Zeekr X Review: Neck-snapping performance in more ways than one

Chinese automaker Zeekr was founded in 2021 and launched in Australia towards the end of 2024, among a wave of several new electric vehicle brands to enter our burgeoning EV market recently.

Zeekr is owned by the Geely Holding Group, which sells the electric EX5 under its own Geely Auto brand as well as controlling stakes in other car brands with EVs here including Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, Smart and Farizon Auto. 

The X was Zeekr’s first car to arrive wearing the Zeekr badge, first unveiled during August 2024 and appearing in our EV sales figures from February this year. As of June, the Zeekr X has sold 384 units placing it 24th on the EV sales charts, lagging well behind the Geely EX5 currently sitting 7th place with 1845 units.

In terms of marketing, Zeekr positions itself as a luxury electric car specialist, as demonstrated clearly by their flagship vehicle, the opulent 009 Grand. Zeekr describes the X as a Luxury Urban Cross SUV, and with an entry price of $49,900 plus on-road costs for the RWD variant it is much more affordable than anything in the 009 lineup. 

The car I tested was a Pine Green AWD model, with optional Midnight Blue & Polar White interior, totaling just under $70,000 driveaway in NSW. I spent 10 days with the X including a 1,200 km road trip, which gave me plenty of time to learn all about the unique features plus a few annoying quirks of this vehicle.

Interesting design, compact storage

The Zeekr X has an interesting exterior design, with a prominent diagonal crease through both doors, narrow daytime running lights and a stubby bonnet. The side profile of the X is very similar to the Volvo EX30, not surprising given they share the same underlying Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) platform as well as a common parent company.

One area the Zeekr X sits above its Volvo EX30 twin is ground clearance. Both variants of the Zeekr X provide 190 mm of ground clearance, not far off the highest currently available, whereas the EX30 sits lower at just 177 mm. This is one reason I borrowed the Zeekr X to visit my brother, as there is a section of unsealed road to access his place.

Underneath the short bonnet is a tiny 21 L frunk, just enough for some charging cables and not much else. The boot measures 362 L with the rear seats up, which turned out to be just enough room for the road trip with 3 people if we utilised a bit of the back seat as well.

Overall, I think the Zeekr X is an attractive looking car from the outside, although the design may not appeal to everyone. Green is my favourite colour so I instantly liked this particular car in Pine Green.

As you approach the driver’s door with the key fob, the door handles reveal themselves and an animated smiley face greets you from the outside of the B-pillar, which is one of many fun little features I discovered during my time with the car. 

At first the face seemed gimmicky, but I later found out this little screen also displays handy charging statistics which are easily visible from the outside without having to open the car door. Even though some charging stations have a built-in display, I still wish more EVs displayed this kind of information in some form on the exterior.

The key fob for the X is also an interesting shape, sort of like a squashed and rounded octahedron, which fits well in a pocket without being too bulky, but could easily disappear in a handbag. Its symmetrical design and just a tiny ridge near the unlock button means you also need to look at it carefully before pressing the buttons.

Soft and comfortable interior

Inside the X, you are greeted by a minimalist interior that could be mistaken for many other electric SUVs these days. However, I think Zeekr has done a great job of making this cabin feel suitably premium through the use of soft touch materials throughout, as well as thoughtful touches like convenient hooks and storage areas.

There is no glovebox, but the storage bin beneath the center armrest is very deep, able to swallow your whole arm up to the elbow. USB-C ports are available under the centre screen up front, including a high powered 60 W port for charging laptops or bigger devices. The single rear USB-C port is under the middle bench seat which is an odd placement though.

My test vehicle was fitted with the optional Midnight Blue & Polar White interior colour which costs $500 over the standard Charcoal Black & Stone Grey. A third Mulberry & Rose colour is also available if you enjoy pink tones, but only for the AWD variant.

The AWD variant comes standard with 6-way powered front passenger seat, 4-way powered lumbar support, heating and ventilation across both front seats, heated steering wheel, 13-speaker Yamaha sound system and “Ice Block” LED ambient lighting in a strip along the front dash. 

RWD variants can also be upgraded with these features through an optional $4,000 Convenience Package, resulting in the same interior as the AWD but around $10,000 cheaper driveaway if you don’t need the extra performance of the dual motor drivetrain.

I found the front seats were among the most comfortable I have tested, arriving home from the road trip after a 10 hour day feeling refreshed. My mum spent several hours in the back seat that day and said the base of the seat was firm, with good side support. She also found the map pockets were not very deep due to the way they are angled rather than horizontal.

Fun and sporty to drive, but inefficient

Setting off in the Zeekr X is a simple affair, with no start/stop button to worry about and just a single pull of the gear selector stalk on the steering column. Putting your foot down in the AWD results in very brisk acceleration, with more than enough torque to spin the wheels a little if you are too aggressive coming out of a corner.

On paper it will hit 100 km/h in just 3.8 seconds, although Zeekr has programmed a small delay into the accelerator pedal for a more gradual take off compared to any of the Tesla performance models or something like an Ioniq 5 N. The delay is shorter in sport mode, but still perceptible.

The Zeekr X handles very well too, I had a lot of fun driving it up the hills and bends past Dorrigo in NSW. The only time I noticed it became unsettled was around tighter corners where there were imperfections in the road. 

