Young Chinese-Israeli carmaker Qoros has pulled the wraps off its third production model at the Guangzhou motor show. Called the Qoros 3 City SUV, the vehicle is 4,452 mm long, 1,854 mm wide (excluding mirrors), 1,504 mm tall, and sits on a 2,694 mm wheelbase.
Looks very much like a ruggedised 3 Hatch, doesn't it? However, this 3 City SUV is 52 mm longer, 67 mm taller and 15 mm wider than the 3 Hatch, while the wheelbase is a negligible 4 mm longer.
Built in the same Changshu plant that produces the 3 Sedan and 3 Hatch, the 3 City SUV brandishes body cladding, skid plates fore and aft, extended wheel arches, twin tailpipes and a two-part, two-tone tailgate spoiler.
China gets Active, Style, Style Plus and Excite trims - all get 17-inch alloys, Qoros' eight-inch MMH touch-screen, keyless start and manual air-con as standard. Style piles on a six-speed Getrag 6DCT250 dry-dual clutch auto (called QorosTroniq here), auto dual-zone air-con, cruise control, reverse camera and QorosQloud 3G connected services.
Graduate to Style Plus and you get leather seats (including power-adjustable and heated front seats), auto-folding wing mirrors, a tyre pressure indicator and a sunroof.
Finally, the range-topping Excite aims to excite you with xenon headlamps, 18-inch alloys, keyless entry and start, auto lights, full cabin ambient lighting, an air-conditioned glove box, plus a reverse camera with dynamic guideline and distance sensors. The boot holds 403 litres; fold the 60:40-split back seats and you get 1,105 litres of load space up to the roof.
Under the bonnet sits the same 1.6 litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine you'd find in the 3 Sedan and 3 Hatch. Equipped with VVT, the mill sends 156 hp at 5,500 rpm and 210 Nm of torque between 1,750 and 5,000 rpm to the front wheels. No naturally-aspirated version has been announced.
With the dual-clutcher, the Qoros 3 City SUV gets to 100 km/h from rest in 10.8 seconds before hitting a 208 km/h top speed (manual 10.1 seconds, 205 km/h). Quoted NEDC fuel economy is 6.8 litres per 100 km (manual) and 6.9 litres per 100 km (dual-clutch).
Safety is a Qoros thing, and to that end, ABS, EBD, speed limiter and Isofix are standard across the range. All trims bar the entry-level Active have ESC, ETC, BA, Cornering Brake Control, automatic brake disc cleaning and a driver seat belt reminder, with Excite models reminding the front passenger to buckle up as well.
While QorosQloud 2.0 isn't available on the 3 City SUV yet (it'll be offered to all current Qoros owners as a free upgrade from 2015), the carmaker displayed a purpose-built car in Guangzhou to showcase the second generation of the connected services suite.
QorosQloud 2.0 now allows users to customise the background with vehicle information and manage the position and order of widgets. From the dashboard, the user can access Notifications, Car Status, Essential Info and Default sections, which can also be tailored.
The five main services - My Qoros, Connected Navigation, My Driving, Qoros Store, Settings - as well as Live Chat, Roadside Help and Inbox, can be accessed by swiping right or tapping the upper-left menu icon.
There's also WeChat (highly popular in China) integration through Pick Me Up - you can pick up a friend from a set location, and he or she can track the car through QorosQloud.
QorosQloud is Windows Azure-based and is delivered via China Unicom's 3G network. Besides through Qoros' eight-inch 800×600 capacitive MMH touch-screen, the services can also be accessed from a smartphone, tablet or laptop via an app, or through www.qorosqloud.com.
Young it may be, but Qoros is fast-growing – the carmaker is only a few years old, and already it has a sedan and a hatch on sale. The sedan is not only the safest Chinese car ever made, but Euro NCAP's top scorer in 2013, while the hatch is the recipient of a Red Dot Design Award.
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