The Chery Omoda 5 has recently made its way into the limelight once again this week after an owner experienced a broken rear axle. In some ways, it may have affected the image of its electric counterpart, the Omoda E5.
Despite being based on the petrol version, the EV version still has several major differences. Surprise, surprise: one of them is the rear suspension setup.
Omoda E5 has multi-link rear suspension instead of torsion beam
Chery has chosen a different approach for the electric model’s rear suspension. If the petrol-based Omoda 5 carries a torsion beam, the Omoda E5 is equipped with a multi-link rear suspension instead.
If you put them side by side, you can immediately see how different they are:
For one, the trailing arm on the Omoda 5 is straight while the Omoda E5 has a curved metal arm that is mounted to the top part of the car. Chery has likely chosen to implement the multi-link suspension on the electric model due to the footprint of its battery which occupies a much larger space than a fuel tank.
Its weight might be a factor too. Being an EV, the Omoda E5 should be much heavier than its petrol sibling although its actual weight was not listed on Chery Malaysia’s website.
Omoda E5 is more powerful than the petrol counterpart
Other than the rear suspension setup, the Omoda E5 is also slightly more powerful than the Omoda 5.
The electric version comes with a 201hp (150kW) electric motor with 340Nm of torque. As a comparison, the petrol model’s 1.5L turbocharged engine can deliver 156hp (116kW) alongside a maximum torque of 230Nm.
No brake problem on our review unit so far
Before the broken axle incident, the SUV previously went viral for a brake malfunction incident. Fortunately, we haven’t encountered any issues with the brakes of our Omoda E5’s review unit.
At this point, we already have the EV for four days and not only we have driven it around Klang Valley but our SoyaCincau BM’s colleague, Hanif has also made a trip to Kuantan and back with the EV. To be fair though, our review unit is still quite new since it has barely clocked 2,000km of mileage.
Not to forget, the brake setup on the Omoda 5E is also slightly different than the Omoda 5. This is because the Omoda 5E has regenerative braking capability which uses the electric motor to help slow down the car while regaining some energy.
Bring your Omoda 5 for inspection as soon as possible
With two high-profile incidents happening within weeks of each other, we would not be surprised if Omoda 5 owners out there felt nervous about the condition of their cars. Chery Malaysia earlier today released a statement in which the company said that it is currently “reaching out to the affected customers”.
With that, it seems that the company has issued a recall to a small group of customers. Nevertheless, the statement also said any customers can book an appointment at the nearest Chery service centre for inspection.
Hence, we recommend you have your Omoda 5 inspected as soon as you can, even though you feel that your vehicle is in good condition.
