ZEEKR builds 100,000th EV in just 18 months, gaining steam ahead of launch into Europe

Booming luxury EV brand ZEEKR is celebrating production milestones while simultaneously setting its sights on its next phase of expansion into Europe. The Geely-backed automaker recently rolled its 100,000th EV off its assembly line in China, a mere 18 months after flagship production began. For ZEEKR, however, it’s all part of a much larger set of goals and its pace is only getting faster.

When you truly think about today’s 100,000 EV milestone, ZEEKR didn’t even exist three years ago. Parent company, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd (Geely) announced ZEEKR as a new luxury EV automotive brand in March of 2021.

The young automaker’s first model, the ZEEKR 001 began production in China that following October, and only 199 EVs saw deliveries that first month. By January 2022, ZEEKR shared it was targeting 70,000 annual EV deliveries, alongside plans to expand to markets in Europe in early 2023. The ramping up progress is all part of a larger expansion goal to reach 650,000 units sold annually by 2025.

By last October – one year after beginning EV production, ZEEKR had delivered its 50,000th vehicle. A month later, ZEEKR launched its second model – the 009 MPV – which joined the 001 on assembly lines this past January.

That same month, ZEEKR shared even loftier goals for 2023. After exceeding its goal of 70k units for 2022, an internal letter from ZEEKR CEO Andy An, laid out five key targets for 2023. This included doubling last year’s sales up to 140,000 EVs annually, plus ZEEKR’s successful entry into new markets of Europe.

Following a presentation from the Shanghai Auto Show, ZEEKR appears well on its way into
Europe and is gaining the production momentum required to hit its next sales milestone.

ZEEKR shares where it will sell its first EVs in Europe

According to a post from its Weibo page today, ZEEKR has produced 100,000 EVs to date in just 548 days – that’s an average of about 5,474 EVs per month. Impressive for such a young automaker, but it is backed by one of the largest automotive conglomerates in China as well.

Earlier this month, ZEEKR launched its third all-electric model, a compact SUV called the X, which is expected to begin deliveries in China this summer. ZEEKR shared it is aiming to deliver 40,000 units of its latest model this year alone. Combined with the 001 and 009 EVs already humming on ZEEKR’s assembly lines, the X should propel the automaker closer to its ambitious sales target for the year.

During this week’s Shanghai Auto Show, we also learned that the ZEEKR X and 001 will be the company’s first models to be sold in Europe – and now we know where.

Both EVs are expected to make their debut in both Sweden and the Netherlands in Q4 of this year. A tad behind ZEEKR’s original timeline of entering markets in Europe in Q1 of 2023, but we are not going to knock that delay considering how quickly the young automaker continues to grow.