Name: Omoda 9 review 2026 | New car reviews | The Car Expert
Item: Omoda 9 SHS
Rating: 6.6

Make and model: Omoda 9
Description: Mid-large plug-in hybrid SUV
Price range: from £44,990

We say: The Omoda 9 offers more than 50 miles of real-world electric range and generous equipment, but everyday refinement and seat comfort fall short of the best in class.

Omoda 9 review 2026 | The Car Expert

Introduction

The Omoda 9 arrived in the UK making quite a bold promise. It offered generous equipment, useful electric range and a competitive price in a crowded family SUV market. It certainly made an impression early on – and it went on to win our Best Family Plug-in Hybrid 2026 award.

But awards are one thing. Living with a car for a full week is something else entirely. Once the launch gloss fades and it becomes your everyday transport, does it still feel convincing?

For a broader ownership picture, see our full Omoda 9 Expert Rating.

More Omoda news, reviews, features and Expert Ratings

Price and equipment

There’s only one version of the Omoda 9 in the UK, which immediately makes life simpler. No complicated trim ladders, no endless option packs. What you see is what you get.

And what you get is a lot. Heated and ventilated seats, big screens, driver assistance tech, a panoramic roof – features that are often optional on European rivals are included here as standard. On paper, that makes the Omoda 9 look like strong value.

But value isn’t just about how long the equipment list is. It’s about whether all those features work well together and feel properly integrated into the car. That’s where the story becomes more nuanced.

Inside the car

At first glance, the Omoda 9 makes a positive impression. The dashboard looks clean and modern, and the twin screens give it the digital feel buyers now expect in this class. It certainly doesn’t feel sparse.

After a few days, though, some cracks begin to show. The touchscreen looks sharp, but the fonts are too small. You find yourself glancing away from the road for longer than you’d like just to confirm what you’re pressing. That might not sound dramatic, but over a week it becomes irritating. This isn’t a problem unique to Omoda, but it’s noticeable here because the screens are plenty big enough to manage this better.

The front seats are more of an issue. They’re firm and quite flat, with a narrow base that makes you feel as though you’re perched on top rather than settled into them. Around town, it’s fine. After an hour or two, you start shifting around trying to get more comfortable. Rear passengers get decent space for the class, and a flatter bench means that rear-seat passengers are probably happier than their front-seat counterparts.

Boot space, on the other hand, is perfectly competitive. The loading lip is a little high, but that’s normal for this kind of SUV rather than a specific flaw.

Driving range and charging

As a plug-in hybrid, the Omoda 9 stands or falls on how useful its electric range is in the real world.

In normal mixed driving, covering more than 50 miles on electric power alone was straightforward. For many households, that’s enough to handle daily commuting without using petrol at all, provided you can charge at home or at work.

Once the battery was depleted, fuel economy settled at around 45mpg during a week of mainly country-road driving. That’s perfectly respectable for a car of this size and power, even if it’s not class-leading. The battery never truly runs out of energy, so you’ll still have full power available if you need it, but you don’t benefit from electric-only running until the battery has recharged to a sufficient level.

The charging port sits on the rear quarter panel, which makes life easy whether you reverse into a space or park nose-first. We didn’t use public fast charging during this test, but most owners will rely on home charging for day-to-day use anyway.

Overall, the plug-in system works well and delivers genuinely usable electric mileage. That remains one of the Omoda 9’s strongest selling points.

On the road

The Omoda 9 is easy to drive and generally relaxed in everyday use. Around town, running on electric power, it feels smooth and quiet. The transition between electric and petrol power is handled neatly enough that you don’t really think about it.

On smoother roads, the ride is comfortable and composed. It deals with gentle undulations well and feels settled at normal speeds. But on rougher surfaces, it can feel a bit unsettled and there’s noticeable lean through corners. It’s not uncomfortable, but it never quite feels tied down either.

Motorway refinement is decent rather than impressive. The petrol engine is reasonably subdued when it’s working, but tyre noise becomes more noticeable at higher speeds. Over longer journeys, the overall impression is of competence rather than polish.

One area that grated over a full week was the driver assistance systems. The warnings felt overly eager and triggered more often than in many established European alternatives. During a short launch drive, that’s mildly irritating. Over several days, it becomes very frustrating. As with most new cars, you can disable the systems quickly, but you have to remember to do it every single time you start the car. Blame the EU, as it’s their regulation.

The overriding impression was that the longer we lived with the Omoda 9, the less impressive it felt. Nothing is fundamentally wrong and it ticks lots of boxes. It simply lacks the final layer of refinement that makes a car feel properly cohesive.

Verdict

On paper, the Omoda 9 makes a persuasive case. It’s generously equipped, offers genuinely useful electric range and comes with a seven-year warranty for added reassurance. In a segment where plug-in hybrids can become expensive very quickly, that matters.

Spend a week with it, though, and some compromises emerge. The seats could be more comfortable, the touchscreen needs larger fonts, refinement is good rather than excellent, and the driver assistance systems can feel over-sensitive.

None of this makes it a bad car. It’s competent, sensibly priced and well-equipped. But it doesn’t quite feel as settled or polished as some established – and admittedly more expensive – rivals.

If your priority is equipment and electric range for the money, the Omoda 9 deserves a place on your shortlist. If long-distance comfort and overall refinement matter more, it’s worth comparing carefully before deciding.

For a broader ownership picture, including safety, running costs and reliability data, see our full Omoda 9 Expert Rating.

We like:

More than 50 miles of real-world electric range
Competitive pricing and generous equipment
Good boot space
Smooth electric driving in town
Simple single-spec buying process

We don’t like:

Front seats lack long-distance comfort
Touchscreen fonts too small to use easily
Driver assistance warnings overly intrusive
Ride unsettled on rough roads
Refinement only average at motorway speeds

Key specifications

Model tested: Omoda 9 SHS
Price: £44,990
Engine: 1.5-litre petrol engine + electric motor, all-wheel drive
Gearbox: Three-speed hybrid automatic

Power: 449 hp
Torque: 765 Nm
Top speed: 124 mph
0-60 mph: 4.9 seconds

Battery range: 93 miles
CO₂ emissions: 38 g/km
Euro NCAP safety rating: Five stars (July 2025)
TCE Expert Rating: A (70%) as of February 2026