What you see here are Geely Auto’s first few teasers of its first coupe SUV, codenamed FY11. There’s quite a lot to see – the European-styling is modern and sporty, thankfully with a sensibly-sized front grille as opposed to an oversized one. The design sports a sharp crease line on the bonnet that goes all the way to the A-pillar base.
A few elements were first seen on the Bo Rui GE sedan (that bonnet crease is one too), including the rear lights which in turn was inspired by the Chinese fan. Speaking of lights, design of the Daytime Running Lights are brand new and called the ‘digital arrow’.
But it’s the car’s profile that show this coupe SUV best. You’ll notice that it looks rather familiar: think BMW X4/Mercedes GLC shape and you’re not at all wrong. Design work was done in Geely Design Shanghai that is one of five global design studios quarterbacked by Peter Horbury.
What makes the FY11 exciting is not just because of how it looks – what you’re looking at is the first Geely model to incorporate the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform which was developed together by Volvo and Geely at the China-Euro Vehicle Technology Centre in Gothenburg, Sweden. It’s a very new platform and so far has only been used by Lynk & Co and by a single Volvo model –the XC40, Top Gear’s Sensible SUV of the Year.
Now that you know that, we can all imagine the size of the FY11. Some readers will then ask whether this will be introduced in Malaysia as a Proton, to which we will say that it’s still too far away. But a sporty-looking coupe SUV priced well below an X4 would surely have the product people in Proton nodding with hope.
