MW Americans would love this $25,000 hybrid SUV - but it's not available here yet
By Venessa Wong
Chinese vehicles may not be for sale in the U.S. yet, but they're already getting positive reviews. 'Other automakers should be paying attention,' said a vehicle-test editor at Edmunds.
"It looks and feels genuinely premium both inside and out, and a smooth ride and peppy powertrain make it nice to drive too," a senior vehicle-test editor at Edmunds said about the Geely Galaxy M9.
Not only are Chinese cars "ready for prime time in America," but "U.S. car shoppers really are missing out," according to testers at the car-buying site Edmunds.
A new Edmunds review of the Geely (HK:175) $(GELHY)$ Galaxy M9 said the Chinese automaker's $25,000 three-row plug-in hybrid is an "incredibly competitive SUV," with 130 miles of all-electric range and "abundant" comfort features - such as heated, ventilated massaging seats and a refrigerator in the back.
"You could sell the Geely here today as it is, and it would be competitive" based on performance and features, Reese Counts, senior vehicle-test editor at Edmunds, told MarketWatch. While the Edmunds test team didn't rate the Geely Galaxy M9 "because there are a few too many unknowns to give the vehicle an official Edmunds rating," they made it clear that "other automakers should be paying attention."
In a statement, Alistair Weaver, Edmunds's editor in chief, called the Geely Galaxy M9 "a wake-up call for the automotive industry."
Chinese vehicles are not yet available in the U.S. But in January, Geely - which also owns Volvo (SE:VOLCAR.B) $(VLVCY)$ - displayed several models at the CES consumer-tech trade show and hinted that it is looking at entering the U.S. market in the next two to three years.
Early reviews suggest Geely cars could be a hit with American consumers as the quality and special features are on par with electric vehicles available in the U.S., if not better.
"Trips to China have made me grumpy and given me a bad attitude toward American-market EVs," wrote Kevin Williams at InsideEVs.
"Panel gaps, fit and finish, materials, acceleration, steering, and braking were like just about any car sold here now. Some of them were more luxurious," wrote Mark Vaughn at Autoweek.
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Geely's cars are available in 88 countries, including Australia and European markets like the U.K., Italy and Poland. Yet in the U.S., a 100% tariff on Chinese cars since 2024, as well as a 2025 ban on Chinese vehicle software and hardware, have so far excluded them from the domestic market. Last week, three Democratic U.S. senators asked President Trump to ban Chinese companies from building and selling cars in the U.S.
Among Chinese automakers, Geely may be the most well positioned to break into the U.S. market. "Geely has an advantage that no other Chinese automaker has, in the form of an assembly plant in South Carolina" that can help it skirt tariffs, Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, told MarketWatch. The Charleston plant is operated by Volvo, which is controlled by Geely, and currently produces Volvo and Polestar models. Re-engineering Geely vehicles to eliminate Chinese software and hardware "will be difficult, but not impossible," Fiorani said.
American drivers have been struggling with high prices for automobiles since the pandemic. The average sale price for new cars in February was $48,766, according to Edmunds data, while used cars now cost $25,658 on average. Americans may also be looking more closely at EVs as gas prices have climbed since the start of the Iran war.
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Unfortunately for car buyers, a domestically produced Geely SUV would almost certainly no longer cost $25,000. Geely did not immediately respond to an inquiry from MarketWatch, but Fiorani estimated that "pricing for the Galaxy M9 in the U.S. would likely start around $40,000 to make it competitive with currently popular three-row crossovers from Ford, Hyundai, Kia and Toyota."
Still, the Galaxy M9 "is not a car that impresses on price alone," Edmunds's Weaver said.
"It looks and feels genuinely premium both inside and out, and a smooth ride and peppy powertrain make it nice to drive too," Edmunds's Counts told MarketWatch. "There's not really any area where the Geely feels cut-rate or behind the times. On the contrary, automakers should be taking a good, long look at the new vehicles coming from China so they don't fall behind."
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-Venessa Wong
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April 08, 2026 11:26 ET (15:26 GMT)
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