Geely Aims to Reverse Chinese Cars’ Safety Reputation with World’s Largest Safety Center

• Chinese vehicles have long been viewed with suspicion when it comes to crash safety.

• Last year, 29 of the 32 Chinese vehicles tested by EuroNCAP obtained the top score.

• Earlier this year, Geely opened the largest vehicle safety test center in the world, which it will share with other automakers.

As Chinese vehicles become more and more popular across the world, entering new markets where they were previously unknown, they have to face some particularly robust preconceived notions.

Most notably, consumers in Europe and North America often consider Chinese vehicles to be unsafe and cheaply made, a perception which is partially to blame on their affordable prices.

While no Chinese vehicle is currently widely available in North America, there is a wide variety of them offered on the European market, where they have made significant inroads over the last few years.

In reality, it seems most Chinese cars, at least those designed for export, are now very safe, with 29 of the 32 models tested by European authorities in 2025 achieving the highest possible five-star rating.

In order to further prove the safety reputation of Chinese vehicles wrong, Geely has now opened the largest vehicle safety test center in the world, near its headquarters in the Hangzhou Bay area of Eastern China.

This facility is about a third larger than any other already in existence, with a floor area of 81,930 square meters and a 293-meter indoor crash test track.

By comparison, Volvo’s similar facility in Sweden (incidentally also part of the Geely family since 2010), includes two crash test tracks, with the longest measuring only 154 meters.

Geely’s facility also benefits from a 12,709 square meter arbitrary angle crash test zone, which allows its engineers to crash cars into barriers or other vehicles at any angle between 0 and 180 degrees.

The building also houses the world’s largest wind tunnel, which can create gusts of up to 250 km/h. In addition, this piece of equipment can be adjusted according to altitude and climate change, while also being able to simulate precipitation such as rain and snow.

Engineers can also simulate solar radiation in this tunnel, which provides another way in which to test vehicle electronics and active safety assists.

Speaking of which, the safety center includes a large computer lab that can be used to thoroughly test electronic safety systems and driver assists, as well as cybersecurity measures.

To make sure its vehicles protect all occupants equally in spite of their size and age, Geely employs 60 different dummies during crash tests.

This facility will make it easier for Geely to improve the safety levels of its vehicles in the coming years, but the company has already garnered praise in this regard, as all six of the models it sent for evaluation by EuroNCAP last year were among the top scorers.

In fact, the Geely Starray EM-i mid-size plug-in hybrid SUV was selected for a very demanding safety demonstration by EuroNCAP, which it passed. In this unusual test, the car was hit on the left side by a weighted cart driving at 60 km/h, being pushed into a rigid pole on the right side. This results in simultaneous high-energy impacts on both sides of the vehicle’s structure.

Interestingly, Geely isn’t content with just improving the safety of its own models. Therefore, the automaker has said its safety center will be open to other companies who want to collaborate in this domain.

The hope is that collaboration on safety between numerous automakers will help develop more comprehensive safety standards that will make all road users safer.

Source: Automotive News