SAIC Motor and Alibaba Group jointly debuted Roewe i6, the world’s first mass-produced family sedan on the internet, in NetBlue and NetGreen versions, at the 14th China (Guangzhou) Automobiles Exhibition, or Auto Guangzhou, on Nov 18, 2016.

Roewe i6 is a major model built by SAIC in the new age under a quality and innovation strategy. It features a variety of cutting-edge technologies and frontier concepts, with world-class automotive design, powertrain technology and internet applications, and offers consumers the “choice-of-the-age” intelligent transport solutions, creating a dream car of the future in real life.

Roewe also presented RX5, eRX5 and Roewe 360 in Guangzhou to showcase its major achievements in internet, new energy and conventional fields. Its booth was described as “unmissable” at the motor show.

Earlier, Roewe RX5, the world’s first mass-produced internet car, saw immediate online popularity upon its debut and soon became a best-seller after hitting dealerships. Then Roewe i6 followed, also aimed to lead consumers into the age of internet cars.

Design

Based on user-centered concepts, Roewe i6 has been developed as one of the “best choices for a family sedans in the mobiles internet era”. Thanks to outstanding technology and design, the car is user-friendly and comfortable, keeps up with the latest design trends and takes pride its high quality.

Roewe i6 is the mass-produced version of Roewe Vision-R, the concept car that won the prize of the “2015 Design of Chinese Concept Car” given by Japanese automobiles design magazine CARSTYLING. While inheriting the essence of the Vision-R design, Roewe i6 has used the optimized new-generation design language with an emphasis on rhythm. Its design obeys contemporary design principles and follows international automotive design trends, and also has absorbed eastern elements, especially Chinese aesthetics. By adopting cutting-edge aerodynamics technology, Roewe i6 has achieved an ultra-low drag coefficient value of 0.25, a value usually attainable only by luxury sport sedans, bringing about a superb driving experience.

Compared to sedans in its class, Roewe i6 also has the largest car body width of 1,835 mm, the longest wheelbase of 2,715 mm, the largest internal width of 1,479 mm, the most rear-seat knee room measuring 77 mm and the most head room. An elegant, well-proportioned wide-body sedan, it offers users up-to-date intelligent transport solutions.

Technology

Making Roewe’s tenth launch anniversary as a new starting point, SAIC actively responded to technological changes of the internet age and the general trends of environmental protection, and successfully developed Roewe i6 on the basis of SAIC’s brand new framework MIP. The “i” in “i6” represents “internet”, “innovation” and “intelligence”. Thanks to the joint efforts of SAIC and Alibaba Group, Roewe i6 gets the newest generation of intelligent internet system as well as the digital capability brought by Internet Car 2.0.

Carrying on SIAC’s advantages in core power technology, both Roewe i6 and its new energy version, Roewe ei6, employ a world-class powertrain that ensures low fuel consumption, high efficiency and superb quality. Roewe i6 has the direct-injected and turbocharged NetBlue SGE 20T engine, which delivers up to 169 hp of power and 250 Nm of torque and has better performance than a mainstream naturally aspirated 2.0L engine. After Roewe 360 successfully met the challenge of “running 1,000 km on one tank of fuel” to verify the performance of its world-class NetBlue powertrain, Roewe i6 recently finished a journey of 1,816 km from Lanzhou to Urumqi on one tank of fuel. Its hybrid version, Roewe ei6, is powered by the NetBlue SGE 16T engine plus the NetGreen EDU, leading rivals by 20 percent in fuel consumption, efficiency and charging times, thus able to give users greener and more convenient transport experiences.

As the world’s first line-up equipped with the world-class highly-efficient NetBlue, new energy NetGreen and intelligent internet systems, Roewe i6 signals that Roewe has moved into the era of internet of Cars and big data and will lead the auto industry to focus more on the development of highly-efficient and clean internal combustion engines, new energy technologies and intelligent internet technologies.

In the new age, cars are no longer a transport means, but a platform for intelligent travel. Big data and cloud computing have redefined the survivability of a car in the internet age, and will generate even more motor-related data and social value in the future. The popularity of Roewe RX5 was not only a success of SAIC-Alibaba cooperation, but also an indication of the general trends and user needs. The Roewe i6, on the other hand, will hit showrooms in the first half of 2017, and more about the car will be disclosed by then.