What Rover Used To Be
Chinese car manufacturer Roewe has just teased a new face-lifted version of its i5 compact sedan ahead of its official unveiling at the November 2020 Guangzhou Auto Show.
Initially launched three years ago at the same event, this new facelift measures 4675 mm long, 1842 mm wide, 1480 mm tall and with a 2680mm wheelbase. Picture below from daydaynews.cc.
A sibling to the new sleek and stylish MG5 and coming from SAIC Motor, the Roewe i5 was pitched as the more conventional and stately alternative to the upcoming MG model. Interestingly however, the outgoing Roewe i5 was actually sold under the MG5 name outside its home market China, most notably of which in the Philippines and where it all started, England.
Still built on General Motors’ Delta II platform, which incidentally underpins the current Opel Astra, this new revised Roewe now features a more purposeful exterior aesthetic to bring it more in tune with the current consumer tastes. The biggest change from the outgoing model will probably be the shrunken front grille, which is now a single slim chrome slit instead of the
New slimmer LED headlights join the list of revisions on the facelift, as does a redesigned front bumper with large (but fake) front air intakes. The lower grille has also been widened from the outgoing i5, pushing the shrunken front fog lamps to the extreme corners of the fake air intakes. To be frank, this new front end look of the Roewe looks to be vaguely reminiscent to what is seen on the new Honda City.
Moving down the sides, a new set of turbine-style alloys and a sharper crease on the lower sills continues the purposeful aesthetic of the facelift that began at the front. Speaking of the front, the same large (yet fake) air intakes also appear on the back of this facelifted i5, along with a redesigned rear bumper featuring deeper exposed rear diffuser. New smoked rear lights complete the aesthetic updates on the exterior.
No word yet thus far on the interior specs, but being a facelift the Roewe should feature a mild update to its plain but purposeful cabin design. The 7-inch digital instrument cluster and 12.3-inch central infotainment display would most likely be updated to run on the latest version of Alibaba’s AliOS operating system.
As for powertrain options, it would appear that the updated Roewe i5 continues to soldier on with its two existing 1.5 litre engines, mated to either a 5-speed manual gearbox or a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. The first one being a naturally aspirated unit that outputs 120 hp, and the latter being a more powerful turbocharged unit that pumps out 175 hp. The electric Ei5 electric station wagon should also receive the same aesthetic changes as this petrol-powered model, though no official announcement has been made by SAIC to date regarding this.
More concrete information should come in the coming days as the 2020 Guangzhou Auto Show kicks off on the 20th of November.
Research and text by Joshua Chin
