Our meeting with Chen Zheng, Vice President of Geely Auto Group, took place on the 16th floor of the Torre Diamante, one of the symbols of Porta Nuova, Milan, a district revitalised by the pencils of great architects and today one of the trendiest places in the city. This is where the Chinese manufacturer has opened its Geely Innovation Design Center Italy: “The strong design culture here gives us the chance to deliver a more inclusive design. I believe that design is the most eloquent interpreter of a brand’s values whatever the field, whether it’s cars or fashion”, Zheng says. Leading Geely design’s global management, he redefined the Geely brand’s design language in the era of intelligent electric vehicles, empowering the brand to accelerate its transformation to intelligence and electrification.
Pioneers of a new design paradigm
Geely Auto pioneered a new design paradigm in the era of intelligent electric vehicles. Chen Zheng continued: “The first principle is to honour and embrace a diversity of cultures while never ceasing to innovate, the aim being to pinpoint the brand’s core identity and make it stand out from the competition.. Thinking with the customer’s head and offering him more than he expects: we have to give concrete answers to needs customers didn’t know they had.” All this is seasoned with “Geely speed”, the brand’s strong point earned in a market, the Chinese, that changes at the speed of light
West Lake, an iconic Chinese landmark
That same speed allowed the designers to create the Geely Galaxy E8, an electric saloon representing Geely’s new design manifesto. The car does not simply add a new model to the lineup: “The design of the Geely Galaxy E8 tells the story of our brand through a legacy of innovations that are highly symbolic for us,” says Chen Zheng. The model cites the locations where the group took its first steps – the West Lake, for example, an iconic Chinese landmark with humanistic connotations. A lake in the centre of Hangzhou, where Geely’s headquarters remain to this day. It was from the ripples of that body of water that Peter Horbury, a Geely design trailblazer, was inspired to create the first “ripples of water” grille.
The front is the face of the car
Today, that same grille has evolved into the Geely Galaxy E8’s signature “ripples of light” front view: “62% of Chinese customers only focus on a car’s face and it is here that all the emotions of a design have to be expressed. The front view is the face of the car and our brain links it with human beings, animals, robots or in some cases with something expressionless and undefined”, says Zheng.
158 luminous windows
“For the Geely Galaxy E8 we chose the Tiger Face which is elegant and expressive at the same time”. The grille was one of the focal points in the development of the design: “158 luminous windows create a wave of light, mimicking the ripples that originate when a drop falls into a flat sheet of water. A long, complex job when you consider that the wave of light is composed of an LED at the base, 15800 0.2 mm micro-holes on the luminous windows of the bumpers and a final layer of transparent paint that makes the front completely smooth.”
The Daqi principle
“This is a classic example of the fact that when design and engineering share a common project, they can do great things”, Zheng continues. By the same token, the multi-level lighting design along the full width of the tail recalls the Leifeng Pagoda, the tower that dominates West Lake. He also stressed the model’s “premium car” trim. And speaking of premium, Geely has worked meticulously on the surfaces of the electric saloon to make them as smooth as possible: “In China, the perception of luxury or a refined and elegant object is often associated with a pleasant tactile experience, comparable to something smooth and velvety like the best porcelain.” To this we might add the Daqi principle evident in both its exterior and interior design and characterised by its premium, tasteful appearance.
(Full article in A&D no. 266)
