Chinese-made vehicles are steadily becoming commonplace in our local auto industry. Thank the recent free-trade agreement between China and Philippines that allows the importation of these vehicles with low tariffs. Yet for those that think they’ve already seen the best that China can offer. The best is yet to come, and could be offered by Geely.
Geely is the largest wholly-Chinese automaker and despite underwhelming sales in the past, hopes to make a grand comeback this time with a new distributor. Bringing Geely back into the Philippines is Sojitz G Auto Philippines, a Japanese conglomerate which was the former trading company partner in Mitsubishi Motors Philippines and presently distributes Fuso trucks in the country.
As for Geely, it is not only a giant in China but in the global automotive industry. Geely is just one of the many car brands of the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (ZGH), which has been listed on the Fortune Global 500 for seven consecutive years. In 2018, ZGH sold over 2.15 million vehicles. ZGH owns several automotive brands you may have already heard of like Volvo Cars, Proton, Lotus, Lynk & Co, Polestar, London Electric Vehicle Co., motorcycle brand Benelli, and many more automotive and technology companies. Geely is also the largest shareholder of Volvo AB and Daimler AG. As such, the average motorist shouldn’t easily dismiss Geely as just another Chinese car brand.
Sojitz G Auto had invited a group of media to China to see for ourselves just how prepared Geely is to take on not just the Philippine auto market, but the rest of the world.
Sojitz hopes to reintroduce Filipinos to the Geely brand with its first offering, the Coolray. Called Bin Yue in China, the Coolray is a subcompact crossover SUV that hopes to do battle with the Ford EcoSport, Honda HR-V, Hyundai Kona, and many others.
To prove it can, Geely took us to the Ningbo Speedway to demonstrate just how favorably it compares with these cars, even an upmarket competitor like the BMW X1.
At the speedway was a short handling course for us to compare the Coolray against cars like the Honda HR-V, the Hyundai Kona, the Ford EcoSport and, BMW X1. The Coolray is certainly accelerated handled closer to the BMW than any of its Asian competitors.
Besides performance, courses in the speedway also allowed us to sample its self-parking system and 360-degree view monitor to easily navigate a short track with the windows blacked out.
Besides performance, the Coolray also has the looks to stand amongst its competitors. It features muscular style despite its size, an "expanding cosmos" grille, and lots of eye-catching LED lighting.
Inside, it features sci-fi inspired interiors with uniquely shaped air-con vents, novel door handle designs, bold use of color, and large LCD screens. There are some hints of inspiration for the interior from brands like Porsche and Lamborghini. Nonetheless, it remains quite intuitive to use thanks to a user-friendly touch interface.
Where most Chinese cars have always stumbled in the past is in terms of quality. To address this, Geely toured us around their factories and R&D centers.
The factory where the Coolray is assembled is in itself a wonder. The plant features four sectors, three of which are 100 percent automated. This drastically reduces the likelihood of errors and defects and substantially improves vehicle quality. There are robots to install a large number of parts on the car, from welding, to the windshields, to even the wheels and the bolts that hold them on.
It’s not only the car but the engine and transmission that are also manufactured by Geely in-house. In separate engine and transmission plants, Geely manufactures the 1.5-liter turbo inline four-cylinder that is fitted into the Coolray. It produces 174 PS and 255 Nm and was co-developed with Volvo. The engine is mated to another one of Geely’s creations: a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with a wet clutch.
With much of the manufacturing process controlled by Geely itself, it ensures consistent quality throughout the manufacturing process and maximum compatibility of the engine and transmission with the vehicle.
The test drive and facilities tour has certainly left quite an impression on us, serving as reassurance that, this time, Geely will be here to stay. Sojitz has yet to announce the official launch of the Geely brand in the Philippines, but it will definitely be soon. Based on what we’ve seen and experienced, it will be quite a tempting offer. In the meantime, catch the Coolray as it tours Philippine malls.
By Iñigo S. Roces