The Geely BL is a sports

coupe A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

from Chinese manufacturer,

Geely Automobile Geely Auto is the primary car marque of Chinese group Geely. Listed as Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and controlled through holdings in Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Geely Auto is ZGH's mainstream brand primarily s ...

Overview

The "BL" name stands for "Beauty Leopard" which is the direct meaning of the Chinese name Meirenbao (美人豹). The car was designed with help from

Daewoo Daewoo ( ; Hangul: , Hanja: , ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "dae" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerat ...

and was introduced to production in January, 2003. It is best known outside China for being the first vehicle with an in-car

karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...

machine. The car's design seems to be inspired mostly by the

Toyota Celica The is an automobile produced by Toyota from 1970 until 2006. The Celica name derives from the Latin word '' coelica'' meaning 'heavenly' or 'celestial'. In Japan, the Celica was exclusive to the '' Toyota Corolla Store'' dealer chain. Pro ...

, with the front taking inspiration from the

Honda Integra The , marketed in North America as the Acura Integra, is an automobile produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Honda from 1985 until 2006, and then since 2021. It succeeded the Quint as a more luxurious and sport-oriented derivative o ...

and the rear from the

Toyota Supra is a sports car and grand tourer manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corporation beginning in 1978. The name " supra" is derived from the Latin prefix, meaning "above", "to surpass" or "go beyond". The initial four generations of the Supra were ...

. The Geely BL is considered a

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

in China, and it has a top speed of 180 km/h (approx 111 mph). The Geely BL is powered by a 1.3 L engine which is a

Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

design, produced by

Xiali Tianjin FAW (officially Tianjin FAW Xiali Automobile Co., Ltd.) is an automobile company based in Tianjin, China and a subsidiary of FAW Group. Its principal activity is the design, development, manufacture and distribution of automobiles sold und ...

. Later in 2006, a version with a 1.8 L engine was added with the engine being the JL481Q 1.8 liter engine also used by the

Maple Hysoul The Maple Marindo or Haifeng (海锋), Maple Hysoul or Haishang (海尚), and Maple Haiyu (海域) are 4-door compact sedans and 5-door compact liftbacks from Chinese manufacturer, Shanghai Maple, subsidiary of Geely Automobile. It is essentiall ...

with a top speed of 190km/h. Production of the Geely BL ended in 2006.

References

External links

Official website of the BL
BL Cars introduced in 2003 Coupés Sports cars Cars of China {{Modern-auto-stub