Geely is now well known as the Chinese brand behind
Volvo, Polestar, Lynk & Co, Lotus and now a chunk of Daimler. So well
known, that it's almost possible to forget that it is a fair-sized
automotive brand in their own right, which has its own design identity, model
range, and of course VP of Design, in the shape of Guy Burgoyne.
Guy was kind enough to give us a guided tour of the
just-launched Icon concept on the firm’s Beijing show stand, straight after a
hectic and swarmingly crowded press conference which just went to prove how
much interest Geely can whip up in its home territory.
The Icon, as you can probably tell from the
pictures, has a distinctly high-tech feel, with what have become the classic
technological design signifiers; satin white paintwork with a slight pearl
sheen to it, neon blue light accents and a feeling of sleek minimalism inside.
Its SUV format is hardly revolutionary. We'd guess that the hidden door
handles are aiding JLR parallels too. However, there are some clever and well
thought-out design details which reveal themselves at a closer look.
The interior uses a lot of light grey woven
materials, which gives it an airy and modern feel, helped by the floating seats
and the chunky silver sills. And if you take a look at our photo gallery,
you’ll see that there are some rather neat design elements, like the inner door
furniture which subtly mimics the figure-eight motif of the lamps, a motif
repeated on the centre console.
The interior’s probably got a few more concept car
touches than the exterior, but on the whole it’s not too far off.”
