A sales plunge at home in the second half of 2019 was a shock to Geely and its namesake brand. Efforts have since been redoubled to fight off not just Haval, Changan and Wuling but even the big foreign marques are in Geely’s cross hairs. Lots of new models are on the way so Nissan, Honda and Toyota need to watch their backs again.
[This feature was originally published on 2 June. Earlier on 5 June, Geely Automobile Holding announced that the the total sales volume of the Group (including the sales volume of Lynk & Co-branded vehicles sold by the Group’s 50%-owned joint venture) for the month of May 2020 was 108,822 units].Geely
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The newest model in the Geely line-up is called Hao Yue (or Haoyue), the home market sales launch of this 4,835 mm long five/seven-seat SUV taking place at the end of April.
A spokesman for Geely told just-auto.com in May, “The Hao Yue will be an entry level SUV to replace the Vision range of SUVs”. The vehicle’s internal code is VF12. The life cycle should be 6-7 years with a restyle in 2023.
While there had been strong rumours that it would be called ‘Bin Jie’ (or Binjie), the model name of a 4,350 mm long crossover was announced in November 2019. Looking a lot like the Concept Icon which premiered at the 2018 Beijing motor show, the Icon was revealed at the Guangzhou motor show in November 2019. Chinese market sales commenced in February. The architecture is BMA, the model code SX12 and the life cycle should be seven years.
Demand for the Icon from dealers has been encouraging, wholesale deliveries reaching 6,089 for February-March-April, of which 2,702 were happened in the most recent of those months. Data for May is yet to announced.
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By GlobalDataOne of the issues which the company is clearly well aware of is the age of many of its models. There is also a vast line-up in the home market, and Geely could well afford to cull quite a few of them. The Bo Yue shouldn’t be on that list though, as it ended April as the best seller. The tally was 47,492, securing this SUV 25th place in the sales chart but a true picture will probably take until the end of June to emerge as the country’s economic recovery from COVID-19 gets onto (hopefully) firmer footing.
The Bo Yue was given a facelift in July 2019, which was 28 months after the original launch. It is built at Chunxiao (Ningbo) and Baoji and also assembled in Belarus. The model name in most CIS countries is Atlas or Atlas NL3.
Last year’s update was in fact the vehicle’s second exterior restyle. The first one had its motor show premiere in Beijing in April 2018. Six months later, Geely began exporting the Bo Yue to Malaysia badged as the Proton X70, ahead of it being locally assembled. The next generation Bo Yue is due in 2022. It should ditch the current platform for the more advanced CMA.
The Vision X6 is around the same size as the Bo Yue but much newer, having arrived only six months ago. The second generation of this SUV is 46 mm longer (4,546 mm) and has the same 1,834 mm width and 2,661 mm wheelbase as its predecessor. The 1.4-litre turbo engine produces 104 kW. A PHEV option will likely be added in 2021 ahead of a range facelift in 2022. Generation Three is pencilled in for 2025 but might instead arrive in 2024.
The GS and GL series is now past the mid-life part of what should be a six-seven year production cycle. The first of the pair is a 4.4 m long hatchback/SUV mash-up (i.e. a crossover) in the style of the Volvo V40 Cross Country, while the GL (also known as Emgrand GL) is the sedan version. The latter went on sale in China in September 2016, which was four months after GS.
A facelifted GS range was announced in June last year and there is also an EV: the Emgrand GSe. The GL will instead gain a PHEV variant later in 2020, this car having been exhibited as a prototype at the Shanghai motor show in 2019.
Ji He (Geometry)
Right now there’s just the one model for this division, a 4,736 mm long electric car called A. It was the first model for the Geely New Energy sub-brand and as such also the first to carry a special silver badge adapted from the usual Geely badge, the official name of which is ‘Quantum Silver Shield’. The Ji He or Jihe brand name translates as Geometry.
Available in China since mid-2019, the A is powered by a single 120 kW and 250 Nm motor. The lithium-ion 51.9 kWh and 61.9 kWh battery packs are supplied by CATL and buyers have the option of variants with claimed ranges of 410 km and 500 km.
In April 2019, Geely told the media that Geometry would have 10 pure electric models in multiple segments including sedans, SUVs, crossovers, and MPVs by 2025. Details of some of these, such as the imminent C, can be found in PLDB.
Maple
Geely has recently revived the Maple name, reinventing it as brand for EVs which are positioned below Geometry. SMA (Shanghai Maple Automobiles) and Huapu (‘Maple’) branded small cars were produced in Shanghai from the start of the 2000s. Geely bought the company in 2003. The M203 was the only Maple model being produced when the brand was would up in 2011.
Strictly speaking, the new division is separate and has been created by Fengsheng Automotive Technology Group Company Limited. This firm is jointly controlled by the micro-SUV specialist Zhejiang Kandi Vehicle Company Limited and Geely Technology Group.
Released for sale in April, the first vehicle for the reinvention of Maple is the Kandi GLEagle EX3 with lightly altered looks. The 30X will be joined by as many as seven additional models between mid-2020 and the end of 2023, its maker claims.
The ‘Jia Ji EV‘ (not its official name) should come next. Although prototypes look very similar to the petrol-powered Geely Jiaji/Jia Ji original, Maple’s MPV/minivan will be electric. As pricing will be low, it is thought that the range will be fairly limited and the top speed too.
Reports for many other manufacturers’ future models are grouped in the OEM product strategy summaries section of just-auto.com.
Future platform intelligence
More detail on past, current and forthcoming models can be found in PLDB, the future vehicles database which is part of GlobalData’s Automotive Intelligence Center.
This is the first in a series of reports which look at the passenger vehicle divisions of Geely Holding. Next comes Lynk & Co, to be followed by Proton, Lotus, Volvo and Polestar.
Geely becomes Chinese market’s No.1 brand in February
