First ZEEKR 009 MPVs roll off assembly line in China with 500+ mile range
Just over six months after teasing first images of its second EV model, Chinese automaker ZEEKR has officially begun production of the 009 MPV. Deliveries of the all-electric, multi-purpose vehicle are expected to follow soon, contributing to the Geely sub-brand’s quick growth and early success.
ZEEKR remains a relatively young luxury EV automotive brand in China founded as recently as 2021 under Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd, better known as Geely. Geely added ZEEKR to its EV umbrella as a high-end marque to compete in China against fellow automakers like Tesla and NIO. So far, it’s held its own and reported decent quarterly numbers in 2022.
The company’s flagship EV – the ZEEKR 001 – began deliveries overseas over a year ago, ahead of publicly shared plans to eventually expand to new markets in both North America and the EU. Before then however, ZEEKR has been working to deliver its second EV, the 009 which it began teasing last summer.
By August, we had our first full look at the MPV, which will feature CATL’s energy dense Qilin batteries, a contributor to the 822 km range the higher-tier version of the ZEEKR 009 is touting now that production is officially underway.
ZEEKR team celebrates 009 SOP, two models in two years
ZEEKR shared images of the first 009 models rolling off its assembly line Ningbo, Zhejiang province of China yesterday. Deliveries will soon follow. The ZEEKR 009 officially launched sales in China this past November, offering two different versions – the WE and ME.
The Zeekr 009 comes standard with a dual motor powertrain with 400 kW peak power, plus ternary lithium batteries. The size of those packs does vary alongside starting MSRP. For example, the WE trim starts at RMB 499,000 ($73,680) and includes an 116 kWh battery offering 702 km (436 miles) of range.
The higher end model includes an 140 kWh pack that includes the aforementioned Qilin technology, delivering 822 km (~511 miles) of range on a single charge and starts at a price of RMB 588,000 ($86,822). It’s important to note that these range estimates are CLTC and would likely equate to significantly lower distances from the EPA. Still impressive for such a large EV, nonetheless.
Even as the lower-end trim, ZEEKR is touting the WE 009 as the first MPV in China to eclipse 700 km CLTC range. In December, ZEEKR announced it had surpassed its output goal of 70,000 units for 2022 and shortly followed up with targeted plans for 140,000 annual units from 2023 onward.
So far, there have been no talks of a third model in the ZEEKR family, nor has the Geely brand shared more details of its expansions into new markets like the US. However, the company did quietly file for a US IPO in December.
At the pace this EV automaker is moving, we are sure to hear some more news soon.
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EV sales kept up their momentum in December 2024, with incentives playing a big role, according to the latest Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book report.
December’s strong EV sales saw an average transaction price (ATP) of $55,544, which helped push the industry-wide ATP higher, according to Kelley Blue Book. The December ATP for an EV was higher year-over-year by 0.8%, slightly below the industry average, and higher month-over-month by 1.1%. Tesla ATPs were higher year-over-year by 10.5%.
Incentives for EVs remained elevated in December, although they were slightly lower month-over-month at 14.3% of ATP, down from 14.7% in November.
EV incentives were higher by an impressive 41% year-over-year and have been above 12% of ATP for six consecutive months. Strong sales incentives, which averaged more than $6,700 per sale in 2024, were one reason EV sales surpassed 1.3 million units last year, according to Cox Automotive, a new record for volume and share.
(My colleague Jameson Dow reported yesterday, “In 2024, the world sold 3.5 million more EVs than it did in the previous year … This increase is larger than the 3.2 million increase in EV sales from the previous year – meaning that EV sales aren’t just up, but that the rate of growth is itself increasing.”)
Kelley Blue Book estimated that in December, approximately 84,000 vehicles – or 5.6% of total sales – transacted at prices higher than $80,000 – the highest volume ever. KBB lumps gas cars and EVs together into this luxury vehicle category, so this is where Tesla Cybertruck is slotted.
However, Tesla bundles sales figures of Cybertruck with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi(!) into a category it calls “other models,” so we don’t know for sure exactly how many Cybertrucks Tesla sold in Q4, much less in December. However, Electrek‘s Fred Lambert estimates between 9,000 and 12,000 Cybertrucks were sold in Q4, and that’s not a stellar sales figure.
What will January bring when it comes to EV ATPs? What about tax credits? Check back in a month and I’ll fill you in.
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Tesla is now claiming that Cybertruck was the ‘best-selling electric pickup in US’ last year despite not even reporting the number of deliveries.
There’s a lot of context needed here.
As we often highlighted, Tesla is sadly one of, if not the most, opaque automakers regarding sales reports.
Tesla doesn’t break down sales per model or even region.
For comparison, here’s Ford’s Q4 2024 sales report compared to Tesla’s:
You could argue that Tesla has fewer models than Ford, and that’s true, but Tesla’s report literally has two lines despite having six different models.
There’s no reason not to offer a complete breakdown like all other automakers other than trying to make it hard to verify the health of each vehicle program.
This has been the case with the Cybertruck. Tesla is bundling its Cybertruck deliveries with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi deliveries.
Despite this lack of disclosure, Tesla has been able to claim that the Cybertruck has become “the best-selling electric pickup truck” in the US in 2024:
It very well might be true. Ford disclosed 33,510 F-150 Lightning truck deliveries in the US in 2024 while most estimates are putting Cybertruck deliveries at around 40,000 units.
Those are global deliveries, but Tesla only delivered the Cybertruck in the US, Canada, and Mexico in 2024, and most of the deliveries are believed to be in the US.
However, there’s essential context needed here, as we highlighted in our recent ‘Tesla Cybertruck sales are disastrous‘ article.
First off, Tesla had a backlog of over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck that it has been building since 2019. This led many to believe Tesla already had years of demand baked in for the truck and that production would be the constraint.
However, based on estimates, again, because Tesla refuses to disclose the data, Cybertruck deliveries were either flat or down in Q4 versus Q3 despite Tesla introducing cheaper versions of the vehicle and ramping up production.
Again, that’s after just about 40,000 deliveries.
Furthermore, with almost 11,000 deliveries in Q4 in the US, Ford more likely than not outsold Cybertruck with the F-150 Lightning in Q4.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is in damage control here. There’s no doubt that it is having issues selling the Cybertruck.
Inventory is full of Cybertrucks and Tesla is now discounting them and offering free lifetime Supercharging.
Tesla is great at ramping up production, and it’s clear the Cybertruck is not production-constrained anymore. It is demand-constrained despite having over 1 million reservations.
Again, those reservations were made before Tesla unveiled the production version, which happened to have less range and cost significantly more.
The upcoming cheaper single motor version should help with demand, but I have serious doubts Tesla can ramp this program up to more than 100,000 units in the US.
As a reminder, Tesla installed a production capacity of 250,000 units annually and Musk said he could see Tesla selling 500,000 Cybertrucks per year.
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