- Geely-owned Zeekr has dropped the first official images of its 9X luxury SUV.
- The Rolls Royce Cullinan lookalike debuts at this month’s Shanghai Auto Show.
- Zeekr hasn’t confirmed powertrain details but 9X is rumored to be a PHEV.
The West’s luxury carmakers are starting to find their Chinese cash cow is running out of milk. Buyers are increasingly turning to homegrown brands like Zeekr, whose 9X luxury SUV is seen for the first time in these pictures ahead of this week’s Shanghai Auto Show debut.
No prizes for guessing which SUVs were on the mood board of the designers at Geely-owned Zeekr when they penned this confident-looking monster utility. There are similarities to the Range Rover, Rivian’s R1S and Rolls Royce Cullinan, and Zeekr’s trademark waterwall grille is even bigger than the Pantheon equivalent on the Rolls.
Related: Zeekr 9X Grand PHEV Is Geely’s $140k BMW And Range Rover Rival
The silver C-pillar treatment again mimics a design feature on the Cullinan, while the rear LED light arrangement has elements of the Range Rover. But strip away those details and the 9X looks quite dated, and unimaginative. It doesn’t have flush handles, rear-hinged doors and the surfacing lacks that expensive, slick feel European luxury brands deliver.
But the 9X doesn’t lack presence either, and that’s half the battle. We’ll have to wait until the show debut tomorrow to find out whether it’s also borrowed Rolls and Rangie design cues on the inside. It might also steal ides from its own 009 minivan brother, whose top versions have two fully reclining rear seats and a 43-inch cinema screen.
The Shanghai reveal will also finally clue us in to what powertrain is hiding beneath that big, flat hood. Zeekr is known for its EVs, but the presence of exhaust tailpipe trims in the rear tells us the 9X will be a hybrid, rather than purely electric.
Performance should still be in the EV realm, however, with zero to 62 mph (100 kmh) times coming in the “3-second range,” according to Zeekr comments reported by Car News China, who claims prices could stretch from ¥500k ($68,000) to ¥1m ($136,000). Those numbers put the 9X closer in price to BMW’s X5 than the XM, Range Rover or Cullinan.
