In one week Zeekr has managed to double its sales for the year – and all it took was one new model.
Underlining the importance of SUVs, Zeekr, one of the many brands owned by the Geely group alongside Volvo and Lotus, has taken more than 1000 orders for its all-new Zeekr 7X mid-size SUV.
Zeekr has started off slowly in the Australian market, with the Zeekr X small SUV/hatch only recording 448 sales in the first seven months of 2025, while the 009 electric people mover has notched just 74.
But the brand has big hopes for Australia, wanting to become the second most popular electric brand behind Tesla. So it has deployed Frank Li, vice president of Zeekr International, to take on the direct leadership of Zeekr Australia.
Speaking to Torquecafe, Li explained why this market is so important to the brand that it has sent one of its most senior global executives to run it. While the market is small globally, just over one million units per year, the nature of the market is what appeals to Zeekr.
”So Australia is one of the three national sales companies we currently have overseas, which is Australia, Mexico and Thailand,” he said. “We only have three national sales companies, right now in other markets we go with distributors, which is a more simple way. So that shows our ambition in this market and the Australia market definitely has a very big potential.
“And also it represents the mature market, and this market is very fair, right? The government actually treats every OEM the same. So it is not like some other markets where if you invest, if you have a CKD (complete knockdown kit), you have a plant and you get additional support. But the Australian market, every brand you need to to demonstrate yourself [to] the market, just based on your product and your customer experience, and that’s it.”
However, Li knows that understanding the Australian customer is crucial for Zeekr to take the next step. The launch of the 009, an all-electric and luxury equipped people mover, has not been a sales success as local buyers prefer seven-seat SUVs.
“Before actually, we valued the Australian market very much as well, but you know previously we only had two models and that is quite a niche segment in Australia,” Li explained. “Even though 009 performance is very good, it’s brilliant in south east Asia, like Hong Kong, Malay [and] Thailand we’re dominating this segment in this market, but the Australian market is obviously not a traditional people mover market.”
While Li is confident that the 009 will eventually find an audience, the excitement around the 7X, which will compete directly against the likes of the Tesla Model Y, BYD Sealion 7 and Kia EV5, is key to the brand’s next growth phase in Australia.
“We believe that slowly, slowly our customers will love 009, but that takes time. But 7X is different,” he said. “So 7X is actually the main course for us and with the 7X product launch the Australian market has the big potential to become one of the largest markets of Zeekr apart from our domestic market. So that’s why I’m here with this product launch, we need to pay more attention and investment, more resources in this market.”
The Zeekr 7X is priced from $57,900 for the entry-level model and goes up to $72,900 for the flagship Performance variant.
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