Welcome at a special New Year’s Eve edition of China Concept Cars. And we have a very special car. This black beauty is the Geely Fengyin, a concept car that debuted at the 2006 Beijing Auto Show.
Geely launched the Fengyin in several steps. First, they released a bunch of design drawings, to wet the appetite of media and public alike. They were somewhat surprised by what they saw. The Fengyin was a concept car looking like no other.
The shape of the Geely Fengyin was inspired by the Lockheed F-117 Night Hawk stealth fighter, as seen on this early sketch, where the Geely looked far more extreme than it eventually would look like.
Various ideas for the doors. The Lamborghini-style scissor doors would win this contest. There are also a few sketches of the rear door, but on the eventual concept the rear hatch was fixed in place.
Various details. One interesting idea was the simplified Geely logo, seen on top of the drawing above the car.
The Geely Fengyin was designed by the Geely Automobile Research Institute (利汽车研究院), in cooperation with the Automobile Department of Tsinghua University (清华大学汽车系).
Geely was responsible for the vehicle’s design, inside and out, and Tsinghua would come up with new advanced technologies. And that was really the idea about the whole car. Geely wanted to show the world that it was able to launch a totally new design concept on its own, while Tsinghua wanted to show that China was able to developed new automotive technology.
What new technologies did the Geely Fengyin have? There were quite a few. And remember; this was 2006, when most Chinese car makers built crappy cheap cars with ancient engines and knockoff designs.
One of the inventions Tsinghua added were solar panels in the roof. These panels could be used to power various auxiliary systems such as the air conditioning and the lights. The solar power could be stored in a battery, but could not be used to power the car.
Sadly, Geely never said what kind of power plant the Fengyin had. They didn’t even make one up. A missed opportunity indeed, they should have done something hybrid or electric.
Another innovation was voice control. Geely and Tsinghua went to great length to explain the system: there was a microphone, a ‘digital sampler’ that could morph sound into date, and a computer that would channel these data to the components that were voice controlled: the doors, the lights, the audio system, the multimedia system, and the navigation system.
But there was more: Drivers did not have to say specific things, like “Turn down the air conditioning with 2 degrees.” Instead, the Fengyin was equipped with a so called personalized on-board voice control system.
The system could understand random remarks. So when someone inside the car said: “It is too hot”, the system will automatically turn down the temperature of the air conditioning.
The final interesting invvovation was the car’s self-diagnose system. The Fengyin would continually check itself, and when something was broken or in need of maintenance, it would tell the driver, by digital voice! Tsinghua gave this example: “The rear light is broken”.
Very handy and very smart. But none of these systems were ever truly demonstrated. We just have to believe they were there. And of course we do. Back now to the car!
In the second step of the launch process Geely invited selected media to their factory, and rolled out the Fengyin in the sunshine. They also explained that the English name of the Fengyin was Forwind.
This makes a bit of sense, as the name Fengyin (风隐) can be best translated as ‘Hidden Wind’, and Geely said that name referred to the stealthy looks of the car. Hidden, like a F-117 hides for radar.
It is hard to say anything about the design. It was so crazy and strange and different. I don’t call it ugly, but it sure was special. The lines do remind of the F-117A, very angular with surprising twists and turns. There is a hint of Cadillac at the back. The front is least attractive part, mostly due to the red parts. They should have made those black, just like on the design sketch. The wheels were rather small and narrow for a concept, making the car look too large and bloated.
Then it was time for the official unveiling. But Geely dind’t do that at the show itself, but at a so-called Geely University, a special pavilion set up near the exhibition hall. With this fancy name Geely wanted to emphasize the technological aspects of the Fengyin. Mr. Li Shufu, Geely’s founder, stands on the right. I haven’t been able to figure out who the gentleman on the left is, but I assume he was a high-up at Tsinghua.
There seem to be three lights here, but not all is what it seems. The added ‘light’ on the right (left on pic) is actually the Geely logo, in the simpliefied form as seen on the design sketch.
It really needed bigger wheels. It looks far too tall with these tiny rims, and actually, the Fengyin wasn’t really that tall, as demonstrated by…
… this sweet little lady standing next to the car. On this photo we can also see the solar panels in the roof.
It looked all right from behind. The C-pillar is perhaps a tad too wide.
There is an exhaust pipe on the right. The pipe on the left ain’t no pipe at all, Geely is kidding us again, the left ‘pipe’ is actually another simplified Geely logo.
There are red hinges connecting roof and rear window, implying the rear window opens, like on the design sketch. But Geely never showed it really could.
An indicator in true BMW Z4 stile, with the full Geely logo atop. The alloy design is great, propeller-like, somewhat like Spyker’s wheels.
The mirrors were stealth-shaped too, and painted in matte gray. On the left front fender the words: Geely Concept 2006.
On the right fender: Forwind.
I like this one very much; the fuel filler cap with, again, the simplified Geely logo.
The interior was a work of art as well. Red seats, red door panels, a red center tunnel, and a mostly red dashboard. There is a conventional mechanic handbrake, a sporty steering wheel without an airbag, a sturdy lever for an automatic gearbox, a small screen, and very conventional air vents. Did Geely run out of craziness when they came to those..?
Perforated pedals for extra speed! I love the big for-reverse button on the side of the lever; that’s a properly large unit.
The screen actually worked and showed various parameters that were likely also shown on the instrument panel. Switches on the right of the screen are very cool. The top one is the start-switch for the engine, aircraft-style.
The Geely name imprinted on the handbrake lever. Geely did this in all their road cars at the time, so I guess they just got a lever from the parts bin, but it doesn’t look bad in the Fengyin.
The Geely Fengyin was a two-seater, there was no space in the back. At the show, Geely stated that some of the design language of the Fengyin would return on future production models.
Every car maker says that with every concept, but in this case Geely clearly lied, because NONE of the Fengyin ever made it to any production car. And perhaps that was not really a bad thing….
Happy New Year!
Sources: Baidu, Sohu, hc360, 163, 10yan, 315che, archives.
A brave attempt but possibly a hint of the earlier Toyota WiLL VS in there?