Arguably the most innovative of Geely's concepts at the 2009 Shanghai auto show was the IG or 'Intelligent Geely' city car that proposes a small chassis and body with interchangeable powertrains from a small conventional combustion engine to hybrid and full-electric.

The aesthetics are interesting too. The tiny sub-three-meter car offers an athletic cab-forward exterior proportion accentuated by exceptionally long and angular front lamps that rake well past the door mirrors and match parallel feature lines rising from mid-way up the bulging front wheel arch before fading away towards the rear. With a hood almost completely covered in dark solar panels and a large lower air intake sandwiching a pencil thin upper grille', a very characterful and original front face is created. The IG's high beltline and clamshell roof also frame the small DLO neatly and add a sense of chunky fun.

Access to the inside comes via a single gull-wing door to reveal a stripped-out, minimalist interior with a flat floor and just a single front driver's seat frame made of two basic metal hoops filled with mesh seating. This seat is able to slide horizontally for left- or right-hand drive markets and thus create room for luggage in the vacated space too. Behind the driver are two more full-size seats plus a very small pull-down child seat 'perch'. All the driver information is graphically shown in a full-width display featuring touch screen technology.

VP of design, Mike Ma told Car Design News Geely hopes to sell the chassis and body for only 10,000 RMB (1000) with the customer paying separately for the powertrain of his or her choice to go with the shell. Ma said the IG can accommodate batteries under the floor and if no combustion engine is selected the front engine bay could also be partly used for more luggage.

Ma said the car was mostly designed by Taiwanese design outfit Nova Design based in Shanghai although he says Geely did a third of the work in-house. The car goes on sale in 2010.