Zeekr X vs Cavan C1

What's the difference?

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 deliberately simplistic styling, sometimes weird cabin ergonomics and slavish devotion to pulling dollars from the end result make us wonder if the Cavan C1 doesn’t represent some kind of a revival of the white-versus-blue-collar occupational class system.

Socio-economic aspects aside, this would be okay if the C1 did everything as well as its peers. But it doesn’t. It does, however, get enough things right and enough things covered off adequately to be a viable tool for a business in the last-mile delivery industry or some other version of the courier game.

But it won’t be as easy to use as some offerings, nor will it be as comfortable over an eight-hour shift. And the way the driver-assistance features are calibrated means the Cavan will very possibly start to wear thin by about morning-tea time. This may bother its operators somewhat. But some fleet managers and CFOs? Not a bit. Which is where the return to that us-and-them thing comes into it.

A metaphor for the planet right now? Perhaps.