Zeekr — the most technologically advanced car company you have probably never heard of!
Recently I covered CES 2025 (the Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas.
The day before CES opened press conferences were held — mostly in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.
This year, the first press conference of the day was LG…
… followed by Hisense, Bosch…
… John Deere, TCL, AMD, Siemens, Toyota…
… Samsung, Sony (located far away, in the Sony exhibit space at the Las Vegas Convention Center) and one other, for Zeekr — a company that I’d never heard of, and I doubt that you have heard of them either. I had no idea what they sold, but since I was already there I decided to check it out. Was I glad that I did! It absolutely blew me away!
Zeekr is an automobile company founded in 2021, during the Covid 19 pandemic. Imagine that. How could Zeekr possibly be competitive against automobile companies that have been around for decades? How indeed, and yet more than 420,000 Zeekr production battery electric vehicles have already been delivered in over 40 global markets, including Europe, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and China.
Zeekr is part of the Geely Group, a Chinese car company that you probably HAVE heard of. As we learned at the press conference from Giovanni Lanfranchi, the CEO of Zeekr Technology Europe, and Dr. Zhu Ling, Vehicle Line Executive, Zeekr is a premium electric car company, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence. It has six battery electric models (BEVs) with several variations. Its goal is for its vehicles to be at the very top of their respective categories.
Zeekr has a multi-faceted explanation for how it became so good, so quickly. One reason that stands out to me is that Zeekr developed strong relationships with other, top-tier companies to learn from the best, thus greatly accelerating Zeekr’s learning curve. Other reasons include parent Geely Holding’s powerful brand equity and manufacturing synergies.
Zeekr has category-leading tech. It claims to have been the first BEV car company to establish an 800 Volt ecosystem: vehicle, battery and charging. Their Golden Battery Gen 2 lithium-ion phosphate battery is said to be “the fastest charging battery in mass production,” charging from ten to 80% SoC in only 10-1/2 minutes.
Its AI-empowered driving is second to none, including driver-actuated autonomous parking; industry-first fully automated charging without manual intervention, via an automatic robotic arm on the charger; personalization based on behavior learning, contextual interaction, efficient journey management, comprehensive door-to-door urban intelligent driving and more.
Until now, Zeekr has had no public-facing presence in the U.S. It chose CES 2025 as a venue to test the public’s reaction to several of its models, each a leader in their category.
The Zeekr MIX is a wildly popular, very cool minivan with nine seating modes, including 270-degree, rotatable front seats; and extra-wide entry thanks to its extra-long sliding rails and no B-pillars to get in the way of passengers. I asked about structural rigidity and learned that MIX actually does have functional, albeit hidden B-pillars. When the side doors are closed, they tie securely into the body.
The Zeekr 001 FR “Hyper-Performing” battery electric Shooting Brake Supercar features a quad motor, 800 Volt system, producing peak power of 930kW; four-wheel vectoring control, coilover suspension, “Räikkönen mode” (F1 World Champion) and a pin-you-to-your-seatback zero to 100 km/h time (0-62 mph) of only 2.02 seconds! That’s quicker than the Tesla Model S Plaid!
Zeekr’s all-new 009 luxury flagship — a 6-seater MPV, features a dual-motor, 800 Volt system that produces 580kW of peak power and a zero to 100 km/h time of 3.9 seconds. Inside, a divider privacy wall with a video screen separates the flagship’s VIP passengers from the driver’s compartment.
Judging by the large crowds checking out the three Zeekr automobiles at the Las Vegas Convention Center during CES, Zeekr must have been very encouraged by the response, but stiff tariffs currently under consideration on Chinese goods could keep Zeekr and their incredible automobiles out of the U.S. market. Just like competition from the Japanese in the 1970s prompted U.S. auto manufacturers to improve their automobiles, wouldn’t competition from the best Chinese manufacturers do likewise?
To learn more about Zeekr visit https://www.zeekrlife.com/global/.
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Copyright © 2025 by Jan Wagner – AutoMatters & More #868
Jan, well said. I agree.
David
Great column Jan. Once again I am amazed by the heavy equipment you carry with you. I don’t blame you for relaxing in the back seat of that Zeekr to rest your feet.
As for Zeeker, I had never heard of them, but I am familiar with their parent, Geely. With their super low costs made in China, given the chance, Zeekr/Geely could flood the world market. Without defensive measures like tariffs, the US automobile industry will be doomed.
International trade is very political and cutthroat, so it will be interesting to see what plays out.
David
Thanks David, I agree that if China is permitted to ‘dump’ these cars and other Chinese goods in the North American market, that could well doom the North American auto industry, but that industry must continue to be incentivized — through fair competition, to design and manufacture competitive vehicles to those made by Zeekr and others. Therefore, any tariffs that are imposed on these Chinese goods should only be enough to ensure fair, competitive pricing, but not so high as to keep them out of our market. Offering those vehicles for sale here, at competitive prices, would give our manufacturers benchmarks for the design and sale of competitive vehicles.
Jan
Here finally came the Zeekr piece. Although Zeekr is not new to me, I still learned a lot from your report, including its annual delivery, its door-to-door intelligent driving among others. Thanks.
Thank you for your comment. I was very impressed with Zeekr and hope that they start selling their automobiles here, in the U.S..
Jan