By FREDA LEWIS-STEMPEL
The Zeekr 9X is the latest Chinese luxury car that will tempt buyers to ditch traditionally popular premium marques like Audi, BMW and Mercedes with its significantly cheaper price tag.
The 9X SUV has been unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show where it has - surprisingly - drawn comparison to the enormous Rolls-Royce Cullinan... but for a fraction of the cost.
Exact pricing of the large Chinese family car is not yet known but is rumoured to start from as little as £50k. That's some saving on the £300k commanded by the Roller equivalent.
But it's not just the price that stands to make the 9X appealing; the plug-in hybrid drivetrain promises more than 186 miles of EV-only driving combined with supercar performance.
And Zeekr is ready to rattle the established Western luxury SUV market with its uber-luxurious interior and the practicality that positions it against big names like the Range Rover.
It's not confirmed if or when the 9X could arrive in the UK, but Zeekr is expected to start selling some of its models on our shores from 2026.
The Zeekr 9X by the Geely-owned Chinese automaker is a rival to the Rolls-Royce Cullinan and Range Rover but will cost around the same as a family SUV at just £50k+
Zeekr sits under Shanghai parent company Geely – which also owns Polestar, Volvo and Lotus amongst others – and has former Bentley chief designer Stefan Sielaff in its staple of automotive experts.
Alongside the 9X’s reveal, Zeekr also confirmed plans to arrive in the UK from next year, with Zeekr Europe CEO Lothar Schupet telling the Independent: ‘We are in discussion with dealer groups to enter the UK.
‘Our plan is to be live in the UK early next year and we’re trying to accelerate as much as we can.’
The Zeekr 9X is a large SUV measuring 5,290mm long (longer than the Range Rover’s 5,252mm) with a wheelbase of 3,220mm, and offers either six or seven seating options for maximum big family practicality.
For those looking for a room limo, there’s an option to have four spaced-out chairs with ‘executive style’ seating.
Left: From the front, it looks rather like another luxury SUV.... and it's huge: at 5.3m it's even longer than a Range Rover. Right: The Rolls-Royce Cullinan: It's not hard to see the visual influence it's given the Zeekr 9X
Left: Zeekr's move into the ultra-luxe car market will cause established high end Western marques some concern, as Chinese influence in automotive continues to grow overseas. But the Cullinan (right) - a luxurious SUV loved by the rich and famous - starts from close to £300k and every car has a very specific price due to the bespoke nature of the model
The 9X’s 900V architecture can handle 480kW ultra-rapid charging, which delivers 310 miles of charge in just nine minutes.
The plug-in hybrid SUV will use a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine and two electric motors for a total range of 932 miles; this makes it the first Zeekr model to use its ‘Super Hybrid’ technology.
The 'Super Electric Hybrid' tech will merge pure electric, plug-in hybrid and range-extender advantages to promise disruptive efficiency and performance.
Super Hybrids with huge combined ranges are one of the biggest emerging trends in new Chinese cars, with the Jaecoo 9HS and forthcoming Omoda 9 SHS both using 'Super Hybrid Systems'.
But for the Zeekr 9X it's the supercar-like three-second sprint time from 0 to 62mph that will get heads turning, more so than its Rolls-Royce Cullinan looks.
The chrome detailing and large imposing waterwall grille are both very similar to the Cullinan, as is the angular, boxy shape. But it also has hints of the Rivian R1S, the Range Rover and the Jaecoo 9HS.
And then there's some fancy, luxury design features such as the 'Ring Screen Star Diamond' taillight assembly with 43,343 individual diamond-cut facets called the 'Side Wing Star Diamond Matrix' which complements the 9X's front-end design.
As well as cut-price luxury, the Zeekr 9X has some insane performance for such a massive car, managing 0 to 62mph in just 3 seconds
The 9X is not yet announced for right-hand markets including Australia or the UK, but it is possible this will come after Zeekr lands in the UK next year
Zeekr is already on the roads in Australia but is yet to reach the UK.
However, as the 9X uses the same SEA architecture as Geely’s Volvo and Polestar brands, right-hand drive is a natural step.
And while the 9X hasn’t been confirmed for Australia, Mars Chen, CEO of Zeekr International told EV Central that the country will get either a smaller (but still large) SUV than the 9X, or the 9X itself.
Neither the pipeline smaller SUV or the 9X are big volume cars, but they shoot Zeekr into a new territory of ultra-luxury car production.
Chinese tech advancements on the Zeekr 9X
The 9X will be the first Zeekr model to feature the G-Pilot intelligent driving solution.
This builds on Zeekr’s Level 3 autonomous driving architecture and utilises the ZEEA 3.0 central computing digital architecture to improve end-to-end communication response speed by 50 per cent.
The 9X will use five LiDAR units – one long-range LiDAR and four supplementary short-range LiDARs for blind-spot coverage – for 'four layers of 360-degree perception capabilities.'
The price of the 9X SUV is not yet confirmed, but Zeekr's 009 people mover costs $130,000 and the 9X is touted to start from just under £51,000 ($68,000) and go up to around £102,000 ($136,000).
This makes it almost a sixth of the price of a Rolls-Royce Cullinan which starts at just under £300,000, with exact prices depending on specification.