At Zeekr’s plant in Ningbo, Zhejiang province in China, the first model of the shooting brake 001 destined for Europe has rolled off the assembly lines. The first batch is expected to be shipped to Europe from the port of Taicang in mid-August, with first deliveries this year.

The new Swedish-Chinese Zeekr, a sister brand of Lynk & Co and Volvo, can already be ordered in Sweden and the Netherlands. The company now announced the next markets to follow are Norway, Germany, Denmark, and France. Belgium will likely follow soon after, as the press is invited to test drive Zeekr’s second model, the X urban SUV, in September.

Designed and engineered in Sweden

Zeekr’s European headquarters will be in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, but the 001 and X models were developed at Zeekr’s global design and R&D center in Gothenburg, Sweden, where it shares a whole new campus with Lynk & Co.

At the Geely brands’ headquarters in Gothenburg, the culture is more European than the Chinese ownership would suggest, as we could experience ourselves when test-driving the shooting brake and visiting the campus.

Some 550 people work there for the two brands, with two separate design teams of 110 people and 31 nationalities. Swedish are most represented, with Chinese, German, and French following. Mostly young people, with an average age of 34, 55% even under that age. A deliberate choice to add new blood and fresh ideas to the car business.

Separate premium brand

Eventually, the 001 was designed as Lynk & Co’s first fully electric model, but parent company Geely launched it as a separate premium brand. Lynk & Co instead wants to focus on its quite revolutionary subscription and sharing business model in Europe. And for this purpose, CEO Alain Visser believes a PHEV was better suited to start.

Zeekr hopes to make things hot for premium German brands like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, or even Porsche. The man to make this happen as CEO was found in Brussels at Toyota Motor Europe (TME).

Spiros Fotinos was director for Lexus Europe and EV planning from 2019 to 2022. He is confident Zeekr won’t be hindered by competing in the first place with Geely’s other premium brands, Volvo or Polestar. And Geely leaves its sub-brands room to develop independently.

Starting at €59 490

In the first months of this year, Zeekr delivered 54 672 vehicles in China, with July being the top month with 12 039. Preordering in Europe started end of June. Pricing for the Zeekr 001 starts at €59 490 (incl. VAT) in the Netherlands, and it is slightly cheaper in Sweden with 667 000 SEK or converted in euros, 56 757. The Zeekr X, with the underlying Smart #1 technology, starts at €44 990 and 550 000 SEK (€46 784).