Lebanon is another Chinese newcomer to the Russian market. The consonance with Lifan, once the most popular brand from the Middle Kingdom in Russia, is no coincidence. The company went bankrupt several years ago, became part of the Geely concern, and the latter decided to launch a new brand in its place.
Livan is focused on simple, relatively inexpensive (in its homeland) models. In Russia, the brand launched at the beginning of summer with the X3 Pro B-crossover. In its only configuration, it costs 1.88 million rubles — of the official foreign cars, only the Changan Alsvin sedan is cheaper. Now the range has been expanded to three models at once: the S6 Pro sedan and the X6 Pro crossover have entered our market.
The four-door was called Geely Emgrand GL, and it debuted in 2016. After restyling, the name was changed to Emgrand L, and later the car was released under the Livan brand. The “Original” was never officially delivered to Russia, so for us this is a new product without any reservations. The car is 4730 mm long, 1818 mm wide, 1480 mm high, and between the axles is 2702 mm. With such dimensions, the S6 Pro is located at the junction of the golf class, where competitors already include BAIC U5 Plus, Kaiyi E5 and Omoda S5, and the D segment, in which a strong player recently debuted — Chery Arrizo 8.
A decent ground clearance of 150 mm is declared, but the trunk is small, only 418 liters. However, passport data should always be double-checked with measurements. Livan S6 Pro is equipped with all-round disc brakes, MacPherson strut suspension at the front and multi-link at the rear. Knowing how Geely engineers know how to tune the cars of the parent brand, this inspires hope that the “six” drives and steers decently.
The base power unit is a 147-horsepower 1.5 turbo engine with a 7-speed manual transmission. You can fill the tank with cheap AI-92. It looks like the parameters of the Chery engine, but, of course, it is not it. This S6 Pro reaches a hundred in 8.8 seconds and a maximum of 190 km/h. An alternative is a 180-horsepower “turbo-four” of the same volume, also in conjunction with a robot. The maximum speed does not change due to the increase in “horses”, only the acceleration dynamics improve by 0.4 s.
There are only three versions. The base version for 2.55 million rubles will include ESP, 17-inch wheels, a sunroof, heated front seats, LED headlights, steering wheel adjustment for angle and reach, four airbags, air conditioning, two 12.3-inch displays, rear parking sensors and Rear View Camera. For an additional payment of 90 thousand, you will get curtain airbags, electric folding mirrors and driver seat settings, all-round cameras, climate control, a hands-free trunk opening function, and a pair of additional speakers (six in total). Another 110 thousand — and you have an S6 Pro with a powerful engine (2.75 million rubles).
The Lebanon X6 Pro also comes from the Geely model. Initially it was delivered to Russia under the name Emgrand X7. After a number of upgrades, we were offered a crossover with dimensions of 4535x1845x1725 mm with a distance between the axles of 2683 mm and a ground clearance of 190 mm. Of the models known to us, Chery Tiggo 7 Pro Max is close to it.
The car's components, suspension and brake designs are no different from the S6 Pro sedan. It has the same maximum speed, but the dynamics are predictably worse due to the larger mass: 9.9 and 9.2 s. In terms of equipment, the differences are also in the details. The initial version for 2.63 million rubles costs 18-inch wheels, has only two airbags, but is equipped with climate control. For 110 thousand you will get side airbags and curtains, a panoramic roof instead of a regular sunroof and everything the same as in the sedan, with the exception of the all-round visibility system. In the case of a crossover, an upgrade to a 180-horsepower engine will cost 90 thousand (2.83 million rubles).
Interest but what's updated Livan X6 Pro will soon have a twin brother in China — the original Geely will be updated in the same vein and released in the Middle Kingdom under the same name as ours.