Officially known as the Geely CK (or Geely HQ) in its home market, the "Geocar" was the export nickname given to the 2006 model year sedan. Geely Auto was barely a decade old at this point. They weren't trying to beat the Honda Civic; they were trying to beat the bus.
In 2006, this car had an MSRP of roughly $4,000 to $5,000 USD new. For context, that is cheaper than a fully loaded riding lawn mower today.
The Spec Sheet (so you can laugh/cry):
The GeoCar project was one of the early large-scale attempts to bridge the gap between 2D image recognition and 3D geometric understanding. At a time when most computer vision research focused on 2D pixel features (like SIFT or HOG), the GeoCar project focused on 3D structure and deformation-invariant shape analysis.
At first glance, the Geocar 2006 looks like a crashed UFO or a bullet train's lost caboose. It is bizarre, aggressively aerodynamic, and unapologetically small. geocar 2006
The Tandem Layout The most radical feature of the Geocar 2006 is its seating configuration. Unlike a traditional car where you sit next to your passenger, the Geocar seats two people front and back, like a fighter jet or a scooter with a roof.
The Materials Forget leather and walnut. The Geocar 2006 was built from polyester and fiberglass. While critics called it "plasticky," Rivat called it "efficient." The body was lightweight, rust-proof, and inexpensive to repair. The total weight of the vehicle dipped below 400 kg (880 lbs), roughly one-fifth the weight of a Ford F-150. If files are in a proprietary format:
The Canopy Door In a nod to fighter aircraft (and the BMW Isetta), the Geocar featured a side-hinged or canopy-style door. To enter, you literally sat down and strapped in. Storage was laughable by American standards—a small cubby behind the passenger seat was enough for a briefcase or two bags of groceries.
GeoCar 2006 was a pioneering student-led engineering project based at the University of Washington. The goal was audacious: to modify an existing vehicle to run on magnesium extracted from common geological rock. Officially known as the Geely CK (or Geely
While we typically think of fossil fuels as the only way to power internal combustion, the team behind GeoCar wanted to prove that alternative chemical energy sources were viable. Magnesium is abundant, energy-dense, and—crucially—can be found in seawater and common minerals.
The WLTP (or NEDC at the time) range was advertised as 250 km (155 miles). In reality, with the heater on or on a highway, the GEOCAR 2006 struggled to hit 110 km (68 miles). Owners reported that turning on the radio headlights significantly drained the auxiliary system, which powered the battery heating.