Premium carmaker Zeekr sold 3,500 vehicles between April 21 and 27, marking a nearly 30% week-over-week increase, coinciding with the debut of its first hybrid model — the Zeekr 9X luxury SUV — at the Shanghai Auto Show.
Industry data shared on Chinese social media shows that Zeekr‘s sales from last week mark its rebound to above 3,000 units after the usual slowdown that accompanies the start of each quarter.
Zeekr brand is targeting 320,000 vehicle sales for this year. As of the end of the first quarter, the brand had sold 41,403 cars in the first quarter — 12.93% of its annual target.
From March 31 to April 27, the brand registered 11,200 vehicles. The company is expected to unveil April figures on early Thursday, on May 1.
Last week, the Shanghai-based brand set a sales record for the third consecutive week, selling 6,500 EVs — nearly doubling Zeekr‘s registrations.
Leapmotor sold 9,200 units, while Li Auto registered 8,600 cars. Li Auto remains the best-selling new energy vehicle startup in China year to date, just below BYD (the world’s NEV best seller) and Tesla in total sales.
XPeng listed 7,200 units while Xiaomi followed with 7,000 EVs. Last week, the tech giant reached its 100,000th vehicle sold so far in 2025.
9X SUV
Zeekr debuted its full-size SUV, the 9X, last week at the Shanghai Auto Show. The model is the brand’s first hybrid car and it is set to globally launch in the third quarter of the year.
“It features CATL’s Xiaoyao battery, delivering an all-electric range exceeding 380 km — the longest among hybrid SUVs globally,” Zeekr claimed in a statement.
According to the brand’s VP of Global Design Stefan Sielaff on an interview with Forbes Australia, the 9X reaffirms the brand’s intentions to compete with luxury brands Rolls-Royce and Mayback.
Sielaff stated that Zeekr has no design competition coming from China brands, noting that its rival brand Avatr “has fantastic proportions, but you need always to have a vision.”
“We must compensate for the fact that we have no heritage by delivering higher levels of everything else, including technology, quality, and design,” he added.
Expansion
Zeekr announced its European strategy in April 2023, expanding first into the Dutch and Swedish markets later that year. The brand then entered the Norwegian market in October 2024, starting deliveries a month later.
Last week, EV learned that Zeekr is expanding to Germany by partnering with local dealership networks, after having postponed its launch in the largest EV market in Europe in 2024.
Zeekr Europe CEO Lothar Schupet told the Independent at the Shanghai Auto Show that the brand will be entering the UK “early next year.”
The executive added that the process “is not very complex” as the company has launched in Australia and Malaysia, which feature “right hand drive products.”
