Zeekr X News

Top EVs for first-time electric car buyers.

Speaking to CarsGuide at a brand preview event in China, Zeekr’s Australian head of marketing Andrew Haurissa explained that early signs indicated its premium messaging was attracting buyers from the most steadfast luxury brands.While Australia is about to be inundated with an array of new Chinese brands, Geely’s luxury Zeekr arm will be the first to reach beyond the mainstream segment, to challenge perhaps the most difficult corner of the market — the luxury buyer.In this segment, where value is less important and brand cachet survives above all, is Zeekr hitting the mark?According to Haurissa, despite the brand’s strategy of undercutting its key rivals in the space, early signs had buyers coming from Volvo, BMW, and more. “They’re mostly from premium brands” he says of the buyers interested in its first two models, the X small SUV and 009 people mover “These are people who were looking to buy Volvos for example, or even BMWs, sales we’ve converted over from those brands.“The interest coming from the mainstream part of the market I think is because of the amount of noise in the market on all of the new players coming from China”“But ultimately our buyers are looking away from price points, they’re attracted by a Zeekr vehicle itself”He says primarily what buyers are telling the brand in its initial roll-out phase, is more that they are attracted by the futuristic design and having better cabin tech than many other options in the luxury space.“What we found about those just looking for a Chinese vehicle is that they’re surprised isn’t as big as other Chinese cars. These buyers are less well informed and more concerned about price-point. They might tell us the car is impressive but the price point isn’t right."He said ultimately buyers weren’t stepping up from mainstream brands despite the more accessible price point, and that the initial phase, at least, had customers leaning more toward the top-spec all-wheel drive version ($64,900 before on-road costs). An early indicator of the brand’s more luxury messaging getting through.But the comparatively low price-point was still a draw according to Haurissa “It’s a compromise we’re making, and people have the mindset that because you’re an unknown brand, you should be more affordable”“But we say come and compare us like-for-like and you’ll see the difference.”Additionally, lower prices are still a formula for success specifically in the premium EV segment, as many brands are struggling to gain traction with products further up the price-scale.“The premium market has remained strong, but with EVs there are players out there who are definitely doing it right” he says, perhaps a not-so-veiled hint at BMW’s more competitively priced EVs like the iX1, iX3, and iX SUVs selling much better than rival products further up the price-scale from Mercedes-Benz and others, in no small part due to some versions getting in under the LCT threshold for fuel efficient vehicles.Additionally, Haurissa said there’s been a notable shift in the last two years around what once rusted-on buyers are willing to try “The average 55-plus buyer for the first time is very open to trying new things – it’s a very interesting time in the market” he said.“You have to remember what ‘premium’ or ‘luxury’ means is different things to different groups in the market” pointing out that Zeekr was breaking new ground and not “sugarcoating” its status as a Chinese brand.“We’re premium and we’re Chinese. We’re not a European brand with 100 years of history. If we’re compared to the Europeans - let the user have that discussion, it’s just up to us to provide the best product we can.”Zeekr will not only need to gain buyers from the likes of BMW, Volvo, and Mercedes though, as it will also go into battle in 2025 against other more aspirational challenger brands from China like Xpeng, Chery’s Jaecoo, and potentially MG’s IM Motors.One thing is for sure, the sales charts this time in 12 months are set to look very different.

Zeekr is the first Chinese premium brand to launch in Australia, but by the end of 2025 it will be far from the only option.

Getting out among new car buyers can be a rare occurrence in this line of work, with a focus on new products and the promises of executives filling our regular days. So it was refreshing to man the CarsGuide EV advice stand at the 2024 Sydney International EV show for the weekend and get some insight into how electric car buyers think. Although it was a smaller footprint than Sydney Motor Shows of old, fervent visitors started filling the halls from 9am on all three days. In total, more than 30,000 bodies passed through the doors over the weekend. The overwhelming takeaway from talking to buyers was this sect of Aussies was not at all concerned about brand history, with Toyota and Ford’s stands dramatically quieter than the barely-known start-ups from China such as Xpeng, Zeekr and Deepal.It helps that these new marques dressed their stands to impress. Aside from a wild flying machine, XPeng also had a luxurious seven-seat people mover essentially purpose-built to generate public interest with a huge rear entertainment screen and ‘business class’ reclining rear seats with heating, cooling and foot rests. The G6 is the first retail model from XPeng and it was also well-trafficked, along with the larger G9 the brand is considering for local release. Zeekr turned up with the X small SUV along with a few extra bits of eye-candy like the confirmed-for-oz 009 people mover, a 475kW 007 sedan in a lewd yellow paint colour and a 001 FR the Geely-owned marque’s Polestar 2-related first model. The other new entrant was Deepal, which is being imported by well-known company Inchcape that also handles Subaru, Foton, Peugeot and previously Citroen. Along with the classic Tesla Model Y rival, the S07 electric family SUV, Deepal had some cool stuff. Namely, a Cybertruck-like electric and range-extender compatible E05 electric sedan-pick-up amalgamation that was catching attention. Kia’s front-and-centre placement helped drive plenty of traffic to the brand’s new EV5 while also making Hyundai’s lack of presence quite obvious. With the Tasman due next year and the EV5’s sharp price, it’s a brand that’s sure to go from strength to strength. Tesla’s presence was held up by the Australian owner’s club while BYD was represented by a dealer, with an unfortunate lack of Shark utes on the stand. It was Ford and Toyota that were visibly the lowest traffic OEMs over the weekend, and Australia’s third most-popular brand Mazda didn’t even turn up with its plug-in hybrids. With a pair of bZ4Xs on display and charge-box-on-wheels, Toyota’s wasn’t exactly a dull stand yet it proves that people are more interested in the whizz-bang new models — that’s the point of a motor show, after all. As for Ford, despite having prime real estate among the newcomers, it seemed that not so many punters were interested in the Mach-E and plug-in hybrid Ford Ranger Stormtrak, even with the ute’s vehicle-to-load system that can power a coffee machine, TV, work tools and more.Some other mainstream carmakers present were Audi, BMW, Cupra and Volvo though these stands were notably smaller than the others. As for other brands from China, Chery and GWM proved relatively popular but the Smart stand was quiet. MG’s choice to only bring a Cyberster rather than the affordable MG4 seemed a bit short-sighted — next year, maybe.The most common line of questioning was if we would recommend the XPeng G6 and what the best alternatives to a Tesla Model Y are — we fielded almost no questions about the bZ4X or plug-in hybrid Ford Ranger Stormtrak. Plenty of test drives were taken over the three days and at one point on Sunday, you would have had to queue for four hours to sample XPeng’s new G6. But what does all this tell us about the new car landscape?MG has already proven sharp pricing can drive mega traffic into electric vehicles and that, when EVs reach parity with combustion-engined and hybrid options, they are much more attractive. In this case, customers aren’t cross-shopping, say, a Tesla Model Y with just other EVs, but similarly-priced combustion and hybrid models, too. Electric cars aren’t competing with themselves, but in a battle to bring the other 90.6 per cent of the new car market out of combustion and hybrid-engined choices. Most worrying for big carmakers, though, will be the lack of brand devotion. Despite what the bZ4X advertising campaign suggests, there were very few talking about Toyota’s proven low-cost servicing or reliability. Instead, the long seven- and even ten-year warranties of newcomers seemed enough to allay most fears. Don’t expect Toyota, Ford or Mazda sales to drop off a cliff anytime soon, but the interest and willingness of local buyers to branch out and sample an unknown product will definitely cause a headache.

Incoming Geely-owned brand Zeekr is keen on importing the radical Mix people mover to Australia, but the focus is on building the brand first.