Zeekr, a rival to Tesla and Nio, wants annual sales of 650,000 units by 2025 to join the top three companies in the world in terms of market share in premium electric vehicles. 

The two-year-old car-maker, which builds in China and sells the majority of its cars in that country, sold 72,000 of its single-model 001 in 2022. The market valuation from the capital raising equates to $US180,000 ($A260,000) per vehicle sold.

For 2023, it wants to double sales to 140,000 units and introduce a second model, the 009, which goes into production next month. The 009 is a 5.2m long people mover with a 400kW/686Nm dual-motor system and a range of up to 702km. 

Zeekr’s 001 is a Porsche Macan lookalike with a range of 741km but with the option of a bigger 140kW/h battery for a claimed 1032km range.

Both models sit on the Geely SEA platform also used by the company’s Volvo XC40 EV and Polestar 2 and slated for use in other subsidiaries including Lotus and Proton.

The 001 model, priced at about 300,000 yuan ($A63,000), competes with Tesla’s Model Y SUV and other luxury models in the increasingly competitive Chinese market.

Reuters said that Tesla had cut prices and trimmed production in China because it is facing intense competition from home grown Chinese brands including Zeekr. Tesla sales in December fell to the lowest level in five months.

Reuters, interviewing Zeekr CEO Mr An Conghui (also the president of Geely Holding Group and chairman of Geely Auto Group) who said there was opportunity for growth in Europe.

The company also plans to begin selling vehicles in the market with assisted driving systems engineered with Mobileye, a major shareholder in the recent capital raising.

Zeekr and Waymo, Alphabet’s robotaxi unit, showed a prototype of an autonomous ride service vehicle at the 2023 CES in Las Vegas.

Mr An said Zeekr plans to build vehicles for Waymo in China, but US production is a possibility “depending on the market situation.”

He said Zeekr was not planning to enter the US consumer market.

Investors included Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s biggest EV battery maker by production capacity; Israeli billionaire Amnon Shashua, the cofounder and CEO of autonomous vehicle technology firm Mobileye that was acquired by software giant Intel in 2017; and Yuexiu Industrial Fund, the investment arm of Guangzhou’s municipal government. 

Reuters said that Zeekr said the funding will go towards building a global sales network and enhancing its research and development into proprietary technologies.

By Neil Dowling