The electric Zeekr 001: a unique offer?

A new design language, unusual proportions and always a 100 kWh battery pack on board: these are some of the features of the new Zeekr 001, the first production model from the Chinese Zeekr. That brand falls under the Geely flag and therefore has ties with, among others, ‘the new Smart’, Volvo, Polestar and Lotus. It is – after the Lynk & Co 01 – the second achievement of Geely to be sold on our market under a name not yet known in Europe, from now on. The Zeekr 001 has recently been available to order, should hit the road here in the fall and will cost at least around €60,000.

Many luxury items are standard

For that amount you can buy a large hatchback with a length of just under 5 meters, a luggage compartment of 539 liters and a towing capacity of 1,500 kg (as RWD) or 2,000 kg (as AWD). The Zeekr 001 is available in three flavors, all three with decent standard equipment. For example, LED matrix headlights, a heated rear seat, a panoramic roof, a swath of screens and driver assistance and safety systems, an audio system with eight speakers and electrically adjustable seats are all standard.

Also on the ‘barest’ version, which is the only one of the three to have only two driven wheels. Thanks to their four-wheel drive, the other two variants are slightly less efficient and therefore have a driving range of less than 600 km WLTP, but sprint to 100 km / h in less than 4 seconds. Top version ‘Privilege’ also has massage seats and air suspension, but with a price of €68,490 it is also €8,000 more expensive than the entry-level model (€60,490).

We know the design of the steering wheel from the Lynk & Co 01.

In short: the Zeekr 001 is an electric, luxury and large hatchback with a serious range for just over €60,000, where you can add ‘fast’ to its adjectives for an extra €3,000, and replace ‘luxury’ with ‘extra’. luxury’ for an additional €5,000.

We do not yet know such a model in Europe and it seems to nestle itself in a corner of the market where no other brand has come before. Yet there are indeed competitors, although each of them has a more elongated shape. These include – among others – the Volkswagen ID7, BMW i4, Nio ET5 and Polestar 4, with the latter also having ‘new’ forms. That is not entirely coincidental, because the Polestar 4 is also on Geely’s SEA platform. We have to give the Chinese giant one thing: they don’t make uniform sausage.

Agreements and Award

Nevertheless, the Zeekr 001 – barring its large hatchback coach – can therefore be compared well with other cars, namely with the four models mentioned that have already been extensively compared in this article. If we add the values ​​of the most comparable Zeekr 001 (the Long Range RWD, see below) to the bottom of the table from that comparison, then a number of things stand out.

From €63,490 with all-wheel drive and a 0-100 time of less than 4 seconds.

Firstly: the quite obvious resemblance to the Polestar 4. The wheelbase, the maximum tow weight, the weight of the car itself and the acceleration times are all similar or the same. On paper, the Polestar 4 has a smaller battery, but we suspect that the difference here arises because the Polestar is a net capacity and the Zeekr is a gross capacity. The Zeekr is (probably) more fully equipped than the Polestar, has a slightly larger luggage compartment and is available earlier.

Looking at the other competitors, the Volkswagen ID7, BMW i4 and Nio ET5, the (theoretical) inefficiency of Geely’s SEA platform is striking. Although the Polestar 4 and Zeekr 001 are more energy efficient than the Nio ET5, the consumption values ​​of the Nio apply to a car with four-wheel drive. The BMW i4 and Volkswagen ID7 are both lighter and significantly more economical. The Zeekr does seem to offer the most value for money; the Volkswagen and BMW are (for the Volkswagen it is a presumption) not as richly equipped and are priced similarly or more expensively.

Zeekr 001: technically certainly not leading

All in all, the Zeekr 001 is a striking appearance that seems to make its occupants comfortable – we have yet to find out what the car is like ‘in the real world’. However, the car is not very competitively priced (as some other Chinese products are) and is technically – despite its not-nauseous figures – certainly not leading. We are therefore curious whether the Zeekr 001 will be popular on the Dutch market, where it may be helped by its familiar face thanks to the popular Lynk & Co 01. But is that enough to beat Volkswagen, BMW or the popular electric SUV?

So from the side quite comparable to the Citroën C5 X, which also has a niche body shape.