Zeekr wants you to rethink electrified luxury
Autohub Group grows portfolio with ‘intelligent premium’ EV brand
IT’S TRULY an automobile buyer’s market. Even if you drill down the various segments, they’re all being saturated with marques and models. And everyone knows that when there are more choices, that’s good news for browsers. There’s a bigger chance of getting best value for our money — features that we want at the pricing we’re comfortable with. And, surprisingly, even the once burgeoning electrified (in all its forms) vehicle space is nicely filling up with challengers and contenders to compete for a spot in your garage.
The Autohub Group recently added to its growing empire with the formal introduction of Zeekr, positioned as a “global intelligent premium electric mobility technology brand.” Under the aegis of the Geely Auto Group, Zeekr was established in 2021 in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China to enshrine the group’s aspiration to compete in the premium electrified space.
Even as the first showroom of Zeekr in the Philippines is set to rise in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig this September, Autohub is already making available two variants of the Zeekr 001 (Long Range and Privilege), and another two grades of the Zeekr X (Premium and Privilege). The 001 is priced from P3.625 million, while the X starts at P2.6 million.
They are decidedly more upscale and luxe than your average EV in both execution and accoutrements, that’s for sure. But that’s not all, says Zeekr Philippines. The Zeekr vehicles can attain, “lightning-fast charging times and feature safety functions, positioning it as a premier sustainable mobility solution. For instance, the Zeekr 001’s charging port boasts a capacity of up to 200kW, allowing (the user) to charge the vehicle from 10% to 80% in just 30 minutes.”
In an exclusive interview with this writer, Autohub Group President Willy Tee Ten said he first heard of the brand through Chinese expats who work for Geely (the Autohub Group is among Geely’s dealers here). “They told me that they have another brand under the group — a brand that’s the favorite of the Geely Holdings owner. That brand is Zeekr,” he revealed.
It piqued his curiosity enough to want to take a closer look at the Zeekr cars himself, and so off to China Mr. Tee Ten went. “Normally, when you choose a brand, you choose the most popular, the most sellable — the one that’s easiest to market,” he insisted. “I thought it might be hard because it’s a Chinese brand that not many people know about. I went to the factory and saw for myself the beauty of the vehicles. It’s what struck me first, after that is the technology behind it. I thought to myself, this is so good. This is one of the few brands that I could say I wanted even if it’s not popular yet.”
The addition of Zeekr to the Autohub portfolio is doubly significant because it is the group’s first all-electric marque. We asked Mr. Tee Ten about the confidence to go this route. “Of course, the interest in EVs has been there since way back. It became even more evident when the President last year signed EO 12, exempting duties for EVs.”
The market that Zeekr is aiming for here, he continued, is the mid-to-luxe segment. Based on pricing, there’s obviously that aspiration to undermine the traditional — and more expensive — premium players. “The good thing about this is that even if we’re in the premium segment, our price is much better than the (present competition) in this space. Yes, we’re going to target the premium segment buyers so that they look for a lower-priced vehicle like ours with the same or even better quality and technology.”
There are also mass-market brands playing in the high-end space, he insisted. “Those are the customers we’d like to capture also. We’re hitting two birds.”
For now, there is no immediate plan for growing the dealership footprint of Zeekr Philippines beyond the aforementioned BGC location (the Autohub Group showroom is getting a renovation to accommodate Zeekr). “We’re doing things deliberately. We also need to wait for our country’s charging infrastructure to grow first before looking at other areas. But since Zeekr is in the premium segment, we’re in the most premium area that is BGC. So, I think this is the best way to start the Zeekr brand,” concluded Mr. Tee Ten.