7 seater

Geely Australia CEO Alex Gu confirmed the brand is working on bringing a three-row SUV to our market in 2027.“This model, we’ll bring next year,” said Gu, when asked if something like the brand's M9 six-seat hybrid SUV was on the cards.“We’re already in the process, it will be a little bit different from M9. The M9 is a six-seater, but we’ll have a more traditional seven-seater.”Gu hinted the M9 (or something like it) will maintain its plug-in hybrid set-up, which it is sold with in China.“I have noticed other Chinese brands right now rely on ICE [internal combustion engine] but we know that the Australian market is an emissions-sensitive market, so Geely doesn’t have any plans to do ICE, but I’m sure you’ve also heard about our plans to do i-HEV," said Gu.“So actually, we benchmarked Toyota for this,” he said. “It’s very friendly for emissions. It around 2.22L/100km, so this is very good.”Gu was confident this incoming plugless hybrid system, which Geely debuted at the Beijing Motor Show, had low enough emissions that it could be kept for the long-term, even as Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) begin to make it difficult for existing plugless systems by 2028.The M9 could form part of a slowly-but-surely new model roll-out for Geely in Australia, as it takes its time observing the strategy of rivals, according to Gu.The three-row SUV, which is sold under Geely’s Galaxy marque in China and was displayed at this year’s Melbourne Motor Show, measures over five meters long with an enormous 3030mm wheelbase.It rides on Geely’s latest space-maximising GEA Evo platform, and pairs a 1.5-litre petrol turbo four-cylinder engine (163kW/255Nm) with an electric motor in the front transaxle for the FWD models (180kW/350Nm), adding dual electric motors on the rear axle in AWD models (170kW/280Nm x2).There is no mechanical connection between the engine and rear axle for the all-wheel drive system, with the maximum system output for FWD models being 300kW/605Nm and the maximum output of the AWD models being 640/1165Nm.The M9 for the Chinese market is offered with two battery packs, either an 18.4kWh or 41.46kWh pack, which are good for 85km and 185km electric only driving range respectively.Combined driving range, also to WLTC testing, is 1140km for the small battery or 1255km for the long range battery. All batteries are sourced from CATL and use an Lithium-Ferro-Phostphate (LFP) chemistry.DC charging speed allows a 30 - 80 per cent charge in 20 minutes for the standard range, or 15 minutes for the long range battery. Even when the battery is at the reserve level, the M9 consumes 5.7L/100km to WLTC testing, and all versions come equipped with 6kW vehicle-to-load.Expect high-end features like every Chinese car, with the M9 having a 15.4-inch multimedia screen, a 12.66-inch digital instrument cluster, with a 32-inch head-up display and 30-inch roof-mounted entertainment screen for rear passengers on high-grade cars.It even offers 328 litres of boot space, even with the third row up, or 1025 litres with the third row down.As for price, the base M9 for the Chinese market starts from around the equivalent of A$40,000, with the top-spec AWD car topping-out around $55,000. With Chinese cars usually attracting a 15 - 20 per cent premium by the time they land in Australia, it wouldn’t be a stretch to see pricing from $50,000 - $75,000, putting it in direct competition with the Hyundai Palisade (plugless hybrid-only - $76,500 - $89,900) and BYD Sealion 8 ($56,990 - $70,990).A plugless hybrid version, which is effectively a scaled-down version of the plug-in system on the Chinese-market car, would be even more affordable again, without the need for the large CATL-sourced battery. Watch this space.

What are all the seven-seater cars on the market that don’t look long or bulky?

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