Taxi Driver Online

Geely reveals GC9


Chinese brand unveils first Horbury-designed model – and it could be sold here


Geely, the giant Chinese car-maker that owns Volvo, has revealed a new luxury sedan that is reportedly based on the S60 and could become the brand's first model to be sold Australia-wide.

Pictured here in the first official images, the large V6-powered GC9 sedan is the first Geely vehicle designed by Peter Horbury, the Englishman who became Geely's chief designer in 2012, two years after its purchase of Volvo from Ford.

Horbury first joined Volvo in 1991 and, following its purchase by Ford in 1999, became head of design at Ford’s Premier Automotive Group, comprising Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin and Volvo.

Horbury rejoined Volvo after a stint as Ford’s North American design director in 2009 – a year before its purchase by Geely -- and has spent the past two years designing Geely vehicles like the GC9.

Few details have been announced for what appears to be one of Geely's new flagship models, but the GC9 will be sold in China under the company's premium Emgrand brand following its public debut at the Guangzhou motor show in late November.

Geely says the GC9's side profile is inspired by jet fighters, supercars and “cheetahs at high speed”, while its interior is said to follow the form of Chinese stone bridges.

Among the claimed highlights are Chinese gown-style seat stitching, dark woodgrain inserts, chrome piping and other silver details, and a high-mounted infotainment screen controlled by a central console-mounted rotary dial.

Other features visible in the dark-lit interior image include ambient lighting, power seats with multiple memory settings, push-button starting, steering wheel audio controls, Bluetooth smartphone connectivity, dual-zone climate control and satellite navigation.

The GC6 – also referred to as the EC6 – has previously been spotted undergoing local engineering tweaks in Australia, where the only Geely model currently available is the 1.5-litre MK light car, in Perth.

West Australian car dealer John Hughes, via his Chinese Automotive Distributors (CAD) import business, holds the Australian rights for Geely, which has long been mooted for release in Australia, which is seen by many Chinese car-makers as a test-bed for higher-volume established western markets.

CAD told motoring.com.au early last year that it planned to release a number of models Australia-wide by as early as August 2013, but at this stage the MK hatchback is the only vehicle to meet Australian Design Rule standards.

Geely models previously expected on sale here were the EC7, a small 1.8-litre Toyota Corolla-size hatch and sedan, followed by the larger EC8 sedan, a prototype of which has long been evaluated at Geely's local R&D base at the company's DSI transmission plant in Albury.

Geely last month also commenced Melbourne trials of a London-style taxi that it hopes could replace the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore in Australian cab fleets once production of those models ceases.

The London Taxi Company has already trialled a small fleet of the Geely-built cabs in Perth, and hopes to start a 100-strong trial fleet in Melbourne before the end of the year.

Its Chinese-built grey cabs – with a look resembling the famous Austin-built FX3 Black Cab of the 1950s that was once a staple of London streets – will be bolstered with stronger cooling systems and better air-conditioning to cope with Australia's harsher weather conditions, but have already been criticised for brake performance.

In other Geely news, the Chinese giant has tasked former Wheels journalist Bob Hall, an American who helped conceive the original MX-5 at Mazda, with creating an all-new mass-market vehicle designed to take western markets including Australia by storm.

“It’s a potential segment buster and, like the Miata [MX-5], is a common-sense vehicle, and maybe that’s the point,” Hall told former Wheels editor and colleague Peter Robinson, who broke the news in recent weeks.

“Unlike the Miata, it’s in a real segment too, with global volumes well in excess of six million cars. I reckon it could take 300,000 sales a year,” said Hall.

Hall is believed to have been hired directly by Horbury to become Geely's new "head of brainstorming" and — mirroring moves by a range of Japanese, Korean and German car-makers — hopes to establish a US design studio to create a range of new models.

http://www.motoring.com.au/news/geely/g ... -gc9-45900

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

It's Great that it looks so different to something Like a Ford Mondeo...the Design guys have worked overtime to pull this one out of the Bag..now, Just which one is the Mondeo again?

cynic

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

and copying the Mondeo is nothing to be ashamed of, if MG had done that maybe sales would be more than the 1000 a year level

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I know which one I'd have, it wouldn't be the Mondeo.