Chery Omoda 5 safety concerns addressed

Chery has moved to address concerns around several key driver safety aids of the first model it has sold in Australia since 2015, the 2023 Chery Omoda 5, ahead of the all-new compact SUV’s official release later this month.

Highly sensitive and intrusive driver safety aids in the first batch of Omoda 5 press test vehicles caused concern for several media outlets including carsales – as we reported here, following our first drive of the new Omoda 5 – leading Chery to re-assess and recalibrate certain safety features in the all-new Chinese-made small SUV.

Specifically, the lane keeping and speed limit warning systems in the Omoda 5 vehicle we drove were far too sensitive – and the traffic sign recognition system was often incorrect, indicating a 40km/h speed limit on roads where the posted limit was actually 60 or 80km/h – making for overly invasive audible and visual warnings that significantly impacted our driving experience.

Chery Australia would not say what action, if any, it would undertake to rectify the issues, or whether any changes would be made to either press vehicles driven by journalists or customer cars delivered to owners.

“Chery is constantly assessing the performance of our vehicles. This includes and is not limited to our ADAS [advanced driver assistance system] function,” Chery told carsales in statement.

However, a Sydney-based Chery technician test was recently seen driving an Omoda 5 press car out of a vehicle-holding facility in Melbourne, and a several subsequent Chery Omoda 5 press car bookings have now been cancelled or postponed in order to “recalibrate” software systems, said Chery.

All versions of the Chery Omoda 5, which has been awarded a maximum five-star Euro NCAP safety rating, come standard with a generous list of driver assistance aids including autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane assist, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, rear-cross traffic alert with rear AEB, blind spot monitoring, tyre pressure monitoring and speed sign recognition.

Priced from a competitive $29,900 plus on-road costs, the Chery Omoda 5 is on sale now ahead of its official release in late March.

Chery says that despite the hiccup and more pre-orders than it expected pre-launch, it is confident there will be enough stock to meet demand.

“We have had more demand for our initial stock than anticipated,” said a Chery spokesperson.

“We are confident we can meet the demand of our valued customers and dealers.”

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