Zeekr's European headquarters will be in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and its first models in Europe will be the flagship Zeekr 001 shooting brake and Zeekr X urban SUV.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Zeekr, the premium electric vehicle brand of Geely Holding Group, today officially unveiled its Europe strategy, marking an important milestone in its ambitious global growth plan.

Zeekr will offer European customers an electric vehicle experience based on a direct-to-customer business model, it announced on the first day of the Shanghai auto show.

Its first models in Europe are the flagship Zeekr 001 shooting brake, which has a range of about 600 kilometers, and the Zeekr X urban SUV, which was launched in China on April 12.

They will begin arriving in Sweden and the Netherlands in the fourth quarter, with other countries to follow quickly, Zeekr said.

"It's been just two years since we revealed our first state-of-the-art electric vehicle -- the ZEEKR 001. The response from customers to our brand has been incredible with over 93,000 units sold already," said Andy An, Zeekr's global CEO.

Zeekr was valued at $13 billion following its last $750 million Series A funding round, and launching the brand in Europe is a key step in its global strategy, An said.

Zeekr 001 and Zeekr X were developed at Zeekr's global design and R&D center in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Zeekr's European team of more than 1,500 engineers and designers is already in place and has produced several models for the Geely Group. Their long-standing experience is a core strength of Zeekr's successful entry into Europe, the company said.

Zeekr's European headquarters will be in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and will have a leadership team that has held senior positions at other premium and luxury automakers.

Zeekr Europe's CEO is Spiros Fotinos, whose LinkedIn page shows he has worked for Toyota, Lexus and joined Zeekr in September 2022.

European consumers are increasingly ready to move to EVs and are more open than ever to new technology brands, especially those that focus on electric vehicles, Fotinos said.

Zeekr was officially launched as an independent company in 2021, with its first model, the Zeekr 001, launched on April 15, 2021, and deliveries beginning in October 2021.

On November 1, 2022, Zeekr's second model, the Zeekr 009 MPV, was launched, and its deliveries began on January 15.

On April 12, Zeekr launched its third model, the Zeekr X, which it hopes will become the benchmark for luxury compact cars.

Zeekr delivered 6,663 vehicles in March, up 271.20 percent from 1,795 in the same month last year and up 22.14 percent from 5,455 in February, according to data it released on April 1.

By the end of March, Zeekr's cumulative deliveries since its inception stood at 93,182.

Zeekr launches Zeekr X SUV to gain further share from market dominated by German luxury automakers