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Zeekr X review: Geely's glitzy greenhorn
- New Zeekr X EV to front brand’s entry into Europe
- Two models available, up to 422bhp
- Could be in the UK by 2025
The second Zeekr model to hit Europe is this – the Zeekr X. Of course, the Zeekr 001 shooting brake is all well and good, but every manufacturer knows you need a compact SUV if you want to succeed in the crowded European electric vehicle market.
Built on the same Scalable Experience Architecture platform as the Smart #1 and upcoming Volvo EX30, the Zeekr X is sized to face off against hard-hitters like the Renault Megane E-Tech, Volkswagen ID.3 and Kia Niro EV. How does Zeekr plan to make it stand out from the crowd when it launches later this year? With the ownership experience.
Well, it was never going to be with the looks…
No. It wasn’t. At least, unlike the Zeekr 001, the Zeekr X could never be accused of being a rebadged Lynk & Co model. Developed at Geely’s Global Design Centre in Stockholm, the brand boasts it’s ‘built on a decade of European experience’.
Bug eyes, torturously detailed flanks and droopy rump aside, the specs make for decent reading. Zeekr will offer the X with two power outputs in Europe – a Long Range model with a single electric motor and a Privilege with two.
The Long Range car has 268bhp and 252lb ft acting on the rear wheels, good for 0-62mph in 5.6 seconds. The Privilege ups this to all-wheel drive with 422bhp and 399lb ft, capable of 0-62mph in just 3.8 seconds. If those specs sound familiar, it’s because they’re identical to the ones offered in the Smart #1, though thanks to its slightly smaller proportions the Zeekr shaves 0.1s off the 0-62mph times.
Though Zeekr won’t tell us the usable capacity of its 69kWh battery it’d be fair to assume that’s identical to the Smart’s 62kWh. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that the official WLTP range, of 277 miles for the RWD car and 264 miles for the AWD model, are very similar too. As is the 150kW max charge rate, making for a 10-80% top up in 30 minutes. These scalable platforms don’t make for much variety, do they?
They also don’t make for particularly impressive efficiency, at least in this case. The Zeekr X gets less range from its 69kWh battery than either the 58kWh VW ID.3 or the 65kWh Kia Niro EV.
So where does the Zeekr differ from the Smart?
Step inside and the Zeekr X differs from just about everything. Fair play to the brand for actually doing a bit of reinventing here. Some touches are more successful than others – we hated the square puck that passes for a key, but the unconventional toggle switches for the windows and Yamaha stereo are quirkily pleasant and aurally excellent respectively. Even if the switches do operate the wrong way round.
You can see that Zeekr’s aiming for the upper half of the market, too. Vegan leather swathes the dash and rather pleasant fabric the seats, while the doors are frameless and much of the switchgear is a pleasant sort of rose gold. It actually feels very solid and nicely screwed-together in here, with panel gaps that shame many a European manufacturer. It’s only averagely spacious – there was precious little room behind our 6’2” tester’s driving position, and the boot is shallow.
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