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Watch this rare tour in the top-secret Geely Design Shanghai Studio

Jerrica · Aug 4, 2021 02:46 PM

Watch this rare tour in the top-secret Geely Design Shanghai Studio 01

A car maker’s design studio is the most top-secret location in the entire car-making process, so it is rare indeed to see a manufacturer open their doors to allow a camera crew in. But that was what Geely did as they brought us on a tour around the new Geely Design Shanghai Studio.

The Geely Design Shanghai studio started operations in 2014. Back then, the studio was home to only 110 designers and located in the old Shanghai Expo site amidst its competitors. So, you can imagine how much of a chore it was for the team to move any confidential projects around.

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But that was 7 years ago, by 2019 the studio was bursting at the seams as it now housed around 400 designers involved with designs for all of Geely Auto Group's brands such as Proton and Lynk & Co. A need to move to a better location was called for.

The new location is located near the Shanghai South Railway Station and used to be an old printing factory. With China moving towards a more sustainable future, the government started encouraging industries that produce a large amount of waste such as the printing company to move out of the city.

Also read: Proton's distant cousin, Lynk & Co has 7 models on sale; Here's a handy guide

Watch this rare tour in the top-secret Geely Design Shanghai Studio 01

This has allowed Geely to take over the floor and convert it into a studio that includes a secure satellite studio, offices, a VR modelling area as well as an open roof deck for display purposes.

Moving to the old printing house is part of Geely’s sustainable and environmentally-friendly plan. While it is easier to develop and build their own site, moving to an existing location and repurposing the area will not only help keep material use low but also allow Geely to also improve the area they are located in.

Watch this rare tour in the top-secret Geely Design Shanghai Studio 02

The main point of the video is not the tour around the Geely Design Shanghai Studio but the preview of the never-before-seen Geely Xingyue L concept and Vision Starburst concept cars.

The Xingyue L concept in particular was supposed to be displayed at a car show last year. However, due to the pandemic, Geely missed their chance to preview the car before the production version was unveiled.

Watch this rare tour in the top-secret Geely Design Shanghai Studio 03

VR tour of the Vision Starburst's interior

Designers also gave us a VR tour of the freshly revealed Vision Starburst concept and even gave us an idea of how the concept car’s interior came to be.

Perhaps the next tour that Geely will show us is the complete process of how they create a concept car in their new facility? We can only hope.

Jerrica

Writer

There isn’t a time in memory that doesn’t involve staring at cars. After discovering the excitement of watching Schumacher vs Hakkinen, Formula 1 became a major part of life. The love for cars and F1 ultimately led to a job with CAR Magazine. The untimely death of the magazine meant a hiatus from cars at lifestyle women’s magazine Marie Claire before another opportunity came knocking again.

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