Geely Auto has officially introduced its flagship premium SUV, the Xingyue L, at the Auto Shanghai 2021. As previously reported, it is based on the Geely-Volvo Compact Modular Architecture, and the five-seater sits at the very top of Geely’s current portfolio.

Powering this car is a 2.0 litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine that’s jointly developed with Volvo. Two tunes are available – the first is a high output version with 238 PS and 380 Nm of torque, which is paired with an Aisin eight-speed automatic gearbox.

This comes with BorgWarner’s sixth-generation four-wheel drive system, offering a 50:50 front/rear torque distribution. There are five drive modes as well – Eco, Normal, Sport, Snow and Offroad. The zero to 100 km/h sprint is done in 7.7 seconds.

Below that is a detuned version of the same engine, offering 218 PS and 325 Nm. This gets mated with a seven-speed wet dual-clutch transmission that was developed in-house, likely sending drive to just the front wheels. This variant does the century sprint in 7.9 seconds.

Design-wise, the Xingyue L was created by mixing the design values of the East and West – a strategy that seems to pay off rather well. Based on the new “Symphony of Space and Time” aesthetic, the lines are clean overall, highlighted by a large grille with vertical slats, slim headlights with 126 individually controllable LEDs, tasteful applications of chrome, and dot-matrix LED tail lights that comprises 176 LED modules.

Inside, the party piece is none other than the one-metre-wide “flowing” infotainment screen which, together with the fully digital instrument cluster, take up nearly the entire width of the dashboard. This is hooked up to a 10-speaker high-performance Bose sound system with “engine harmonic noise reduction technology” and double layered soundproofing.

A dual-tone interior is standard, combining polished cyberpunk black (Geely’s own words) with classic bronze verdigris patina (the green hue a nod to nobility in Asian history).There’s also custom suede material throughout the cabin, complete with weavings that portray Chinese classical knots. A 72-colour LED ambient lighting system is standard as well, and this can be changed according to the drive mode.

Geely Design Shanghai vice president, Guy Burgoyne said: “In 2019, we unveiled a preface of what’s to come, a new design language and a slingshot from our Expanding Cosmos philosophy. In 2020, with the new design language and the passion for realising an idea into reality, we conceived a super premium and refined SUV concept. Today, this super premium concept has become the Xingyue L.”

What’s perhaps most interesting here is the safety kit. Geely says the Xingyue L is capable of going beyond Level 2 self-driving thanks to a new, completely unmanned automated valet system. This is achieved via a new 5G-enabled system that allows the SUV to manoeuvre completely on its own within an area of 200 metres.

Through a combination of 12 ultrasonic radars, five millimetre wave radars, four high-definition surround view camera, one monocular camera, one dashcam, one interior camera and two dozen environmental sensors, drivers can physically get out of the car and remotely get the Xingyue L to look for a spot and park itself. The reverse is also doable – the driver can summon the SUV to pick him or her up, so long as the function is used within 200 metres.

Other onboard tech also includes full over-the-air firmware updates, which allows vehicle functions such as advanced driver assist systems, infotainment, power, chassis, autonomous drive, connectivity, and more to be upgraded over time. So, what do you think? Impressive, isn’t it?

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