Land Rover Discovery vs Zeekr X

What's the difference?

The Land Rover Discovery 35th Anniversary Edition drives beautifully, with effortless power and a composed, comfortable ride. It’s elegant and well-equipped for its price, though the technology often frustrates, and it’s not as spacious as some seven-seater rivals. Small quirks in everyday use prevent it from fully standing out in a competitive segment but it does enough to be considered.

It's a good thing in a small package, this Zeekr X, and there are a lot of things I like about it. In fact, the only sticking point for me is the price. But that's all about perspective. If you see this as a newcomer Chinese brand, then yes, there are a lot of more affordable options out there. But if you see it as a premium player, it's really a more affordable version of a Volvo.

Note: The author, Andrew Chesterton, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number of automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

The Discovery remains a handsome SUV. It isn’t as boxy or rugged-looking as some of its rivals, but it still carries a quiet confidence and a hint of adventure in its stance. The 35th Anniversary Edition gets a few subtle touches to help it stand out, including 21-inch black alloy wheels, roman-numeral anniversary badging and slim LED lighting signatures that give it a clean, sophisticated look.

Inside, everything feels solid and thoughtfully put together, with soft-touch materials in all the right places. Some of the trim finishes lean a little synthetic, but the leather upholstery is beautifully done and the dual sunroofs bring in plenty of natural light, which helps elevate the cabin ambience.

The 11.4-inch media display takes pride of place on the dash and looks premium, and there are enough physical buttons and dials to satisfy those who like some tactile-functionality. That said, the cabin doesn’t quite deliver that sense of occasion you might expect at this price. It’s nice, it’s just not especially distinctive.

The visual changes aren’t massive. This AWD version welcomes a couple of new exterior colours, including the 'Matt Khaki Green' of our test car. It also gets the two-tone black roof and there are new 20-inch alloy designs.

Elsewhere, it's the futuristic-style of design we’re used to which differentiates the X from its Volvo EX30 twin under the skin.

Inside, this is a seriously well-equipped and polished-feeling small SUV, and — unlike some of the newcomer brands to Australia — it all feels very high quality and well put together. And that includes the material choices.

I don’t even hate the fact that most of the functions are controlled via this screen, thanks to the little shortcuts glued to the home screen. I do, however, hate the fact that there’s no easy way to change the wing mirrors or shortcuts for toning down some of the safety stuff.

That aside, though, it’s a nice and high-quality feeling space.

The Discovery’s cabin is an interesting mix - at first glance it seems to offer the right balance of space and features, but once you settle in, a few small disconnects between technology and layout become apparent.

Up front is where you want to spend most of your time. The powered seats are well-padded with long bases and excellent lumbar support. There’s plenty of room for tall drivers and passengers and elbow space is generous. The only annoyance is the heated seat function, which is buried behind the menu system and the fiddly climate dials.

The middle row highlights the Discovery’s tall-but-narrow proportions. Adult passengers can feel a little cramped side-to-side, though the flat floor gives decent leg and foot room. The third-row surprises with wider seats and deeper footwells than expected, so knees aren’t pressed against chests. Access, however, is more suited to children than adults.

Storage is abundant and thoughtfully positioned. Up front, there are dual glove boxes (one lockable), a hidden cubby behind the climate panel and underneath the sliding cupholders, a tray housing the wireless charging pad (which, in our test car, didn’t work), and the middle console fridge which is a handy touch for keeping snacks or drinks cool on long trips. The middle row gets map pockets, cupholders and bottle storage, while the third-row benefits from hinged cubbies on each wheel arch.

The boot is the standout, offering a massive 1137L when the third row is folded. Its tall and deep shape makes it practical and features like the powered tailgate, adjustable boot-lip height via air suspension, a full-size spare and a 12 volt socket round out its friendly usability.

Access is a simple step-in and step-out scenario thanks to the Discovery’s 'Auto Comfort Access' mode which, when activated, lowers the vehicle when parked. That said, the doors are heavy and need a firm push to latch properly.

