Automotive platforms have never been as flexible as they are today. The same platform serves both a small family and a huge seven-seater SUV, and accommodates combustion engines as well as an electric engine and its generous battery. The new Geely Preface is another example of this flexibility.
Beneath its elegant lines — quite European even, or had it not been designed by the team of Peter Horbury, former Volvo designer, author of the first S80, among others — we find the CMA (Compact Modular Architecture) platform, the same as the Volvo XC40 debuted in 2017.
A platform jointly developed by Volvo and Geely (in addition to the brand, Geely is also the current owner of Volvo) and that since the XC40, has already served a number of other models from other brands of the Chinese group.
In addition to the Swedish SUV, it serves all Lynk & Co models (models 01, 02, 03 and 05) — a Chinese brand created in 2016 that is positioned between Geely and Volvo —, the Polestar 2 and the Geely Xingyue.
Most of these models are crossover/SUV, with the exception of the Lynk & Co 03 and Polestar 2, both sedans. In the case of the Polestar, in addition to being the only electric one, it could also be considered a crossover, given the SUV genes visible in its design, with emphasis on the increased ground clearance.
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Since its debut in the Volvo XC40 in 2017, More than 600,000 vehicles have already been produced based on the CMA and it certainly won't take that many years to double that figure—the number of models that derive from it still continues to grow.
Geely Preface
And the latest of the CMA-derived models is the now unveiled Geely Preface, anticipated last year by a concept of the same name. It is the second Geely model to benefit from the CMA and it is a sedan made to measure for its domestic market, the Chinese. Although sedans are also under threat from the advance of SUVs — especially in the US and Europe — in China they are still enjoying strong acceptance.
It's based on Compact Modular Architecture, but the Chinese saloon isn't quite as compact as that. It's actually a little bigger than the Volvo S60 in all directions, which is based on the larger SPA (Scalable Product Architecture), which underpins the Swedish brand's 60 and 90 ranges.
It is 4.785 m long, 1.869 m wide and 1.469 m high (respectively 4.761 m, 1.85 m and 1.431 m for the S60) and only the wheelbase is less than that of the Swedish saloon: 2.80 m against 2.872 m.
Even so, it is to be expected that the internal quotas will be more generous on Preface than on the S60, especially in the past, given the favor of the Chinese market for this characteristic - suffice it to mention the huge number of our well-known models that are sold in extended variants on the market Chinese.
There are still no pictures of the interior, but when it hits the market, it will do so with just a gasoline engine with 2.0 l capacity, turbocharger and 190 hp and 300 Nm — at least, for now.
It is not expected that it will be sold in markets other than China.