Here is some information we found out about the various new brands that been released to the Australian market in the last year or two. Information is as factual as we could find since the source material, due to the language barrier and the problem of getting real feedback from the country of origin. This week it is all about the Zeekr brand aka Geely sub-brand.
Zeeker : No brand image but say they sell luxury – probably for marketing purposes to introduce high initial prices.
Makes electric cars styled on Tesla, VW and Kia designs.
They promote their European design studio location but still the models look similar to other existing models.
The interior designs and materials do support their claim for luxury although they look like more fussy version of the basic Tesla interior design.
Zeekr appears to be here for the long term due to its Geely ownership it seems they could be around for the long term.
It would not be fair to Zeekr if we did not have a quick look at it’s parent company Geely. So, according to its history Geely started off very small business and grew to a large multinational company over the last few decades by acquiring many well known automotive manufacturers and brands. It’s like a copy of the HP story but it is clear that Geely did not suddenly spring up. Geely is a privately owned company so there is very little to share about ownership.
Geely now, through is subsidiaries own outright or major shareholder of Volvo, Lotus, Proton, Smart, London Black Cabs, Morbidelli, Benelli motorcycles. They often act as financial saviours to the troubled brands offering cheaper manufacturing or cost base and appear to be keeping the brands traditions rather than simply buying just the badge.
*Due to revelations on practices of other Chinese brands legal and corporate practices we will not be posting any further comparisons or reviews on these vehicles or products and certainly nothing vaguely critical. You are on your own folks.