20 April 2015, Shanghai, China. Geely Auto unveiled the EMGRAND CONCEPT at the Shanghai Auto Show earlier today. The new sports sedan represents a new level of the Emgrand story and the further development of the Geely design language.
Since its inception in 2009, the GEELY EMGRAND has become a Chinese automotive legend, a vehicle series that could compete and succeed against global brands in markets across the world. The EMGRAND series has achieved over 700,000 sales in the Chinese market alone and many thousands of others across global markets,and has become the best selling Chinese passenger vehicle to date, regularly selling over 25,000 units per month.
The EMGRAND CONCEPT is an all-new design developed by Geely Design, the fast-growing design operation with four major design studios across three continents, and an international design team of nearly 300 people. Geely Design is overseen by Design Director Peter Horbury, an automotive design veteran with over 40 years of experience.
The first vehicle from this team, the KC Concept shown in 2013, matured into the Geely GC9, which launched to strong media fanfare in April 2015. Following the Emgrand Cross Concept shown in Beijing, and the newly launched GC9, the new generation of Geely Design continues with the Emgrand Concept. Its solid stance and elegant proportions make the most confident statement of the brand yet. The Emgrand Concept demonstrates the evolution of the Geely brand values: Dynamic, Refined, Confident and Inspiring.
The designers of the Emgrand Concept have drawn on Chinese visual culture for inspiration, bringing a taste of local character into a considered and confident design.
The exterior features clean sweeping surfaces contrasted with sharp chiseled features such as the deep body side groove, distinctive lamps, and cutting edge blades of the front fenders. At the front the grille and headlamps appear to float within the surrounding forms, creating a unique character through shifted lines and interlocking surfaces.
The body side shoulder line moves up over the front wheel in a distinctive dynamic feature, still inspired by the large cat in motion as first seen on the GC9 car, but here applied in a strong sports toned-muscle way, and embracing the front wheel drive set up of the car. The high-contrast ‘liquid metal’ silver body color is complemented with satin chrome trim elements and give a high quality impression.
The interior also draws on Chinese architectural details and traditional patterns for inspiration, bringing a taste of local character into a dynamic and confident design.
The panoramic, horizontal instrument panel echoes traditional Chinese stone bridge forms as previously featured in the KC Concept. The advanced full-width touch-screen interface adds a feeling of ‘technical luxury’, bringing a new richness, freshness and customization to what would be the traditional décorpanel. The high-set, longitudinal center console gives a luxury sports proportion and feel with different mode sets from ‘eco’ to ‘city’ and ‘sport’,which are realized through the changing of environment displayed on the ‘live’ décor panel.
The stepping forms found on the door panel, center console and exterior were inspired by the Shanghai skyline whilst bold speaker designs, high quality jewelry details and subtle surface patterns reference form treatment and decoration often found in traditional Chinese architecture. Special details include the door panel structure holding the storage insert as if cradling a precious bowl, whilst sophisticated fabrics with rich structures contrast the flowing black chrome console and seat lowers. The overall effect is that the subdued colors of the interior allow the futuristic interface to define the interior ambience.