I have not driven the RWD yet, but with 200 kW / 343 Nm and a 0-100 km/h time of 5.6 seconds I imagine it should feel pretty quick and potentially be more fun to steer as well without the front motor.

All of this performance does come at a cost in the Zeekr though, as my energy consumption for the entire 1,262 km road trip was 211 Wh/km. This is not great for a compact SUV with only 2 or 3 people on board and fine weather the whole time. Zeekr should work on improving this with future versions of the car.

Between Sydney and Coffs Harbour there was ample time to get used to the adaptive cruise control and lane centering system in the X, which worked seamlessly together. Adaptive cruise sticks to the set speed without wandering up or down, and the left-hand button on the steering wheel makes it easy to adjust by 5 km/h or 1 km/h increments.

Like some other lane centering systems the Zeekr X is able to adapt to surrounding cars intelligently, providing extra room for big cars or trucks when overtaking along with a handy little message in the drivers display telling you it is “Avoiding car on the left.”

Around town the Zeekr offers a full one-pedal drive setting, when you enable the high regenerative braking setting and standstill one-pedal mode. I would prefer the regen was stronger though, as it often still required a light touch of the brake pedal to bring the car to a full stop in time. Efficiency was better around town as expected, recording 187 Wh/km. 

In terms of driving settings, the X remembers some settings between drives including one-pedal mode which is great. One of the things that did bug me was the speed limit information system, beeping every time it detects a speed limit change which gets annoying when it happens at highway off/on ramps and every school zone no matter the time. 

Neck snapping performance in more ways than one

The single biggest downside of the Zeekr X that I experienced was the super sensitive auto braking system, which activated multiple times in situations like reverse parking or doing a 3-point turn. It even activated twice while the guy at MSR was backing it down a ramp in their warehouse when I first picked up the car.

If you’ve experienced false positives with these systems yourself, you’ll know that it gives you a shock each time as the brakes are jammed on suddenly, pumping you full of adrenaline and leaving you wondering what just happened when there is clearly nothing at all remotely close to the back of the car.

Thankfully there is a setting to disable this system, but it’s one of those things that turns back on every time you drive. I have asked Zeekr if they are aware of the issue and working on a fix, and will update the article with their response when I hear back. I would also like to test a different car to see if the one I drove was malfunctioning.

In the meantime, searching for the issue reveals other complaints online so I don’t believe it was a one off in my case. There is also no mention of auto braking specifically in Zeekr’s first over-the-air update, but it does mention “safety system refinements.” Hopefully the system can be improved down the track as it harms an otherwise great car.

Infotainment and charging

Infotainment in the Zeekr X is based around a snappy, responsive central touchscreen with a small driver’s display behind the steering wheel plus a head up display in AWD variants. The on-screen menus are laid out intuitively, and felt a lot like the Tesla system in terms of menu layout, tiles for displaying trip efficiency, currently playing media and so on.

Zeekr has included a few party tricks to play with such as the loudspeaker function, where you can broadcast your voice outside or play predefined sounds like a cat or horse. Why you would ever want to is beyond me, but it exists if you find a use for it. 

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are supported, although I used the built-in navigation system which worked as expected and automatically added charging stops to a long trip when necessary. 

The remaining range upon arrival needs improvement though, to take into account factors like elevation and weather. I routinely arrived with significantly less than first estimated even though I had the “dynamic” range option selected, as opposed to WLTC which is even more optimistic.

This shortcoming was most obvious when I left Coffs Harbour for the Dorrigo NRMA charger with 84 km range remaining and 61 km to the destination, the car estimated 10% left upon arrival. I knew it might be tight given the rise in elevation, so I was keeping a close eye on the gap between the range numbers as we started to drive up Waterfall Way.

As I had anticipated the gap began to close, and I told my son we’d be turning off the AC if it got below 10 km left, which it soon did. With about 5 km to the charger, the remaining range was replaced by 2 dashes, so we were flying blind. There was no indication of any power limit or turtle mode and we made it safely in the end, although this would have been stressful for less seasoned EV drivers.

Maximum DC charging speed in the Zeekr X is 150 kW, which Zeekr says will charge from 10 – 80% in “less than 30 minutes”. Despite having an identical battery pack, AC charging in the RWD Zeekr X is limited to 7 kW rather than 11 kW like the AWD, due to different on-board chargers.

Vehicle to load (V2L) capable of supplying up to 3.3 kW is supported on the Zeekr X, via an external adapter only as there is no interior socket like some other vehicles have. The charge port is located on the rear left-hand side of the vehicle which is ideal for kerbside charging and Tesla Supercharger compatibility without blocking stalls.

Conclusion

The Zeekr X is a fun, sporty little car to drive, combined with a premium interior that lives up to the luxury aspirations of the brand. It may not have all the bells and whistles of a Zeekr 009, but the cheapest 009 also costs more than twice the price of the most expensive X.

Due to its compact size, families who want more space might be better off waiting for the Zeekr 7X which is just around the corner, due to arrive here before September. Australian prices for the 7X have not been revealed yet, our best guess at this stage is somewhere between $70,000 – $90,000 depending on the variant.

I am also hoping Zeekr is working hard to improve the efficiency and auto braking system for the 7X before it launches as well as future iterations of the X, because these shortcomings unfortunately tarnish the experience of what I thought was a solid and interesting electric vehicle.

Table of key specifications for Zeekr X