ZEEKR is in a hurry to launch a new car

Author | Huang Yu

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

With more than four months left before reaching the annual delivery target of 230,000 vehicles, ZEEKR has once again deployed two ace cards, aiming to achieve a great sales victory.

On the evening of August 13th, ZEEKR officially released the 2025 ZEEKR 001 and the 2025 ZEEKR 007, with official starting prices of 259,000 yuan and 209,900 yuan respectively. Whether it is from the price or configuration perspective, it shows ZEEKR's determination to fight a decisive battle.

Compared to the previous generation models with the same range, the 2025 ZEEKR 001, with the same price, has upgraded its full range of intelligent driving capabilities. The intelligent driving chip has been replaced with the NVIDIA dual OrinX intelligent driving chip, increasing the computing power from 48 TOPS to 508 TOPS, which is 3.5 times that of Tesla's HW3.0.

In addition, the 2025 ZEEKR 001 has added an entry-level model, continuing to use the Mobileye intelligent driving solution, reducing the starting price from 269,000 yuan to 259,000 yuan.

The newly launched 2025 ZEEKR 007, apart from the top-spec four-wheel drive performance version, has a price reduction of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan for other versions, with upgraded configurations.

ZEEKR's second-generation self-developed Golden Brick battery, ZEEKR AI OS intelligent cockpit system, and the vast Intelligent Driving 2.0 self-developed by ZEEKR, these latest evolutionary achievements will be first launched on the 2025 ZEEKR 001 and 2025 ZEEKR 007.

According to ZEEKR's three-electric system technical expert Pan Fuzhong, the second-generation self-developed Golden Brick battery of ZEEKR has a maximum charging rate of 5.5C, allowing it to charge from 10% to 80% in just 10.5 minutes, making it the fastest charging power battery in the world. For the first time, the charging speed of lithium iron phosphate has surpassed all currently produced ternary lithium batteries.

Currently, ZEEKR has four main models: ZEEKR 001, ZEEKR 007, ZEEKR 009, and ZEEKR X, among which ZEEKR 001 and ZEEKR 007 are the two main pillars.

As the first model launched by ZEEKR, ZEEKR 001 still accounts for a significant portion of its sales, having just released the 2024 ZEEKR 001 in February of this year.

It is worth mentioning that ZEEKR's Chief Marketing Officer Guan Haitao responded publicly on July 12th to a rumor about the upgrade of the intelligent driving system of ZEEKR 001. At that time, Guan Haitao responded that the related information was a misunderstanding, and since the blogger involved had apologized and clarified, ZEEKR would not pursue legal responsibility against the blogger.

Now, ZEEKR seems to have broken its promise. With the launch of the 2025 ZEEKR 001, in just half a year, ZEEKR 001 has been iterated twice.

The ZEEKR 007, which was launched at the end of last year, is the fourth model under ZEEKR and is now also a sales pillar, accounting for only about 20% of ZEEKR's sales, second only to ZEEKR 001.

Public data shows that in January of this year, the overall monthly sales volume of ZEEKR 001 has dropped from over 10,000 units during the peak period to over 5,000 units. Since the launch of the 2024 model in February, sales have surged, with monthly sales exceeding 10,000 units from April to June. Although sales in July have declined, they still exceeded 9,000 units ZEEKR 007's sales volume in the first half of the year has been maintained at around 4,000 units per month.

According to ZEEKR, the 2024 ZEEKR 001 has delivered over 50,000 units in 5 months, becoming the sales champion of pure electric vehicles priced above 250,000 RMB.

With both models enjoying market popularity, why is ZEEKR taking the risk of upsetting old car owners by quickly iterating new models?

For ZEEKR, which recently went public independently, it needs to turn losses into profits quickly and achieve its doubled delivery target of 230,000 units for the year. Therefore, just maintaining normal popularity is far from enough, and ZEEKR is eager to seek further breakthroughs in sales volume.

ZEEKR's latest delivery data shows that after surpassing 20,000 units in June, deliveries dropped to around 16,000 units in July. The cumulative deliveries from January to July reached 103,525 units, an 89% year-on-year increase, with an annual sales completion rate of about 45%, still facing significant pressure to achieve the full-year sales target.

Facing the intense competition in the domestic new energy vehicle industry, ZEEKR must take more bold measures. Therefore, in early July, it launched the more cost-effective 2025 ZEEKR X, targeting the most competitive 001 and 007 models.

At the same time, ZEEKR will further enrich its product line and plans to launch several new models in the second half of the year, including ZEEKR 7X and ZEEKR MIX.

Recently, ZEEKR revealed that to meet the production capacity demand brought by the launch of multiple new models, it is utilizing the summer high-temperature equipment maintenance period to upgrade and transform its production line for about three weeks (from late July to mid-August), to meet the continuous growth of new products and orders, and to prepare in advance for the challenge of delivering 30,000 units in a single month in the fourth quarter of this year.

While striving for sales volume, ZEEKR also needs to maintain loyal users, which is a valuable asset, especially in the current fiercely competitive environment of the new energy vehicle industry, determining whether each carmaker can go further in the future.

To address the controversy of old car owners feeling "betrayed," on August 14th, ZEEKR responded that after the launch of the 2024 ZEEKR 001, the widely praised HAOHAN autonomous driving system carried by ZEEKR 007 received positive feedback from users and the industry. Many potential users of ZEEKR 001 called for the option to choose the HAOHAN autonomous driving system. Therefore, the originally planned HAOHAN autonomous driving version to be achieved by the end of this year has advanced to the first stage of functional implementation.

At the same time, ZEEKR stated that the old models cannot be upgraded to the HAOHAN autonomous driving system. This is because the 2025 ZEEKR 001 with the HAOHAN autonomous driving system adopts a different layout in terms of underlying chips, system deployment, and wiring layout from the original Mobileye autonomous driving system, with two different solutions at the system and hardware levels.

This response is obviously not satisfying for old car owners.

It is worth noting that when ZEEKR was just established, it prioritized users. When the 2022 ZEEKR 001 was launched, it even provided free upgrades to the old car owners with the 8155 chip, which was highly praised and helped it stand out in the competitive new energy vehicle race.

ZEEKR must set its sights further ahead. For ZEEKR, its destination is not only domestic but to become a global enterprise. As of now, ZEEKR has entered nearly 30 international mainstream markets including Sweden, the Netherlands, Thailand, and Mexico, aiming to enter 50 countries and regions globally by the end of the year, and planning to enter the Japanese market in 2025 ZEEKR still has a long way to go. Going public is not the end, but the starting line of a new stage. In this new race, ZEEKR needs to be cautious with every step