The Geely Binrui has now been revealed in a sportier exterior. The C-segment sedan is denoted for its sportier slant here by ‘F’ badging on its grille, and is said to be an ‘F-Type Sport’ variant, according to various reports. As before, the Binrui is built on Geely’s B-Segment Modular Architecture (BMA) platform, and the F-Type Sport appears to have surfaced with changes that also come as part of a set of updates to the base Binrui model. Visual updates here include a honeycomb grille and lower intakes that replace the concentric and slatted items of the outgoing style, respectively, while the front bumper corners trading intakes for revised sculpting and chrome brightwork.
The sportier, F-badged variant is
distinguished by a black finish for its honeycomb grille, lower front bumper
intake, bumper trim, rear spoiler and diffuser trim, window trim and side
mirror covers, along with a set of darkened, double-five-spoke alloys. This
update sees the Binrui drop the 1.0 litre power unit from its line-up, leaving
the 1.4 litre turbo petrol inline-four that has been revised and now produces
141 PS and 235 Nm of torque, mated to a CVT as the sole gearbox option, according
to FormaCar. At the sedan’s pre-update debut in 2018, the 1.4 litre engine was
rated for 131 hp and 215 Nm of torque.
Inside, the 2021 Binrui’s floating
infotainment unit appears to be carried over from the outgoing model, here
depicted with carbon-fibre-look dashboard trim in place of the previous
metal-look finish. The dashboard layout appears to be carried over, with the
air-conditioning vents situated in a curved housing above the display. The
Binrui’s C-segment positioning makes it a probable candidate in providing a
basis for a future Proton Preve replacement. Though Proton has not explicitly
named the car as such, a new sedan model is expected from the national carmaker
in 2021.
Beyond the updated 1.4 litre engine that
features in the 2021 Binrui, the BMA platform used here can also accommodate
other powerplants from the brand, including the 1.5 litre turbo three-cylinder
and seven-speed DCT in the Proton X50, which in turn is the same pairing as the
base engine in the Volvo XC40 Recharge T5 PHEV.