been put through Euro NCAP safety testing yet, though the larger Jaecoo 7 scored the full five stars.

All the basic assistance kit comes as standard, such as collision warning and avoidance tech, as well as lane-departure warning and emergency braking. Luxury models get all the good stuff like adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection and surround-view cameras.

Jaecoo is so new to the UK that it’s impossible to get a good idea of how reliable its models are. Reassuring, though, is the excellent warranty – at seven years/100,000 miles it’s up there with the best in the business.