Chinese manufacturer Zeekr plans European expansion

The Chinese brand Zeekr was founded in 2021 and had already delivered 100,000 battery-powered cars by May of this year.

The majority of these cars were sold in its domestic market, but Zeekr now has Europe in its sights, opening sales in Sweden and the Netherlands, and announcing plans to launch in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France and Norway.

There’s no confirmed date for its arrival in the UK, but company sources suggest 2026 at the latest as the factory gears up production to serve right-hand-drive markets in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Zeekr is a sister to Volvo, Polestar, Lotus and Lynk and Co in the Geely Holding Group stable, but there’s no vertical hierarchy between the brands, unlike, say, Skoda, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche in the VW Group.

“In Geely, we have a horizontal position, so we share the same components and platform architecture, but we each have our own identity and ours is performance and technology,” said Alessandro Massimino, Zeekr Europe’s head of product and connectivity.

On the performance front, the flagship Zeekr 001 FR shooting brake claims to be the fastest five-seat production car in the world, blasting from 0-100km/h in just 2.07 seconds, and capable of recharging at 200kW DC.

While China is responsible for Geely’s group-wide SEA architecture, which offers a modular, scalable, all-electric platform, including powertrain, infotainment system, chassis, and advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) technologies, Europe takes care of Zeekr’s styling and chassis dynamics, courtesy of its Gothenburg global design centre.

European customers should not, however, hold their breath for red carpet treatment from a local dealer.

The brand is building visitor centres in key cities, such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Munich, Oslo and Stockholm, but sales will be direct.

“There will be no dealers or distributors,” said Massimino. “The first thing we need to offer the customer is value, even if we are a premium brand, and direct sales allow us to have transparent pricing.”

He added that the three main German brands and Tesla provide a reference point for pricing, although it is noticeable that the launch price of the X (€44,990, including VAT – about £38,750) is both significantly cheaper and more generously specified than its Volvo XC40 Recharge stablemate.

Zeekr will have a national aftersales centre in its new markets, but plans to subcontract service and maintenance work to nationwide third parties, rather than build its own network.

Each new car is covered by a five- year/100,000km warranty, which can be doubled to a decade and 200,000km with the Zeekr service plan.

As for protecting residual values, “We will not have a used car network, but we will have a partner for trade-ins,” said Massimino.

He added that Zeekr has partnered with Arval to offer a full range of business finance solutions, including full-service leasing and finance leases.

It will also support customers with Zeekr Power to install home chargers and has linked with Plugsurfing to provide access to a pan-European public charging network of 550,000 charge points in 27 European countries.