Zeekr Begins Big Push into 6 European Countries

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Zeekr is one of the most elegant, most advanced, and most high tech EV producers in the world. The brand is underneath the wing of Chinese auto giant Geely, but Zeekr has always seemed like a brand focused on conquering the European market. Recall that Geely also owns Volvo Cars and Polestar. It also has the Lynk & Co brand, which is quite popular in a couple of major European markets. In fact, An Conghui, CEO and President of Geely, recently said that Europe is Geely’s “second home.” Now it’s time for Zeekr to make it that.

Technically, Zeekr started making deliveries to Europe — the Netherlands — at the end of 2023, but really, this is the year Zeekr is making its big push into the European market. According to a recent announcement at the China EV100 Forum in Beijing, Zeekr is going to be in 6 European countries by the end of 2024. Big target markets for Zeekr in Europe include the aforementioned Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.

That said, Zeekr isn’t just for China and Europe. According to An Conghui, Zeekr vehicles will be available in 38 Southeast Asia and Middle East markets by the end of 2024.

One other part of the recent speech included mention of Geely’s broad goals as an EV leader. An Conghui said that he wants Geely to “become Volkswagen AG in the era of new energy vehicles.” Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen AG) has battled with Toyota for the title of largest (highest selling) automotive group in the world, but Volkswagen Group achieves its high numbers on the back of several different, specialized auto brands — Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, SEAT, Cupra, Lamborghini, etc. You can see how Geely’s big umbrella of auto brands, even multiple EV-only brands, is going in that same direction. What is Zeekr comparable to if we want to keep that comparison going? I was thinking about it for several minutes, but I think it’s better to just say Zeekr is Zeekr. It’s an impressively styled brand with great tech, and I expect it to do very well in Europe. It could definitely chip into some of the Tesla sales on the Old Continent.

Overall, Geely is already a major EV leader and could be well on its way to becoming the Volkswagen AG of “new energy vehicles” (EVs). Out of its 2.8 million auto sales last year, nearly one million were new energy vehicles. I expect the company, like top competitor BYD, to be at 100% BEV sales by the end of the decade, if not much sooner.

What do you think? Will Zeekr do well in Europe, or will it struggle due to growing efforts to block Chinese EV sales on the continent, anti-Chinese sentiment, and simply the challenge of getting a new brand up and going in countries that have such a long history with their local auto brands?