Zeekr has been awarded an L3 autonomous driving test permit in Hangzhou, and will be able to test the L3 capabilities of its SEA Intelligent Driving system on the city's highways and urban expressways.

Zeekr (NYSE: ZK) will conduct L3 autonomous driving tests in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, where it is headquartered, as it pushes ahead with its efforts in driver-assistance technology.

Zeekr has been granted permission to conduct L3 autonomous driving tests in Hangzhou, where it will be able to test the L3 capabilities of its SEA Intelligent Driving system on the city's highways and urban expressways, the premium electric vehicle (EV) subsidiary of Geely Holding Group announced today.

Hangzhou is the second city to allow Zeekr to conduct L3 autonomous driving tests after Shanghai, where the EV maker announced on June 3 that it had received the same permission.

China's current classification of autonomous driving systems took effect in March 2022. Level 3 driving automation, also known as conditionally automated driving, allows a system to perform all dynamic driving tasks under the conditions for which it was designed to operate.

Zeekr builds battery electric vehicles (BEVs) based on Geely's Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA), and its vehicles initially use smart driving solutions from Mobileye.

The company launched the 2025 Zeekr 001 and 2025 Zeekr 007 on August 13, largely ditching the Mobileye solution and moving to a predominantly in-house developed solution.

Zeekr said at the time that it had upgraded its intelligent driving system from SEA Intelligent Driving 1.0 to SEA Intelligent Driving 2.0, which brings more powerful driver assistance capabilities.

The company aims to start delivering NZP (Navigation Zeekr Pilot) features that do not rely on HD maps by the end of this year, and plans to start delivering the more powerful NZP+ features in the second half of 2025.

Zeekr's local counterpart Nio (NYSE: NIO) was awarded an L3 autonomous driving test license in Shanghai in December 2023, allowing it to conduct conditional road tests of autonomous driving systems on designated highways and expressways.

On June 4, nine carmakers, including Nio and BYD (HKG: 1211, OTCMKTS: BYDDY), were named to China's first list of L3/L4 autonomous driving pilot carmakers.

Nio makes China's 1st list of L3/L4 autonomous driving pilot automakers