GAC Space Concept Debuts As A Hydrogen Van With All-Grille Face, Gullwing Doors

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Guys, the inevitable has happened. China’s Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) has unveiled the Space concept featuring an all-grill front fascia. Even bigger than a BMW kidney, Audi Singleframe grille, or Lexus spindle grille, the giant vertical bars give the avant-garde van a bit of a Transformers vibe. Since that’s not clear enough, the front grille lights up and there’s a wider LED light bar above it too.

Beyond the impressive front fascia, the GAC Space has giant gullwing doors and an enormous tailgate. The latter opened when the Tea Time Lounge was activated to make room for an electrically mountable sofa to take tailgating to a new level of luxury Cullinan could only dream of. Being just a concept, it removes the annoying B-pillar to make it super easy to access the lounge-like cabin with its minimalistic design.

Having been engineered with Level 4 autonomy in mind, the GAC Room largely removes the driver’s “burden” by doing all the legwork in most scenarios without manual input. When the advanced self-driving system is turned on, the yoke-like steering wheel is automatically retracted. Doing so will free up more space in an already spacious cabin with an L-shaped sofa and two separate swivel chairs.

At the heart of the bold concept is a fuel cell powertrain that produces over 180 horsepower and 258 pound-feet (350 Newton-meters) of torque. With a full hydrogen tank, GAC Space can cover 403 miles (650 kilometers) before running out of juice. A full recharge takes between three and five minutes, so it’s comparable to a regular car powered by a combustion engine.

During GAC Tech at the company’s R&D center, the Chinese automaker also presented a 1.5-liter combustion engine developed to use hydrogen. This technology is nothing new as Toyota has experimented with a similar setup on the GR Yaris and Corolla prototypes. However, it is too early to say whether this will develop into a true savior of ICE after fossil fuels are banned. The same can be said of the synthetic fuel Porsche is working on.

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