Zeekr EV brand confirmed coming to Malaysia – Geely’s rival to Tesla to arrive after smart

(UPDATE: We’ve reached out to Proton and Pro-Net for official comments on this matter, and while they could not outright confirm that Zeekr will be introduced in our market soon, they have reiterated their intention to accelerate their NEV plans for the near future. This may include multiple models from Geely’s wide-ranging EV portfolio – not necessarily Zeekr – that would follow the smart #1’s local introduction.)

It’s official – the Zeekr brand has been confirmed to be coming to Malaysia, and will do so after the arrival of the smart brand into this market, the smart Malaysia Facebook page has revealed.

The news emerges as the Malaysian minister of international trade and industry Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz paid a visit to the smart manufacturing plant in Ningbo City, China, where he was joined by his delegation from MITI, MIDA, Matrade, DRB-Hicom and national carmaker Proton.

First announced in March 2021 by parent company Geely, Zeekr is positioned as a premium EV brand that will operate separately from the group’s mainstream EV brand, Geometry. The company announced in November that Zeekr will enter Europe this year, and now Malaysia will be next for Zeekr, although the social media posting did not reveal an exact date for the brand’s arrival into this country.

The latest model from Zeekr is the Zeekr X, an EV crossover that uses the Scalable Electric Architecture (SEA) by Geely, which is also used by the smart #1.

Click to enlarge

The Facebook post by smart Malaysia stated that the delegation was given the opportunity to test-drive various EVs during their visit, including the smart #1 which is expected to “be the first on the road”, in reference to EVs from the group of brands, according to the post.

The Malaysian minister of international trade and industry tweeted that he managed to have a test drive of the Zeekr 001, and appears to have been impressed by its acceleration.

Not explicitly stated, but included in pictures accompanying Zafrul’s tweet on the visit to Ningbo was his sampling of what appears to be the Lotus Eletre, based on the Lotus badge and the dashboard architecture depicted.

For the smart brand, it is on track for its launch in the third quarter of this year, following the formalising of partnership between Proton and smart Automobile Company with the signing of a distributorship agreement last August.

Zeekr 009 (row above); Zeekr X (row below)

At its premiere in April 2021, the Zeekr was rolled out with a 400 kW (544 PS) dual-motor powertrain driving all four wheels, enabling a 0-100 km/h run claimed to be under four seconds and a top speed of over 200 km/h, as well as a range of up to 700 km. A single-motor RWD powertrain outputs 272 PS and 384 Nm of torque, enabling a 0-100 km/h time of 6.9 seconds.

The Zeekr 009 that followed in August last year is a fully electric MPV aimed at the likes of the Toyota Alphard and is in fact larger than the Japanese model; the Zeekr 009 measures 5,209 mm long, 2,024 mm wide and 1,856 mm tall with a wheelbase of 3,205 mm.

Di Ningbo 🇨🇳 untuk melawat Geely Zeekr Hangzhou Bay Smart Plant.@GeelyGroup telah menunjukkan minat bekerjasama mengguna pakai teknologi EV baru untuk @ProtonCars_ & ekosistem di Malaysia.

Sempat juga saya test drive EV Zeekr 001, memang power betul pecut dia! pic.twitter.com/tgGQfltINe

— Tengku Zafrul 🇲🇾 (@tzafrul_aziz) April 2, 2023

GALLERY: Zeekr 001

GALLERY: Zeekr 009

GALLERY: Zeekr X

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