Nearly six months to the day after revealing ambitious plans to enter new markets in Europe this year, ZEEKR has launched pre-orders for two of its three current EV models. The Chinese EV automaker will launch in two EU countries to begin as it shares a timeline to expand to even more of Western Europe.
ZEEKR is a EV-centric, wholly-owned sub-brand of parent company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. (Geely). In the two-plus years the young automaker has been in existence, it has already produced 100,000 EVs in China.
Those production numbers came on the wings of just two models, but a third recently joined the fold called the ZEEKR X – its first crack at an SUV. The X is one of two new models promised to debut this year, according to an ambitious internal letter sent out by ZEEKR CEO Andy An this past January.
One of the five key tasks laid out by An for 2023 was entry into new markets in Europe. This echoed a statement made by the company a year prior during the 001 launch, but we still were unaware where ZEEKR’s entry into Europe would begin.
In the letter, An stated the brand intends to “create value in the world’s most mature automotive markets.” At the time, we surmised that smaller, EV-centric countries in Europe where other Chinese automakers have already begun sales, made sense for ZEEKR. We mentioned territories like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
Today, we have our answer. Hint – two of the countries we guessed are correct. It’s like we have ESPN or something!
ZEEKR officially enters Europe, beginning in Sweden, NL
Beginning today, ZEEKR has officially opened pre-orders for its 001 and X EVs in both Sweden and the Netherlands. ZEEKR’s new website is up and running, enabling consumers in the EU to place their new EV orders now.
The automaker states its EVs were jointly designed between its teams in China and Europe at ZEEKR’s global design center in Gothenburg, Sweden. Per ZEEKR:
Relying on the global superior resources of Geely Holding Group, Jikrypton is born in the world, and Europe is Jikrypton’s second home. The Jikr (ZEEKR) global design center located in Gothenburg, Sweden, endows Jikr products with international genes, and brings global users loyal to the original Jikr-style design that emphasizes luxury technology experience; Jikr European engineering R&D team has the world’s top design and engineering capabilities, Carry out localization verification for extremely krypton models.
Per ZEEKR, the 001 sedan will start at an MSRP of 59,490 euros ($64,765) and the X SUV will start at 44,990 euros ($49,000). The automaker intends to bring a luxury, one-stop experience to its new customers in Europe, vowing to deliver four key elements to each EV purchase: financial policy, energy replenishment systems, after-sales guarantee, and Internet of Vehicles.
Customers in Europe that place pre-orders today via direct sales models are expected to receive deliveries later this year. Those first two markets will also be the first to see brick-and-mortar stores in Stockholm and Amsterdam this year.
Lastly, ZEEKR said it intends to enter most of the markets in Western Europe by 2026. At the rate this automaker is moving so far, it could realistically beat that timeline.
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