Chinese smartphone manufacturer Meizu to launch its own EV

There were already Huawei and Xiaomi, but now a third Chinese smartphone manufacturer is planning to enter the electric car business. Meizu, owned by the Geely Group, wants to launch its first electric car this year, and it will be based on the Geely SEA platform.

At the ChinaJoy 2024 trade fair, Liao Qinghong, Meizu’s COO, confirmed that Meizu Automobile will be launched this year. He claims the vehicles will differ from those of conventional car manufacturers in the way they function.

Meizu was founded in 2003 as an electronics producer before moving into smartphone production in 2008. In 2015, it was the eleventh-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.

In July 2022, a Geely-controlled company bought a 79% controlling share of Meizu. After its acquisition by Geely, the company became increasingly involved in the human-machine interface of various Geely products.

Three’s a charm

Meizu is thus following its rivals Xiaomi, whose SU7 has been on the market since spring, and Huawei, which has entered into joint ventures with several car manufacturers as part of its HIMA project.

As Meizu is already majority-owned by the Geely automotive group (Volvo, Polestar, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, …), no external partnership is necessary. Instead, Meizu can rely on Geely’s SEA (Sustainable Experience Architecture) platform for its electric car and use its production facilities to build it.

Lifestyle ‘dream car’ for a community

Meizu’s first car, the DreamCar MX, will be unveiled later this year. Geely will produce it, and CarNewsChina assumes that the design has already been finalized.

It is expected to feature Meizu FlyMe, an intelligent link between the vehicle and smartphone operating systems. The DreamCar MX’s announcement image also resembles the Lynk & Co Z10, an elegant electric saloon from the sister brand in the Geely Group.

In January of this year, Meizu founded the DreamCar MX community, an interactive communication platform for Meizu fans. It enables them to exchange ideas and expectations and participate in the vehicle’s design and development process. This should help the company fulfill users’ needs and create more lifestyle scenarios.

When the Meizu car production plan was first announced, purchasers of the Meizu 21 phone were given the right to deduct the purchase price from a subsequent purchase of a Meizu DreamCar MX.