Until not so many years ago, China was a laughing stock of the automotive market. Foreign companies used to keep very old cars in production there (such as Volkswagen Santana), some of the native created blatant copies of some of those ones’ latest models (e.g. Lifan 320), and their legitimate creations used to look like Chery Riich II. But things started to change. The plagiarism is now restricted to smaller companies, since the bigger ones have decided to expand their operations by going abroad. Geely, for instance, is using the acquisition of Volvo in order to learn how to satisfy Western customers better. It has released other European-inspired vehicles before, such as SC7, but GC9 is the first one conceived with the help of Peter Horbury, who used to work for the Swedish company.
Since this vehicle is intended to mark the beginning of a new moment, Geely didn’t made risky moves. GC9 features a very elegant four-door-coupé silhouette, whose 4.96-m overall length and 2.88-m wheelbase suggest it’ll compete with names such as Audi A5 Sportback and BMW 4-Series Gran Coupé. The front fascia takes the entire attention to the main grille, whose chrome lines are shaped as “ripples” started at the company logo… and that’s pretty much the only strike of creativity applied to GC9. Everything else, from the rectangular headlights to the sporty-ish rear end, seems to follow a recipe of what could be defined as the “average” four-door coupé. Which, in turn, doesn’t mean at all that it looks bad.
If the exterior already gave you a nice impression, the interior will render you speechless. Geely followed Volvo’s way of designing cars even more at this part, which resulted in a modern and fashionable cabin which still manages to be discreet. Instead of flaunting several leather colors, chrome inserts or parts made of wood or carbon fiber, GC9 is much more concerned with details – such as the ambient lighting made in orange you see at the images. This vehicle was released during the last Guangzhou Auto Show, but there’s not much official information remaining to be told: engine options will be a turbocharged 1.8L, a naturally-aspirated 2.4L and a 3.5L V6, paired to a six-speed automatic transmission. Safety equipments, in turn, are expected to bring five starts at C-NCAP crash tests.