Electric vehicle manufacturer Zeekr has just confirmed it has a new electric sedan coming, and the brand will launch itself in Europe in 2024, according to the UK's Autocar. For those that need catching up, Zeekr is owned by Geely and is established in China through the Zeekr 001 shooting brake and the Zeekr 009 MPV. However, it has a thousand-or-so-strong design team in Stockholm, Sweden, which is around 300 miles away from the also-Geely-owned Volvo and Polestar. That's no coincidence, as the team jointly designed the CMA platform that underpins the Volvo XC40 and Polestar 2, as well as several other Geely-owned brand cars.
The news that Zeekr has a new sedan coming, currently codenamed CS1E (Compact Sedan 1st-generation Electric), and a European launch in 2024 is relevant here in the US as Geely is pushing its expansion hard and has our shores in its sights for 2025.
It appears Geely's charge across the world with new brands will be two-pronged. Zeekr looks to be the premium brand, while its flagship brand, Galaxy, has seven new luxury vehicles to launch over the next two years. They will be made up of plug-in and all-electric vehicles, while Zeekr plans to launch a new model every six months.
"Zeekr is a well-established product in China but will expand rapidly in international markets, which is our original goal," says Zeekr CEO An Conghui.
The expansion's target is to create 650,000 sales a year by 2025, which is why a US launch is imperative.
Which vehicles will hit Europe and then the US isn't known yet. However, an electric compact sedan like the CS1E would be a good bet to make both markets. The 001 and 009 are China-only products at the moment, and the Zeekr X compact SUV will join them in the third quarter of 2024. We don't believe a shooting brake will do well in the US, but it could find a market in Europe, as could Volvo's rumored MPV based on the Zeekr 009. We doubt the MPV would find a market here either, even if it does make over 500 horsepower. The only bets we would make on Zeekr vehicles arriving in the US in 2025 would be the compact car and crossover.