Technology is a bit of a mixed bag. The media system is somewhat intuitive once you spend time with it, but newcomers may find the layout confusing. It includes sat nav, wireless Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto, though in our test car, CarPlay occasionally showed music playing without sound but re-pairing my iPhone 15 Pro Max fixed the issue. The dual-use climate dials, which control temperature, fan speed and seat heating, can feel finicky, and one rear door locked itself for four days despite troubleshooting. The rear seat fold controls also worked inconsistently.

On the plus side, amenities like four-zone climate control, multiple air vents per row, and seven USB ports scattered throughout the cabin are thoughtful touches.

You know you're in a small vehicle when you can't fit two large (not those crazy American-style jumbo cups, just normal coffee-shop takeaway) coffees in the cupholders, but so it is with the Zeekr X.

The small SUV's 4432mm length, 1836mm in width and 1566mm height doesn't leave much room to spread out up front. There's ample room for driver and passenger, of course, but we are talking about a small vehicle here.

Clever storage helps to mitigate that, though, especially the super-deep storage space in the centre console and the very clever fridge that separates the driver and passenger seats.

Weirdly, though, the space doesn’t feel overly tight in the back seat. We had a massive baby seat in there, and that fit without issue. And full size humans can genuinely get pretty comfortable. I'm 175cm, and I had enough knee and headroom.

In the boot, there’s 404 litres of volume with the rear seats upright and 1247 litres with them folded flat. And it’s worth pointing out this isn’t intended to be a family car, but there’s certainly enough space for the shopping... and a pram.

This is a small SUV with a LOT of stuff. There are two trims in the Zeekr X range – the entry-level rear-drive model is $48,900, drive-away, while the all-wheel drive version we've tested is $57,900 on the road.

The obvious comparison is to the Volvo EX30, which shares its platform with the Zeekr X through both brands' Chinese parent company Geely.

As of right now, the cheapest single-motor Volvo is $56,051, drive-away in NSW, or $49,990 plus on-roads, making the Zeekr version much, much cheaper.

Anyway, outside there are 19- or 20-inch alloys, though our test car is fitted with the optional 20-inch black alloys, paired with a black-with-red-highlights interior treatment, which adds $2000 to the price.

Ours is also fitted with the electric front doors which open or close at the push of a button, and back doors that unlatch, but don’t fully open, the same way, which adds another $2000.

Both trims also get heated and cooled front seats, and heating in the rear window seats, but this AWD version also adds a massage function for front seat riders. 

There’s also wireless charging, a 13-speaker Yamaha sound system and — very cool, literally — is the little drinks fridge between the front seats in the AWD variant.

Tech is handled by a 14.6-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and there’s a head-up display for the driver.

The 35th Anniversary Edition runs a hefty 3.0-litre, six-cylinder, twin-turbo diesel paired with a 48V mild-hybrid system. Together, they produce 257kW and 700Nm. It’s brisk, too, with a 0-100km/h sprint time of 6.3-seconds, which is impressive for such a large 4WD.

Towing is rated at 3.5 tonnes and wading depth sits at 900mm, reinforcing its credentials as a proper adventure vehicle. Our test vehicle also features the 'Capability Plus Pack', which brings low-range gearing, rear differential lock and multiple terrain modes.

Not too bad for something that looks more like a school-run luxury SUV than some of its rivals.

The big news here is a more powerful rear motor – meaning you get more grunt whether you opt for the rear-wheel drive or this all-wheel drive.

In rear-drive form, that boosts your outputs from 200kW to 250kW, dropping the sprint to 100km/h to 5.6 seconds. In AWD guise, your new outputs are 365kW (up from 315kW) and 573Nm, and your sprint to 100km/h falls to 3.7 seconds.

The 35th Anniversary Edition has a claimed combined fuel figure of 7.8L/100km, and with its 89-litre tank you’re looking at a theoretical driving range of around 1141km. In the real world, I saw 9.0L/100km - that’s with one longer highway run mixed into a week of school runs and suburban errands.

It’s a touch thirstier than I’d hoped given I wasn’t towing or carrying heavy gear, but it still sits comfortably within expectations for this segment and size of vehicle.

