- Zeekr has revealed its most opulent vehicle, the 9X three-row SUV.
- It is Zeekr's first model with a combustion engine, which works with two electric motors as part of a PHEV system.
- Pricing or availability outside China has not been confirmed, but it should cost around $70,000.
Zeekr is a premium Chinese automaker, one of over a dozen sub-brands that belong to Geely, and it wants to rival the established luxury brands in all segments. It offers cars as small as a Tesla Model 3. But with its most recently revealed model, the 9X, it also hopes to draw buyers away from the Mercedes-Benz GLS or a BMW X7. The 9X is also Zeekr's first plug-in hybrid (PHEV), marking a huge shift for a company that has long been all-electric.
There’s certainly more than a hint of Rolls-Royce about the 9X’s front end, with a very similar grille design and squared-off aesthetic. However, it doesn’t look like a copy of the Cullinan SUV, and moving more to the side of the vehicle, it doesn’t look like any of its rivals. The polished metal trim that goes all the way around the upper part of the vehicle’s sides doesn’t look overdone, and it helps make the three-row 9X look special.
What’s more intriguing is what's under the 9X’s hood. It has a 275 horsepower 2-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine connected to a three-speed automatic gearbox. The engine also acts as a generator to replenish the battery pack (whose capacity hasn’t been confirmed yet), giving the 9X a claimed range of 236 miles (380 km) on the more lenient Chinese test cycle (CLTC).
Gallery: Zeekr 9X
The combined power output from its two electric motors and combustion engine is around 885 horsepower, which enables this big bruiser to accelerate to 62 mph (100 km/h) in a claimed three seconds and reach a top speed of 149 mph (240 km/h).
Thanks to its 900-volt electrical architecture, the 9X can charge from 20 to 80% in 9 minutes. It also has a 48-volt system running all of the ancillaries, including the two-chamber air suspension that works together with active antiroll bars to help it corner flat. Zeekr says the 9X is also capable of Level 3 automated driving, featuring an advanced array of driver assistance systems that rely on lidar and cameras.
Zeekr could have made the 9X pure electric, but that would have severely limited its appeal. Customers who want big, flashy, three-row SUVs like this one typically want a lot of range, but extra large vehicles require extra large batteries, which drive up prices. Even in China, where charging networks are good and expanding rapidly, PHEVs make sense in the largest segments.
Zeekr could also have made the 9X a extended-range electric vehicle (EREV), with a combustion engine acting solely as a generator. However, even though plug-ins (EVs and PHEVs) are hugely popular in China, EREVs are few and far between. One of the few range-extended EVs coming out of China that we know of is the BYD Shark pickup. Pretty much all of the other hybrids tend to have engines that power the wheels directly.
If you want a fancy battery-powered Zeekr and don’t need the SUV form factor, you can opt for the company’s BEV minivan, the 009, which in its top trim has actual gold-plated exterior trim and a lavish two-seat cinema in the back. We also recently got to try what is expected to become the company’s biggest seller in Europe, the 7X, which surprised us with its luxurious and well-appointed interior, smooth ride and general feeling of good engineering. Clearly, Zeekr has a lot of good things going on.
