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Author: Wen Yu, Editor: Xiao Shi Mei

On July 19, Zeekr officially released the new Zeekr 009, its luxury flagship MPV.

In China's car manufacturing industry, Zeekr has always been known for its unconventional approach and its willingness to tackle tough problems. Since its establishment, the company has clearly defined its development philosophy of pursuing perfection: if it does something, it will either not do it or it will do it to perfection. Therefore, every car produced by Zeekr always has strong subversive and pioneering attributes.

Just as the Zeekr 001 redefined the niche track of shooting brake coupes, we see this ability and potential again in the all-new Zeekr 009.

[Define categories and create demand]

As the world's first pure electric luxury MPV, the Zeekr 009 has become the sales champion of all MPVs priced above RMB 500,000 in its first year on the market. It is not easy for any car company to win the championship with just one move, but Zeekr has not rested on its laurels. On the contrary, the new Zeekr 009 has 2,465 assembly-level parts, of which 1,336 have been upgraded, with an upgrade rate of 54%. It can be said that it is completely brand new and reborn.

The reason why Zeekr is so competitive is that the company did not want to be a travel tool that can only meet the basic needs of users from the beginning, but to redefine the MPV category and create molds and samples for the future development of the industry. Therefore, many designs of the new Zeekr 009 are extremely innovative and subversive.

For example, in terms of energy replenishment, the new Zeekr 009 equipped with a 108-degree 5C Kirin battery has a maximum range of 740 kilometers, making it the 800V architecture MPV with the longest range. The new Zeekr 009 equipped with a 140-degree ultra-large capacity Kirin battery directly increases the range to 900 kilometers, surpassing all fuel MPVs on the market and being on par with the range of hybrid MPVs. At the same time, it only takes 11 and a half minutes to charge the SoC from 10% to 80%, and the range is 500 kilometers after charging for 10 minutes, ranking first in the world in fast charging performance. As of the first half of this year, Zeekr has built a total of 515 ultra-fast charging stations and 2,731 ultra-fast charging piles, and the number of 800V ultra-fast charging piles ranks first in the industry.

Obviously, Zeekr is using a combination of measures to completely solve the range anxiety problem of pure electric MPVs in the past by continuously working on battery life, charging speed, charging pile network, etc. From Beijing to Hong Kong, a total of 2,200 kilometers, the new Zeekr 009 only needed to be charged three times.

In terms of power, Zeekr has also opened up a new era.

The new Zeekr 009 is fully upgraded with a high-performance silicon carbide electric drive system. The dual-motor four-wheel drive version can reach 788 horsepower and accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.9 seconds. What does this mean? This means that the acceleration performance of the MPV is comparable to that of a high-performance supercar!

Whether it is battery life or acceleration performance, these are all about meeting existing market demand. In fact, what really makes people's eyes shine is not meeting demand, but creating demand.

To give a simple example, the new Zeekr 009 is equipped with the only Eames reclining chair mode in luxury MPVs. The backrest can be adjusted to 132 degrees, the front of the seat cushion can be raised by 20 mm, and the leg rest can be raised to 90 degrees, forming a complete plane with the footrest behind the front seat, so that the legs and feet can be fully stretched. The better wrapping and softer comfortable sitting feel make the user feel less tired even if riding for a long time. This design has never appeared on cars before, and consumers can't imagine that they can enjoy it so much. Zeekr is equivalent to creating new needs for users through its own innovation.

For example, in the past, car companies often focused on the comfort of passengers when it comes to MPVs, while selectively ignoring the driver's feelings. But in reality, as MPVs become more and more family-use vehicles, the driver's driving experience cannot be ignored. The new Zeekr 009 fully considered the driver's driving experience during the design process, which is also unprecedented in the industry.

Steve Jobs once said: "Apple's mission is not to meet user needs, but to let users know what they really need."

In other words, truly leading companies are creating demand. Meeting demand can at most maintain the stock, while creating demand can create incremental demand and expand the market. This is why Zeekr can still catch up in the highly competitive automotive field.

【Healthy development, promising future】

In recent times, the entire automotive industry has seen some twisted and divided phenomena. Some car companies continue to spare no effort to raise prices, and would rather lose money than starve their peers; another group of players represented by BBA have done the opposite, raising prices to reduce inventory.

In fact, it is difficult to say that both methods are healthy. The former can easily lead to falling into the quagmire of vicious competition, while the latter is likely to lose the favor and trust of consumers.

In comparison, Zeekr’s strategy is obviously more benign.

First, the company does not allow a large price increase of its products that would harm the interests of consumers. Some time ago, 009 Guanghui had a price increase in the market, and Zeekr immediately held an internal meeting and clearly stated that any price increase in the market was strictly prohibited. Secondly, Zeekr will not cut prices without a bottom line like many car companies. The company will take the initiative to transfer part of the money saved from cost reduction to consumers, allowing consumers to share the dividends of technological progress, but it will always ensure that it has a profit margin to maintain normal operations.

Take the new Zeekr 009 as an example. Its technology and configuration have all been upgraded, but the overall price is cheaper than the previous generation. The key is that the company's profit level has not been affected. Only when you can serve consumers well and realize your own interests, such a development model is sustainable.

In fact, no car company does not want to grow as healthily as Zeekr, but they just do not have such innate endowment.

Zeekr has Geely's 30 years of manufacturing capabilities as a backing, and can "free ride" in many aspects such as platform development, production and manufacturing, parts procurement, quality control, etc. Prior to this, Geely spent five years and invested 20 billion to successfully create the SEA vast architecture, which has the world's largest bandwidth and can achieve a wheelbase of 1800mm-3300mm, meeting the co-production of a series of models such as sedans, SUVs, MPVs, sports cars, pickups, hunting cars, etc. Now Zeekr 009's factory has 4 brands and 6 models in production at the same time. The cost reduction and efficiency improvement brought about by this synergy effect are not something that ordinary car manufacturers can achieve.

The most typical example is Ideal MEGA. In order to realize the company's desire to create the ultimate pure electric product, MEGA decisively gave up the extended-range route, but the problem is that without the extended-range route, it means that higher costs must be paid for battery life and energy replenishment, and Ideal does not want to weaken the overall profit margin, so it can only focus on other configurations. It is inevitable that the product value visibility is not high.

For a period of time, the high-end MPV market has been dominated by Alphard and GL8. Chinese automakers have flocked to this promising market in the past two or three years, hoping to overtake others with the advent of the electric era. But the reality is not as easy as imagined. The failure of Ideal MEGA is enough to prove that the road of pure electric MPV is not easy. Now, Zeekr, which can simultaneously develop technology and control costs, is still the one with the most hope of carrying the flag.

In 2023, the annual sales volume of China's MPV market will reach 1.093 million units, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%, far exceeding the growth rate of sedans and SUVs. However, among these 1.093 million MPVs, there are only 81,000 pure electric MPVs, of which about 20,000 are pure electric MPVs with a price of more than 500,000 yuan (most of which are Zeekr 009). It can be seen that the replacement potential of pure electric MPVs has not yet been released, and Zeekr is facing a vast blue ocean with great potential.

Disclaimer

The content of this article related to listed companies is the author’s personal analysis and judgment based on the information disclosed by listed companies in accordance with their legal obligations (including but not limited to interim announcements, regular reports and official interactive platforms, etc.); the information or opinions in the article do not constitute any investment or other business advice, and Market Value Observation shall not bear any responsibility for any actions arising from the adoption of this article.