The Zeekr X build quality is excellent. It"s made in the same factories as Volvo and Polestar. The companies actually share parts and design elements between each other.
The power is immense. 0 - 100 in 3.8s is rapid. Being all wheel drive with a low center of gravity and the ‘compact suv’ size gives it good agility. That being said the suspension is set up to be a comfortable suv family oriented ride so its not intended to be thrown sideways around corners. Even though, it is far more sporty and fun than the mazda cx-5 and santa fe I currently own.
I definitely looked at the volvo ex30 (same platform and drivetrain/battery options) but its an inferior car. Other than the brand name advantage volvo holds, the Zeekr is bigger, has more fearures/tech, more premium, and cheaper. Unless you really love or hate the look of either car and dont trust the Geely backed Zeekr will survive, its a no-brainer in my mind to go the zeekr.
I agree that this latest trend of going minimalist is too far. I like physical buttons too.
I havent spent a lot of time with the zeekr x but there are a lot of functions that can be dialed up on the screen then adjusted via 5 way toggles on the steering wheel. I found this better for me than the exclusive use of screen to adjust everything in the teslas for example.
A lot of it comes from us simply being accustomed to doing things a certain way. You can use voice commands for most of the car functions such as winding windows up and down, changing drive modes, enabling/disabling functions, etc.My wife and I didn’t know how to use or find a lot of features during our short test so we simply asked the ai assistant a bunch of questions or guessed commands and it worked really well. There is also no need to pause after saying “Hey Zeekr” before giving your command. You can just naturally talk without pause and it completes the commands for you. I thought this was impressive as it works better than google and siri in this situation.
I only heard of the Jeetr from this thread, and already have an EV so not across current offerings.
Sounds like a great car. Only issue I could see (on paper) is the battery size of 66KW might be on the smaller side. It could be more efficient though…but at 3.8sec 0-100 in AWD you’ll drain most batteries pretty quickly. A a
Yes, the range will be around 400kms for our real world use which means for my wife needing to charge once a fortnight. We will have home charging though so it will never need to be charged away from home.
Yes, its always listening. Just like our phones, home smart devices, etc… If you are worried about being listened to you really need to shut off from the connected world and go off grid and use a carrier pidgeon for communication.
I had no real idea about this until Mrs Fox got her Tesla model Y. She barks out orders to her car as she drives along to do all sorts of things. It was unnerving at first as I thought she was yelling at me, but I got used to it and tune out. I have started using voice commands in my Model 3 now and it is very handy and simple.
In my experience of an EV, towing a small box trailer with 4 bikes in it reduced my range by about 10%. Im guessing the camper would be heavier. Throw in that I was driving at 100-110 which was another 10% reduction in range. I just did the same trip with the bikes on a rear mounted carrier, and it wasn’t as bad range reduction.
I’m an advocate, but it makes that medium-long journey with all the gear a bit harder to plan.
The Zeekr X is a compact/small SUV so not a direct replacement of the Santa Fe.
I will be looking at the Zeekr 7X due mid to late this year to replace the Santa Fe. In AWD it will tow 2000kg. I think the X is 1600kg.
If you want to tow, I dont think the X is the best option for you as its range will be down under 300km under tow. The 7X will have a bigger battery, more power and range.
I don’t drive much. As I mentioned I have other vehicles but I tend to ride a bicycle for fitness and generally build that into my life habits. The extra cost of electric cars (purchase price and depreciation) means that I’m better off keeping my ICE car which is fast, economical and handles very well IMO better than a car carrying extra weight. I also have a motorbike and have moved to Geelong where there are many great driving roads nearby; the vehicles I have will probably last until I die smiling so I don’t have the need to buy anything else.
Having said that I probably will buy another car but I’m leaning towards a collectible like a BMW Z4M coupe. Sure they cost more to run but they go up in value every year.
