Wealthy Chinese businesspeople love to waft around in traffic in the absolute lap of luxury, and the local market has really figured out the best way to create a luxurious passenger experience. For starters, it’s electric, mostly for noise reasons, but also because China is significantly more electric-minded than we are here in the U.S. market. Most importantly, however, it’s a van. Vans are just the best shape to fit six adults in comfort. This van, the Zeekr 009, is a damn big one, and it’s exciting enough that it just might change your idea of what a Chinese-built vehicle is.
To most Americans, China is synonymous with cut-rate, cheap, poor-quality knockoff garbage, but that’s largely because that’s the kind of shit Americans buy and demand from Amazon, Temu, and Alibaba. One side effect of outsourcing all of the world’s manufacturing to China over the last forty years is that China has gotten really fucking good at manufacturing. And we’re falling behind.
In addition to looking like the ultimate lux extension of Ford Flex development, the Zeekr 009 has plenty of go to add to the show. Based on the same architecture (Geely’s SEA 1 platform) as the Lotus Eletre and Polestar 5, there’s plenty of exciting stuff to get worked up about. While not exactly a fun-to-drive machine, as it’s mainly a passenger-based experience, the Zeekr does offer up to 778 horsepower of all-wheel drive oomph.
Is there a single American automaker around today that could build and sell a large people carrier with Rolls-Royce quality and comfort and also Hellcat-beating speed? When was the last time Cadillac or Lincoln could claim that high of praise? Zeekr has only been around as an all-electric premium sub-brand of Geely since 2021, and it’s already delivering the kind of quality, fit, and finish that established brands would kill for, and Tesla would go bankrupt chasing. Hell, there aren’t many European brands that can’t say the same.
Cars like the Zeekr 009 prove that China is eating the automotive world’s lunch right now. They’re so far ahead of the game that the rest of the competition can’t even see what game they’re playing. And taking steps back, away from electrification, will only prove to bankrupt the auto industry in the long run.
Fun fact, the name Zeekr is taken from Generation Z and “geek.” Can Gen Z in China afford luxury cars already? Man, we’re so cooked, fr.
