Living with an... Omoda 7
The Omoda 7 is sleek, efficient and good value, but what's it like to live with? We find out!
Words by: Erin Baker
Published on 5 October 2026 | 0 min read
What is it?
- Model: Omoda 7
- Version: Super Hybrid (plug-in hybrid)
- Spec level: Noble
- Options fitted: Larimar green paint (£600)
- Price as tested: £35,605
Who’s testing it?
We like
- Fuel efficiency
We don’t like
- Everything is on the screen, including volume controls
Month 1 – Going the distance: what does the Omoda 7 really cost to run?
Erin says: "Omoda’s tech is so far behind that of Mercedes, Audi, Renault or Peugeot that I don’t even know where to start"
How much has it cost you?
About £350 this month on fuel because I’ve been from Kent to Cornwall and back for a week’s holiday with the boys and a load of holiday stuff, then Kent to Devon and back two days later. Obviously, I left with a full battery but once that was drained, I’m afraid I couldn’t be bothered to find a public charger in Cornwall and just chose to keep filling her up with petrol, thus lugging an empty battery around for a week. In fairness the car doesn’t let it drain totally and uses the petrol engine to put some charge back in it if necessary and keep it at about 20 per cent. It does all that automatically.
Where have you been?
Apart from the two one-off summer trips to the West Country, I’ve been tooling around my local town, and taking the kids to school three days a week, which is a 25-mile drive across country in each direction. It takes 45 minutes, not counting the sheep and cows on the road as we drive over Ashdown Forest. I’ve also done a tip run with a literal shedload of household waste.
What have you been carrying?
The trip down to Cornwall involved one paddleboard, three wetsuits, three suitcases, two bags of games, one bag of shoes, two boxes of booze and four supermarket bags of food. Oh and one 16-year-old son and one 13-year-old son. The trip to the tip involved large terracotta garden plant pots, a broken fan, eight punctured footballs (how do they manage that?), bags of cement mix, old sheets, two dead mice and a load of indescribable stuff from the back of the shed.
Delights?
You can’t argue with 54mpg all the way to Cornwall, or with the electric charge of 50 miles, which just about gets me to school and back every day, meaning that 99 per cent of my normal week’s driving is done on electric power from my house, with no need to use a frighteningly expensive petrol pump. I also really like the mint green paint colour, and the rear styling of this car.
Frustrations?
Why do people praise Chinese cars for their advanced tech? Omoda’s tech is so far behind that of Mercedes, Audi, Renault or Peugeot that I don’t even know where to start. The digital display behind the steering wheel is too small and fiddly and doesn’t prioritise the most useful information for a driver. When Apple CarPlay is on, the steering wheel blocks the right hand icons so you can’t see where to press. Everything is on the screen, with no buttons, even for volume or temp control, so if my son wants to turn the music up or down, he has to swipe the screen downwards to reveal the volume graphic then swipe that, which isn’t sensitive enough. It’s insane: bring back buttons.
This month in a nutshell
It’s a big, cheap, comfy, good-looking, efficient SUV. But the tech is driving me bananas.
