Geely was among a throng of Chinese carmakers showing off a plug-in electric city car in Shanghai with its Smart-rivaling IG concept car.
Geely says the compact three-seater provides a peek at a low-cost urban runabout it has under development and intends on pricing at little more than $1,500, sans the battery, which it envisages will be leased by customers.
The IG boasts a distinctive exterior design that is much more convincing than some of the more comical appearances dreamt up by some Chinese rivals for their city cars.
Among the highlights are a solar-cell arrangement covering the short hood and LED technology for the headlamps and taillamps.
Geely wasn’t commenting, but word on the Shanghai grapevine was that the pint-sized city car was penned by Georgetto Guigiaro’s ItalDesign studio in Italy as part of a broader collaboration on the design of future Geely models. (Giugiaro does take credit for Great Wall’s new Toyota RAV4-rivaling GX718 off-roader).
In keeping with its billing as a concept, the carbon-fiber-bodied IQ gets a flamboyant single gullwing door on the right side that provides entry to the three-seat interior--arranged in a 1-plus-2 layout with the driver positioned centrally up front and the passengers slightly farther back to each side. The driver’s seat can be adjusted transversely along with the steering wheel, while the rear seats can be folded down to improve luggage-carrying capacity. A broad, blue crystal display showing the battery charge along with an integrated touch screen for the air-conditioning controls dominates the dashboard, providing it with a modern look.
Geely wasn’t giving away too much about the plug-in electric driveline it is planning for the production version of the IQ due out in 2011, although the company claims to be working on applying polymer-lithium-ion battery technology for use in upcoming models.
source: autoweek
