Why does Zeekr “sharpen three swords in one year”?
2024-08-16
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"Xiaomi spends three years to sharpen one sword, while Zeekr spends one year to sharpen three swords", "A new car becomes an old model in less than half a year after pick up"... Early in the morning of August 14, after holding its annual blockbuster new product launch conference, Zeekr was on the hot search with a series of rights protection banners.
On the evening of August 13, Zeekr officially released two new cars, the 2025 Zeekr 007 and the 2025 Zeekr 001, at the 2025 new product launch conference. Among them, except for the top-of-the-line four-wheel drive model, the price of all configurations of the Zeekr 007 has generally dropped by 20,000 to 30,000 yuan; Zeekr 001 has added an entry-level model, and the purchase threshold has dropped by 10,000 yuan compared to the 24 models.
It is worth mentioning that while Zeekr has lowered the price, it has also upgraded its functional configuration. The two new cars have all ushered in new upgrades in smart drive, smart cockpit and smart driving, with the main theme of "increased configuration and reduced price".
Taking Zeekr 001 as an example, compared with the 2024 model, the 2025 001 is the first to be equipped with the Haohan Intelligent Driving 2.0 system. The system is based on the intelligent hardware solution of laser radar and dual OrinX intelligent driving chips, and has achieved a comprehensive upgrade in the system's underlying capabilities and user experience. For example, the computing power of the former is only 48Tops, while the latter has reached 508Tops.
For consumers, "increasing configuration and reducing prices" is a good thing, but many old car owners, especially those who have just picked up their cars, feel deeply "stabbed in the back". In the online live broadcast room of the new product launch conference that night, many car owners "broke down" on the spot, so much so that the official had to directly close the comment area at halftime.
Two model changes in half a year, users say they are being ripped off
As Zeekr's flagship model, Zeekr 001 has delivered more than 200,000 units in more than two years since its launch; the 2024 Zeekr 001 has been released for less than half a year and has delivered more than 50,000 units.
From the release of the 2023 Zeekr 001 in early 2023, to the official launch of the 2024 Zeekr 001 on February 27 this year, to the launch and delivery of the 2025 model on August 13, in more than a year, the Zeekr 001 has been modified three times, and even twice in less than half a year.
Therefore, an owner of an All new Zeekr 001 who just picked up his car in July said that his new car became an All old model just over half a month after it was registered.
In response to this phenomenon, Gasgoo launched an industry survey on "smart electric vehicles are updated every six months and replaced every year". The results showed that most participants said they "cannot accept the fact that the new car they bought six months ago becomes an old model, which makes them feel like being ripped off". Of course, some participants who believe in buying early and enjoying early said they "can accept it".
In fact, this year, Zeekr is not the only car company that has been questioned by the outside world for "backstabbing old car owners" due to model upgrades and price cuts by car companies. However, there are not many cases that have caused large-scale condemnation from car owners. The reason for this is probably that the most hurtful thing to car owners is the official's previous denial of the modification plan.
In July this year, there were rumors online that Zeekr 001 would launch a new model at the end of July, and Zeekr's legal department subsequently refuted the rumor on Weibo. Zeekr CMO Guan Haitao also forwarded the Weibo post and publicly solicited relevant clues and evidence that maliciously slandered and defamed the Zeekr brand. He also stated that if the clues were verified to be true, he would reward the clue provider with a Zeekr 7x. At present, Guan Haitao's rumor-refuting Weibo still exists, but the comment function has been closed.
The above move undoubtedly made many potential users dispel their concerns about the recent model change of Zeekr 001 and directly pick up the car. Of course, the new model was not launched at the end of July, but was officially announced on August 13, but there was only a two-week difference between the two. I don’t know how many "sucker" appeared whose car became an old model after half a month of registration.
In this regard, an old car owner complained: the computing power of 48 Tops of the old car is all used to cheat the car owner. Another car owner said: NIO and Ideal usually reduce the price of old models before the generation change, but Zeekr has no action at all, and there is no clear timetable for iteration. Some salesmen are even pushing for orders.
Urgent response: The change is in response to the voice of potential users
In response to the "grievances" of old car owners, on the evening of August 14, Zeekr urgently released "Zeekr 2025 New Product Launch and Answers to User Questions" to respond to a series of questions from users.
The first question is, "Why is the vast intelligent driving version of Zeekr 001 released at this time? Is there any preparation for the release of the 2024 Zeekr 001 in February?"
