A €19,990 electric car doesn’t sound quite as unusual as it did a few years ago. What makes the Geely E2 more interesting is that a German jury has just picked it as the best-value new car across 109 different models.
Not 109 small EVs. 109 new cars.
The E2 has won the German Car of the Year Value Award 2027, following a secret vote involving almost 50 automotive journalists and experts. Geely is understandably making plenty of noise about that result as it continues expanding across Europe.
The price helps explain the decision.
In Germany, the E2 starts at €19,990, putting it into territory where buyers traditionally expected a petrol-powered city car rather than a five-seat EV. The entry-level Pro uses a 35.35-kWh battery and a 60-kW motor, producing 82 hp and a quoted range of 252 km.
Those aren’t spectacular numbers. They don’t really need to be.
At 4,135 mm long, the E2 is a B-segment hatchback rather than a motorway-focused luxury EV. There are five seats, 375 liters of luggage space behind them and 1,320 liters once the rear seats are folded. Geely has also found room for a 70-liter frunk, plus another 28 liters beneath the cargo floor.
For something costing under €20,000, that’s useful packaging.
Safety is another area where cheap cars can expose where the money disappeared, but the E2 has already received five stars under the tougher 2026 Euro NCAP protocol. Equipment includes seven airbags and a range of driver-assistance systems.
The bigger story is what cars like this are doing to Europe’s entry-level EV market.
For years, going electric often meant spending considerably more than you would on an equivalent petrol hatchback and then explaining the difference as an investment in lower running costs. A sub-€20,000 starting price makes that conversation rather shorter.
Geely isn’t arriving without scale either. The company says the E2 was already the world’s best-selling vehicle in the A/B segment in 2025, with 465,775 units sold according to the IHS figure cited by the manufacturer.
European buyers won’t automatically care how many were sold elsewhere, of course. They’ll care about price, range, warranty, dealers and whether the car feels cheap once they’re sitting inside it.
That’s the test Geely still has to pass. But €19,990, five Euro NCAP stars and enough luggage space for an ordinary family is a pretty decent place to start.
The E2 doesn’t need to make electric cars exciting. At this price, making one ordinary might be the bigger achievement.
