The Geely EX2’s 5-star ANCAP score shows small Chinese EVs can be safe too
It seems that China’s best-selling car of 2025 has yet another accolade to add to its resume, as the Geely EX2 has now earned a five-star safety rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) under its new safety evaluation standards. This goes against the prejudice that small Chinese EVs are considered to be unsafe, especially given how well this car fared.
The new criteria judge cars based on four aspects: Safe Driving, which takes safety systems like occupant monitoring, driver monitoring, and the vehicle controls, and driver assistance systems like adaptive cruise control into account. Crash Avoidance judges the automatic emergency braking and lane departure performance; Crash Protection is your usual crash testing that sees how rigid and safe the chassis is; and Post Crash shows how easy it is to recover occupants in various scenarios, including automatic SOS calling.
The EX2 scored 79% in safe driving, with its adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition, and driver monitoring system being strong points. However, the vehicle’s reliance on touch controls, the seatbelt detection not being able to detect passengers out of position, and the inability of the adaptive cruise control to adapt to various road conditions docked some points.
As for crash avoidance, it scored 72%. The advanced driver assistance systems worked well, including the lane departure system and automatic emergency braking; however, low-speed collisions are a weak point, with no intervention during pedal misapplications, alongside not being able to detect a stationary pedestrian when reversing.
The EX2’s crash protection scored 86%, with the EX2’s strengths coming in its various airbags, ISOFIX anchorages, side impact protection, and front collisions. However, there’s a higher risk of leg injury and pedal intrusion within the cabin, alongside the seatbelt partially slipping from a 10-year-old child dummy in the rear during an impact.
Finally, the EX2’s best score comes in the post-crash response, with 95%. There are vehicle rescue sheets and emergency response guides available, multi-collision braking and hazard light activation during impacts, effective battery voltage isolation and post-crash fire risk management, all seatbelt buckles and door/tailgate handles remained operable even without 12V power; and the windows remained functional when the car was submerged for the minimum time period.
However, it didn’t score a perfect score, as it doesn’t have emergency calling yet, but the hardware is present, and Geely says it will be activated by September 2027 across all EX2 vehicles. With a rating like this, it shows that Geely’s expertise, which was incorporated from the various brands it purchased (like Volvo) does trickle down to even its most affordable vehicles. Does this make you feel more reassured with your purchase of a Geely EX2, or does it make you want to get one?
Photos from Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP)
