History: the Geely HQ pick-up Trucks from China

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The great pick-up truck makers from China are Greatwall and Zhongxing. Their trucks are affordable, big, basic, easy to run and do fine in a war. However, they don’t make any really small pick-up trucks and this where Geely saw a niche-market in 2001. Meet the pick-up trucks based on the Geely HQ hatchback, and there was a panel-van as well…

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Geely HQ pick-up Trucks from China

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The first pick up truck was the Geely JL1010N ‘Rural Nanny’, it saw life in early 2001 and stayed on the market until 2005. The Geely Rural Nanny (吉利乡村保姆) was based on the Geely HQ hatchback, both cars were identical until the B-pillar. Power came from a 1 liter 4-cylinder ‘JL376QE’ engine with 38kw mated to a 4-speed manual. Max speed was… 98km/h. Price started at 31.800 yuan.

Size: 3965/1640/1435, wheelbase was 2340. The bed measured 1530/1330/370.That was all just enough for a few boxes of lettuce, a small cow or a big wife. As the name indicates the Rural Nanny was not sold inside the big cities and actually most stayed where they were born, in rural Zhejiang province.

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Geely HQ pick-up Trucks from China

Well, at least there was someone who loved his Rural Nanny very much. Sporty wheels, a chrome bar on the bed, an Geely-ornament on the bonnet, lights above the roof and one pair of ski’s, guess the wife didn’t wanna go.

Geely HQ pick-up Trucks from China

This is the panel-van, the JL5010X Rural Nanny. All specs are the same as on the JL1010N except for the cargo department height which was exactly 1000mm. Price started at 33.800 yuan.

Geely HQ pick-up Trucks from China

Geely HQ pick-up Trucks from China

The JL1010E1 Rural Nanny arrived in 2005 and succeeded the JL1010N. The side of the car was now straight and sporty wheels were standard. The JL1010B1 had the same engine as the JL1010N but this time there was also a stronger JL1010E1 with a 1.3 ‘MR479Q’ engine, good for 63kw and a 120km/h top speed. A huge improvement indeed, price though went up to almost 37.000 yuan for the 1.3. The panel-van did sadly not return in 2005.

Geely HQ pick-up Trucks from China

Characters: Zhongguo Qirui, China Geely.

Geely HQ pick-up Trucks from China

Factory pic, the JL1010E1 on a sunny day under a bright blue sky. Window is open, driver clearly enjoying the ride… Production ended in 2007 and Geely hasn’t produced any pick-up truck ever since.

Standard HQ 4-door hatchback, called the HQ6360E2 ‘Pride’.

Via: oosyoo.com.cn, oosyoo.com.cn, oosyoo.com, ch2che.com, china2car.com, xche.com.cn, cn357.com,

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Like the later CK-1 platform, it appears that this platform goes back to Tianjin Xiali’s Charade.
    There was also a dual cab pickup that Geely made.
    I would love to know the payload spec that Geely published for these light and fragile trucks.
    Thanks Tycho for the look back in young Geely’s history.

  2. Dragin,

    You are very welcome. As always, thanks for your input. I didn’t see any dual cab pickup yet, please send me a pic if you have one. (contact me through ‘contact’)

    Much more history on the way…

  3. I don’t suppose Tycho, that you could one day explain the confusion that is Xiali and Geely’s use of the Daihatsu Charade platform in any more detail? A confusion that appears to be ongoing to this day.

  4. Hello Paul,

    Xiali had a license from Daihatsu for making the Charade under the Xiali-name. Geely did things differently… They went to the Chinese suppliers of Xiali and simply bought the same parts, including the whole bodywork! That is how they made the original HQ. Only problem was the engine that was made by Xiali itself, again under license from Daihatsu. Geely therefore had to develop its own engine, which is basically a copy from some ancient Mitsubishi unit.

    Geely did the same trick with the Shanghai Maple which is a copy from the China-made Citroen Fukang. They bought the parts, including the bodywork, from the Dongfeng-Citroen suppliers. Since this was not illegal at the time there was nothing that Xiali or Citroen could do… (but sure they were angry.)

  5. Hello Tycho,

    Another interesting article indeed! Also there seem to be an error in here. The part where you talked about the rear of the 2005 Rural nanny where there is a picture of the rear of the pickup, the characters there isn’t actually Zhongguo Qirui, it is in fact, Zhongguo Jili (中国吉利). That is the Chinese name for the Geely. The Zhongguo Qirui as written there (中国奇瑞) is actually Chery’s Chinese name. So I believe there a bit of a mix up. Other than that, a very interesting article!

    • Thanks a lot for pointing that out. It seems a Chery pickup (pics 8&9) sneaked into my story on a Geely pickup. That means I will have do do another story… coming up soon!

  6. Mr. Zhuang, as a reader of this website, I appreciate and welcome your input, and I’m guessing that Tycho does as well. It would be nice if more folks from China itself, would add their comments to this great source of Chinese auto industry information. That way we could all learn a lot.

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