- Geely’s Galaxy Cruiser 700 borrows a few cues from the Defender.
- A 70-kWh battery gives the plug-in hybrid 217 miles of range.
- Party tricks include crab walking and full tank turns
Geely’s new Galaxy Cruiser 700 may read as the company’s own riff on the Land Rover Defender, but it has one thing even that legendary off-roader cannot claim, and that is insane amounts of power. Amid the flood of wild, rugged SUVs pouring out of China, machines like this are quickly becoming the new normal.
Beneath the very Land Rover-like skin sits a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, joined by one electric motor up front and two out back. The three-motor setup and engine combine for an extraordinary 1,113 hp, within a whisker of the equally unhinged YangWang U8 from a few years ago. For perspective, the hottest Defender you can buy, the 2027 Octa, makes 533 hp, so the Geely packs more than double the muscle of Land Rover’s own flagship. That is hypercar territory in a body shaped like a garden shed.
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While the Galaxy Cruiser 700 is a plug-in hybrid, it has an impressive all-electric driving range of up to 217 miles (350 km). This is possible thanks to the sizeable 70-kWh Golden Short Blade battery pack developed by Geely, which works alongside a 900-volt electrical architecture. We don’t yet know what charging speeds the vehicle will support, but they should be fast.
Off-Road Tech
The absurd power figure is only part of what should make Geely’s latest creation quite an impressive performer. It includes an intelligent, AI-powered four-wheel drive system that offers front-, rear-, and all-wheel drive modes. There’s also active torque vectoring, a crab walking function, and the ability to perform tank turns.
Obviously, the design of the model will draw comparisons to the likes of the Land Rover Defender and Toyota Land Cruiser, but overall, it does a solid job of mixing ruggedness with classiness. Key elements at the front include the illuminated Geely emblem, bright red tow hooks, and a blacked-out bumper.
Geely
Elsewhere, the Galaxy Cruiser 700 includes black wheel arches and side skirts, a roof-mounted LiDAR, and a spare-wheel carrier at the rear, positioned between the LED taillights.
The vehicle’s cabin also has plenty going for it. Like pretty much all other new cars, there’s a tablet-like infotainment screen in the dashboard, but perhaps the highlight is the chunky shifting mechanism, knurled metal dials for various modes, and a slew of switches on the console.
Geely
