Native name | 极氪 |
---|---|
Company type | Division |
Industry | Automotive |
Founded | 2021 |
Headquarters | , China |
Products | Automobiles |
Owner | Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd |
Website | zeekrglobal |
ZEEKR (Chinese: 极氪; Chinese: 極氪; pinyin: Jí kè) is an electric vehicle company.
Zeekr was founded in March 2021 as a premium electric mobility brand for battery-powered vehicles by the Geely Group to compete against Nio and Tesla, among others. Its first model, the Zeekr 001 was officially launched in April 2021.[1] The Zeekr models are to be based on the SEA platform presented in autumn 2020.[2] In December 2021, Geely announced that Zeekr would be collaborating with Waymo to develop and provide all-electric, autonomous ride-hailing vehicle for the Waymo One autonomous mobility service in the United States.[3] The vehicle integrated with Waymo's technology was unveiled in Los Angeles in November 2022.[4]
In January 2022, a cooperation between Zeekr and Mobileye was announced to expand their strategic technology partnership with a goal to deliver the world's first consumer autonomous vehicles with L4 capabilities by 2024[5][6]
In August 2022, Zeekr announced their cooperation with CATL, making them the first brand to use CATL's Qilin long range batteries for global mass production. The Zeekr 001 will be the first model to use the new batteries enabling them to have a pure electric range exceeding 1000 km.[7]
Zeekr raised $500 million in its first external fundraising from five investors including Intel Capital, CATL, Bilibili in August 2021. On February 13, 2023, Zeekr is valued at $13 billion after it raised $750 million from five investors.[8]
The name of the brand is made up of Generation Z and the term geek.[9]
M-Vision is built on SEA-M architecture to showcase the architecture's fundamental features such as expansive interior, open seat choice, and placement option, no B-pillar, and robust electrical/electronic (E/E) backbone supporting autonomous drive and connected devices.
M-Vision is a base model that can be developed for a range of future mobility products including robotaxis, multi-purpose vehicles, and logistics vehicles.[10]