The Chery Omoda 5 has received a subtle facelift that has arguably made the small SUV, well, subtler.
Revealed for markets such as Mexico and Russia, the updated Omoda C5 – as it’s known in many markets, sans Chery badging – features revised front-end styling.
There’s still an exceptionally intricate grille, but Chery says it has a “thinner and more elegant three-dimensional pattern”. It now has body-coloured square elements, ditching the chrome of the outgoing model.
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There are slimmer, longer LED daytime running lights, which align the petrol-powered model more closely with the electric Omoda E5.
Below these sit the headlights, and these are now visually separated from the central air intake of the bumper. This air intake has also grown in size.
The Omoda wordmark appears on a strip of trim between the daytime running lights, as it does on the Omoda E5 in Australia – even though the Chery brand name is used here.
In Australia, the pre-facelift Omoda 5 features red accents on the top-spec EX, which can be found at the bottom of the doors, on the wheels, and on the mirrors. This trim no longer appears on the facelifted model.
The mouldings at the bottom of the doors has been revised, while there’s a new alloy wheel design.
The rear-end is unchanged, as is the cabin. Likewise, the Omoda 5 remains mechanically unchanged.
It continues to be available with a choice of turbocharged 1.5-litre or 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engines, though the latter was recently axed in Australia. That also saw the removal of an all-wheel drive option locally.
The turbo 1.5-litre produces 108kW of power and 210Nm of torque, and is mated with a continuously variable transmission and front-wheel drive.
Last year, Chery delivered 6162 Omoda 5s in Australia, up 14.7 per cent on the year before. That made it more popular than more established small SUV rivals like the Honda HR-V (3350 deliveries), Suzuki Vitara (2934), and Toyota C-HR (2828).
However, it was still outsold by the MG ZS (22,629), Hyundai Kona (17,374), Haval Jolion (14,238), Mazda CX-30 (12,672), Mitsubishi ASX (12,330), Subaru Crosstrek (11,545), Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross (9221), Toyota Corolla Cross (8902), Kia Seltos and Volkswagen T-Cross (7777), and Nissan Qashqai (6560).
And it remains to be seen how much the cheaper, newly launched Tiggo 4 Pro will eat into Omoda 5 sales throughout 2025.
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Outgoing Omoda 5 -
In the first two months of this year, the Tiggo 4 Pro – launched locally late in 2024 – accounted for 2068 deliveries, or just over half of the Chery brand’s overall tally.
The Chinese brand’s second best-seller was the Omoda 5, with 968 deliveries. This was down 2.1 per cent on the same period last year.
Chery returned to Australia in 2023 with the Omoda 5, and has subsequently launched not only the Tiggo 4 Pro but also the larger mid-sized Tiggo 7 Pro and large Tiggo 8 Pro Max SUVs.
MORE: Everything Chery Omoda 5
