Omoda 9 SUV

1.5T SHS Noble 5dr 3DHT [2025]

If you’re not familiar with Omoda, the significant influx of Chinese manufacturers into the UK may have passed you by.

Omoda is one of over a dozen companies that have arrived on these shores over the past year or so, hoping to capitalise on the shifting landscape in the automotive industry.

Some manufacturers are brand new; others have a long history of marketing cars in the East. Many have obscure origins, including ones that started out selling video equipment and refrigerator parts. But while this might make you think of tin-pot automakers producing awful cars, these new manufacturers are deadly serious – and many of the vehicles they’re putting on the market are offering real, credible alternatives to the established brands.

As a result of this latest model, Omoda will soon have three cars on sale in the UK – the 5, 7 and now the 9 (although the 5 is also available as a near-identical electric car, called the E5).

They are all SUVs, and the Omoda 9 – a plug-in hybrid – is the largest of these.

However, Omoda is positioning itself as a premium brand car – and that’s a big claim.

After all, however much it might want to be, a car manufacturer cannot simply say "we're up there with Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW" and expect to be taken seriously by the public consciousness. Its place among the luxury brands can only be earned on merit.

So, has Omoda done enough? We have taken one for a test drive to find out.