Zeekr said that the 2024 Zeekr 001 was confirmed and developed in early 2023, and there was no plan to adopt the vast intelligent driving solution at that time. "On February 27 this year, after the 2024 Zeekr 001 was launched, the vast intelligent driving equipped with Zeekr 007 received widespread praise from users and the industry. Many potential users of Zeekr 001 called for the choice of the vast intelligent driving solution. At the same time, our own brand NPS survey also found that intelligent driving is a factor that affects users' choice of Zeekr 001. Therefore, the internal decision was made to launch the self-developed intelligent driving solution on the car, giving users more choices and making Zeekr 001 a truly all-round magic car."
Zeekr also said, "Our intelligent driving R&D team has worked very hard, and the joint debugging team has made special efforts. Therefore, the first phase of functions of the Haohan Intelligent Driving Edition, which was originally planned to be implemented by the end of this year, has been implemented ahead of schedule, and more functions can be realized through OTA within the year."
Many old users asked whether they could pay to switch to the Mobileye Intelligent Driving Solution, but Zeekr denied it. "Old models cannot be replaced. Because Zeekr 001 uses the Mobileye Intelligent Driving Solution, it uses different layout solutions from the Mobileye Intelligent Driving Solution in terms of underlying chips, system control, wiring harness layout, etc., and they are two different solutions at the system and hardware level."
However, Zeekr said that Zeekr and Mobileye are strategic partners, and the current Zeekr 001, 009 and overseas models are equipped with Mobileye's intelligent driving solution. The two parties will continue to work closely in the future, and the intelligent driving function of Mobileye's solution will continue to be updated.
In addition, the 2024 and 2025 models of Zeekr 001 are a set of cockpit platforms and will be updated simultaneously. The functions of Zeekr AI OS will be pushed in batches via OTA on all Zeekr models.
For old car owners, the official said that Zeekr will provide a 10,000 yuan car purchase voucher. In addition, Zeekr 001/007 users who have placed orders before 20:00 on August 13 but have not yet been scheduled for production will be automatically switched and delivered the corresponding version of the upgraded model equipped with the Haohan Intelligent Driving Solution. However, users whose App status is displayed as "pending confirmation of departure", "about to depart", "vehicle in transit", "vehicle in preparation", and "pending for pick-up" cannot participate.
Behind the “far-ahead” model change speed
In addition to responding to user needs as mentioned above, the more important driving factor behind Zeekr's frequent model changes is the dual pressure from the market and its own development.
In the past, in the era of fuel vehicles, car companies basically maintained the rhythm of "a small change a year, a medium change every three years, and a major change every five years". Consumers could also use this to calculate the launch time of new models and avoid the fate of new cars quickly becoming old models.
In the era of intelligent new energy, new technologies and new players are constantly emerging, market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and car models are being updated more and more frequently, with higher configurations and lower prices. For example, BYD's Champion Edition and Honor Edition models are updated once a year, both adopting the strategy of adding configurations and reducing prices; the new M7 jointly developed by Huawei and Seres saw explosive growth in sales after Huawei's advanced intelligent assisted driving was added in September last year and the price was reduced by up to 70,000 yuan.
In response to the question of "Is BYD's renewal speed a bit too fast this year?", He Zhiqi, BYD's executive vice president and chief operating officer of passenger vehicles, said: "New energy vehicles have entered an era of speed competition. We must use full power and continue to accelerate."
The same is true for Zeekr. Its "far ahead" speed of model changes is closely related to the annual sales target of 230,000 vehicles hanging over its head.
In early July this year, at the Geely Auto 2024 first quarter performance exchange meeting, An Conghui, President of Geely Holding Group and CEO of Zeekr Intelligent Technology, announced a series of sales targets and plans for the Zeekr brand. He pointed out that Zeekr plans to achieve an average monthly sales of 20,000 units in the third quarter and strive for a monthly sales of 30,000 units in the fourth quarter to achieve the annual sales target of 230,000 units.
The actual situation is that Zeekr's cumulative deliveries from January to July 2024 were 103,525 units. Although it increased by 89% year-on-year, there is still a large gap from the completion of the annual target, and its sales in July have already shown a month-on-month decline of 22.13%.
It is reported that in addition to the 2025 Zeekr 007 and 2025 Zeekr 001, Zeekr will also launch two new models, Zeekr MIX and Zeekr 7X, in the second half of this year to boost annual sales. However, it is still unclear whether Zeekr can continue its previous growth trend after this storm. (Gasgoo Xia Hui)
Source: Gasgoo
