Geely Vice President Frank Zhao gave an exciting opening speech at the Automotive News China Conference in Beijing Thursday evening providing a wealth of inside information about Geely’s strategies to continue their stellar growth. According to Mr. Zhao Geely intends to “bring Chinese culture into auto Culture” which appears to translate into a desire to do things China BIG.
Mr. Zhao revealed Geely’s plans to triple engineering staff by the end of 2010 and build a new twenty story R&D center in Hangzhou where they will design award winning Geely products. With this giant engineering powerhouse Geely plans to design five core technology platforms from which they will build 15 production platforms and new 42 models by the end of 2015.
Mr. Zhao also unveiled the new models Geely will exhibit at the Beijing Auto Show next week:
Panda Subcompact
Panda Electrical Car
King Kong HRV
China Dragon
Vision Wagon
FC-2 Hatchback
FC-3 Sedan
GC-1 Luxury Sedan
NL-1 SUV
HL-1 MPV
HL-2 MPV with suicide doors
CE Subcompact
Geely GF Formula Race Car
Geely GT
See artist concept drawings below:
That Geely GF Formula (!?) race car is intriguing. Are they actually going to do the R&D necessary to produce such an engine? I’m impressed if that’s the case..
The GF is interesting, however if they did make such a beast it would probably be just a case of contracting the design out or buying up a struggling team.
The Subcompact, Vision Wagon and FC2 look like winners to me. The new Mybao still looks terrible!
Wow, wow, wow……….there was a time that I was about ready to give up on Geely (like most of last year). Their cars were dated designs and it seemed as though there was nothing new being developed. What a difference a year makes – Geely could well have some of the ‘coolest’ new cars at the Beijing show this year!! I like the new CE in particular – if it’s produced it could be the best looking small car on the (chinese) market – and WITHOUT COPYING ANY OTHER EXISTING CARS. That’s a major statement in itself – NONE of these new cars are COPIES of anything. Yes, the Panda pays some tribute to the Aygo…..but it’s NOT a clone. Keep up the great work, Geely……I’m looking forward to seeing some of these new cars in the showroom soon!!
Geely seems to be getting a lot of stick off the ‘premier automotive blogs’ for creating an F1 style car, obviously those who crack the ‘lead paint’ jokes dont realize its not an F1 car at all, but rather a Formula Geely car:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRVpq3ydfyY
Don’t spread yourself too thin Geely….and avoid the grandiose. Just focus on getting the quality right. Otherwise they’ll come back to haunt you, especially from sophisticated markets overseas.
Hello all, I’m the director of operations for the Montreal International Auto Show in Canada. We would like to introduce a Chinese Manufacturer to our Canadian visitors at our next auto show in 2009. Can anyone help me get in contact with any of the manufacturers? Or do any of you know a better way to try and contact them? I’ve tried numerous emails through their websites but they keep bouncing back. Thanks for all your help