This is where it starts to get weird. The rear-drive Zeekr X is fitted with a 61kWh LFP battery, which can accept up to 230kW DC fast charging, taking you from 10 to 80 per cent charged in just 18 minutes. Total claimed range is 405km.

The flagship AWD, though, charges at a slower rate. It gets a 66kWh NMN battery and can only be charged at 150kW, meaning the same charge takes 30 minutes. Zeekr is promising a 415km driving range between charges.

Power delivery in the Discovery feels effortless, with none of the laggy, heavy character you can get from some big diesels. It responds quickly when you need it to, whether you're merging into traffic or overtaking and always feels like it has plenty left in reserve.

Ride comfort is excellent. The adaptive suspension absorbs bumps and settles the body confidently through corners without feeling floaty or wallowy. Steering has a reassuring weight to it - not too light, not too heavy - which helps the Discovery feel sure-footed and composed on the road.

The cabin is impressively quiet, making it easy to chat with passengers across all three rows and reducing fatigue on longer drives. Visibility is generally strong and the high seating position gives a good command of the road. The only drawback is the middle-row headrest, which blocks the rear view. A digital rear-view mirror would be a helpful addition, especially when the car’s full.

Despite its size, the Discovery is surprisingly easy to manoeuvre, with a fairly forgiving 12.7-metre turning circle. Parking is straightforward thanks to a clear 360-degree camera system, although the display itself could be larger. Even in tight shopping centre car parks it never feels unwieldy.

Short answer? Pretty good, with some caveats.

I'm partial to a firmer ride. I find some Chinese car companies can feel like they get their suspension bits from Captain Snooze, such is the soft, pillowy ride served up. And to be honest, it makes me a little seasick at times.

The Zeekr is not like that. It has firmness dialled into the ride equation and can feel harsh at times, but also improves the drive experience, delivering connection and engagement at the cost of some sharpness on the wrong road. 

It's also faster than the model it replaces, but it's also one of those cars in which the real-life feeling doesn't quite match the on-paper promise.

This thing serves up supercar speed, but it doesn't feel like it from behind the wheel. Instead, the acceleration - especially from a rolling start - feels potent, but not biblical.

From a standing start it pauses for a moment, almost like an internal-combustion vehicle might, before delivering a quick (but not stratospheric) flow of power. None of that is a bad thing, by the way. Who wants their small SUV to accelerate like a supercar?

It's otherwise an entirely pleasant drive. The cabin is serene and quiet and it's a small car that doesn't feel like one. There's nothing light or tinny about the drive experience, instead there's a heft and quality.

The Zeekr X wears a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating, earned in 2024, which means the long list of required active safety stuff is present and accounted for, all wrapped up in what Zeekr calls its 'Intelligent Driving Assist System'.

There are five cameras, five radars and 12 sensors, which is a crazy number for a car this small.

And this is also not a car in which I was desperately trying to figure out how to deactivate any of the active safety systems – save the overzealous over-speed warning – which is a win these days, too. 

There are also seven airbags, including a centre front airbag.

The Zeekr X is fitted with ISOFIX anchors on the rear outboard seats and top tether anchorages for all rear seating positions.

The Discovery 35th Anniversary Edition is covered by a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, which is fairly standard for vehicles in the luxury SUV segment. However, it's worth noting the Nissan Patrol is offered with a 10-year (conditional) warranty.

Land Rover offers a pre-paid, five-year service plan for around $3500, which is cheaper than paying for each service individually. Service intervals are well spaced at every 12 months or 20,400 km, whichever comes first. There are approximately 71 authorised Land Rover centres across Australia, so even if you live regionally, you should be able to service your Discovery fairly easily.

Zeekr's coverage is an underwhelming five-year, unlimited-kilometres, while the drive battery is covered for eight-years or 160,000km. There’s five years' of roadside assistance thrown in, too.

Service intervals are 20,000km or 12 months, with five years' of ownership setting you back a hefty $3072; an average of $614 per workshop visit.

There are currently 16 Zeekr dealers in Australia - two of which are 'pop-up' sites rather than full retail centres.

Multiple locations in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane with the ACT, Adelaide and Perth also covered. Others include Geelong and the Sunshine Coast but so far you're out of luck in Tassie or the NT.