Known as the Battleship 700 in China, the Galaxy Cruiser 700 is still to be confirmed for the South African market.
Galaxy Cruiser 700 will be called Battleship 700 in China. Picture: Geely China
Having opened for pre-ordering in China earlier this month, Geely has officially confirmed pricing of the Galaxy Battleship 700 ahead of its sales launch next month.
Set to be called Galaxy Cruiser 700 outside its home market, the 700 forms part of the Hangzhou-based brand’s Galaxy sub-brand, though its products are still called “Geely Galaxy” instead of only “Galaxy”.
Laden with off-road tech
Revealed, but not completely detailed, at an event in Milan in July, the Galaxy Cruiser 700 rides on a new energy vehicle platform called Thor EM-T all-wheel drive with up to three electric motors depending on the variant.
Sporting a so-called AI-developed all-wheel drive system that allows the drive wheels to switch between rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive and front-wheel drive on the move, the 700 also has a crab walking function, rear-wheel steering and an adapting active hydraulic suspension with adaptive dampers.
Additionally equipped with a locking differential on all-wheel drive variants, plus a low range transfer case, it has a claimed wading depth of 800 mm and 233 mm of ground clearance, which increases to 313 mm with the suspension in its highest setting.
Not stopping there, the tri-motor all-wheel drive also has what Geely calls a Terrain mode with seven off-road settings: All-Terrain, Sand, Snow, Mud, Desert, Rock and Wading, plus a Mercedes-Benz G580-style tank turn function.
Amphibious
As with the Jetour G700, the Galaxy Cruiser 700 has amphibious capabilities called an escape floating mode in which the engine bay and various mechanicals are waterproof and two propellers are located at the back.
Further equipped with sonar, each propeller produces a reported eight kilowatts and allows the 700 to travel at up to seven kilometres per hour on water.
Dimensions
Dimensionally, the Galaxy Cruiser 700 is as follows:
- Length: 5 085 mm;
- Wheelbase: 2 900 mm;
- Height: 1 912 mm;
- Width: 1 999 mm
Seating five means a claimed boot space of 1 095-litres, which increases to 1 820-litres with the split rear seat folded down.
Single or tri-motor
Up front, the hybrid system sees all model but one variant utilises a turbocharged 1.5-litre petrol engine producing 120kW/255Nm on its own.
Standard across all models is a 47.1-kWh battery pack that powers a single 230kW/350Nm electric motor on two-wheel drive models.
The combined output of 350kW/605Nm, with an electric-only range of 305 km on China’s CLTC cycle and 0-100 km/h in 6.4 seconds. With the combustion engine included, the total range is said to be 1 770 km.
Moving up to the first tri-motor sees the electric hardware produce 340kW/560Nm in its own, with the outputs of the combustion engine unchanged.
In combined form, though, total output is 690kW/1 165Nm, which translates to a CLTC electric-only range of 280 km, 0-100 km/h in 4.2 seconds and a combined distance of 1 520 km.
Completing the line-up, the aptly named Summit carries over the same battery pack and electric motor count, but matched to a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol that makes 160kW/360Nm on its own.
Using a more powerful trio of electric motors, which develop 440kW/620Nm, the Summit has a combined output of 830kW/1 330Nm, which Geely says will get the Galaxy Cruiser 700 from 0-100 km/h in 3.9 seconds.
Its top speed being limited to 220 km/h versus all the variants’ 200 km/h, the Summit has a claimed all-electric CLTC range of 270 km and a combined of 1 470 km with the petrol engine included.
The standard gearbox across all models is a new three-speed Dedicated Hybrid Transmission (DHT).
Not approved yet
A line-up spanning five variants, pricing starts at 199 800 yuan for the entry-level two-wheel drive Explorer and ends at 269 800 for the Summit. Without taxes and when directly converted, these amounts to between R489 082 and R660 432.
Going on sale in China from 10 October, the Galaxy Cruiser 700 has, for the time being, not been confirmed for South Africa.
However, should an announcement be made, expect it to only become available in 2027.
