A super rare Roewe Whale, seen in the south of the Chinese capital Beijing. As the name may imply, the design of the whale was inspired by the fishy whales. The front is a whale’s head: the grille is the baleen and the top lights are the eyes. The shape of the roof was inspired by a humpback whale.
Roewe is a bit of a difficult brand for SAIC. They can’t decide what to do with it. Roewe has been through many rebranding and repositioning operations, each with a new design language. A few years back, Roewe launched a high-end R-series. This series became quite popular, so instead of being happy for Roewe, SAIC decided to turn it into the new and separate Rising brand. Poor Roewe.
It has a two-piece spoiler above the window, a spoiler on the boot lid, a car-wide light bar, and yet another set of lights on the far edges of the vehicle.
The Roewe Whale was a sorry child that fell between rebranding and redesigning. When it was launched in 2022 it didn’t look like anything else in the Roewe lineup. The name was odd too: 鲸, Jīng, Whale. One-character car names are very rare in China. Normally, it would be a combination of characters, for example, like 鲸鱼 (Whale Fish) or a more poetic name like 勇鲸 (Brave Whale). But no, Roewe went for ‘whale’ alone.
The odd design dragged the Whale further down into the depths of the cold sea of no sales. And as we all know, whales can’t breathe down there for very long. Consumers just didn’t like it, and sales were dramatic. So after just one year, Roewe pulled the Whale off the market. One year! That is short even for China, and it makes the Whale a very rare car.
It was not a bad car. Not at all. Quality was good and it had a cool interior with light colors, leather seats, and a trendy curved screen. It looked almost like an electric vehicle but the Whale was old-school ICE.
Note the little ‘fins’ in the D-pillar. That’s fish-inspired too!
Roewe offered only one engine in the Whale: a 2.0 liter turbocharged four-pot with 231 hp and 370 Nm. The motor was mated to an eight-speed AMT sending all horses to the front wheels. The top speed was 210 km/h and fuel consumption was a rather steep 8.8 liter per 100 kilometers.
Roewe offered 3 trim levels which were named after whale species: the Whale Beluga, the Whale Orca, and the Whale Blue Whale. This is not how whale species are normally described in China, so it was a tad weird, especially the Whale Blue Whale. In Chinese: 鲸蓝鲸, Jīng Lánjīng. The price range was okay for the amount of car you got: 166.800 to 192.800 yuan.
This was the first ever Whale I had seen so I was very excited and got my harpoon out to shoot it. I have counted the baleens: 25 in all. I wonder if the owner of this car really bought it, or if he worked for Roewe in Beijing, and he got it with a discount, or for free. The Whale was not a pretty car, but it was nice to see Roewe trying something different.
In the end, it didn’t help. Roewe is still searching for its true self. Earlier this year, Roewe launched a new D-Series of NEVs. Yes, another series once again. At the same time, they keep updating their ancient ICE cars, like the Roewe i5, a sedan that dates back to 2019. Where where this go..? I also visited a Roewe dealer in Beijing. More on that in a later post!