On April 28, Geely Auto officially unveiled a new mid-size SUV, the Geely Haoyue (Chinese”豪越”), at the Chinese Spring Auto Car Show sponsored by the China International Trade Development Council. The new car adopts the family-style concept with an overall look that is bright and elegant and comes in both 5 and 7-seater.
What makes Geely Haoyue different is that it’s a vehicle designed with the export market in mind and will satisfy customers outside China who are keener on big, spacious SUVs particularly those within ASEAN countries.
Geely Haoyue is a marvel of automotive engineering and design and keeps up with Geely’s design philosophy starting with the ‘expand the cosmos’ grille. The grille does indeed expand to showcase a beautiful pair of rectangle LED headlights and L-shaped daytime running lights, Geely has commented on the headlights saying they’re ADB matrix LEDs designed to automatically adjust the angle of illumination based on the angle of steering thus leveling off in line with the height of the vehicle.
The main lighting system comes with complementary foglamps that are positioned longitudinally to project a sense of presence. The flanks feature character lines that are well defined, and the quarter panels and fenders are ‘macho’ courtesy of chiseled wheel arches. Haoyue has 190mm ground clearance and sports a panoramic sunroof for a pleasant driving experience. Its exterior dimensions measure 4,835 mm X 1,900 mm X 1,780 mm (Length, Width & Height), with a wheelbase of 2,815 mm, this makes the Haoyue, Geely’s biggest SUV so far. Haoyue is actually comparable in size to Hyundai Santa Fe, Toyota Landcruiser Prado, and the Ford Explorer.
The cockpit is symmetrical with special details such as“∞” style on the air-conditioning vents and a main central infotainment control display which is the size of a tablet, this highlights the technology-first nature of current Geely vehicle offerings. Geely Haoyue makes excellent use of space with up to 69% space efficient according to Geely, a design concept borrowed from the Honda that emphasizes ‘man first, machine second’.
In the Haoyue 7-seater models, the 2nd and 3rd-row seats can be folded down flat, this has the advantage of serving as a double bed and along with the option of a compressor. The flat layout of the seats was achieved by designing the 2nd-row floor of the car to be nonconvex. The Haoyue 5-seater variant has 2,370 liters of cargo space and the 7-seater variant 2,050 liters. We’re informed that the Haoyue can easily carry a refrigerator and LCD TV which makes it attractive to holidaymakers.
On transmission matters, it comes with both 1.8T and 1.5T inline turbocharged engine that can be found in the likes of the Emgrand GL, the engine has a maximum torque of 255N.m and 300 N.m and is rated at 174 and 184 horsepower respectively, this is paired with a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission system, so it’s likely the company is thinking about rolling out both front-wheel drive (FWD) and 4-wheel drive (4WD) versions.
In the Chinese market, Geely Haoyue will be competing against the likes of the Chery Tiggo 8, BYD Tang, GAC Trumpchi GS8, and WEY VV7. Geely’s SUVs are still new in the market but their efforts on style and performance is slowly attracting the attention of customers.
