From The Driven:
Geely, the parent company of Volvo and Polestar in Australia, recently launched a new electric people mover under another luxury EV brand known in its local market as Zeekr. The Zeekr 009 is a fully electric people mover with over 822 km of range in its top variant.
New reports from cnevpost show the first luxury electric people mover has started to roll off the production line.
On January 8, the first production units came off the production line in preparation for initial customer deliveries which are expected to begin shortly.
Zeekr’s 009 shares the same architecture as that shared by the upcoming Polestar 4 SUV. It’s offered in two variants:
WE version – $106,700 (AUD)
ME version – $125,700 (AUD)
Both versions of the model come with a dual-motor powertrain that can deliver up to 400 kW of power and 686 Nm of torque. The powertrain can help propel the large people mover from 0 – 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds which is performance car territory.
There are two battery configurations that are offered. The WE version comes with a 116 kWh battery offering 702 km of CLTC range while the top of the range ME version comes with a larger 140 kWh battery pack. This can deliver 822 km of CLTC range.
With these range offerings, the Zeekr 009 is the first electric people mover to deliver more than 700 km of range and according to Zeekr CEO, An Conghui, it surpasses 99 per cent of currently available ICE vehicles.
On the WLTP test cycle, that will be lower but can be expected to deliver over 600 km of real-world range.
The top-of-the-range ME version also offers the next generation of CATL’s Qilin battery technology which in the near future will be able to deliver 1,000 km of range.
Both models of the Zeekr 009 also use computer vision with an entire suite of cameras. It offers seven 8-megapixel HD cameras and four 2-megapixel surround view cameras.
Other sensors that make up the safety suite includes one ultra-long-range radar and 12 short-range ultrasonic radars.
This EV shows what the ever-developing electric people movers market looks like. It also gives us a glimpse of the kind of technology we will be seeing in the future more affordable EVs that are also likely to come in right-hand drive versions for markets like ours in Australia.