ZEEKR Australia will not offer online sales and will not set up an ‘agency’ style model in Australia. The business in Australia is to be run as a subsidiary of the brand and reach the public through a traditional dealership footprint across the country.

Zeekr said it planned to work closely with its dealers – for example, letting dealers choose the stock levels with which they are most comfortable – in what it described as a “partnership of franchising”.

Zeekr is in the process of launching in Australia. It said it expects to have nine dealerships up and running before the end of 2024, with a view to expand as and when beyond that. 

None of those dealer partners have yet been named but Zeekr Australia and New Zealand managing director, Connal Yan, said the brand is gearing up for the public test-drive launch event for the brand at South By Southwest (SXSW) Sydney in October.

Mr Yan, former head of Genesis Australia, told GoAutoNews Premium that there were some hard lessons learned with Genesis’ initial strategy of having no dealership presence and an online-only sales program. Genesis has recently switched to a more traditional showroom status.

“At Zeekr, we are determined. This is why we have set up a subsidiary here,” Mr Yan said.

“And then at the same time, we are going to adopt a franchise dealership model for distribution, not agency, not direct retail.

“We will have a franchise dealership [model] which is the most used by the market and welcomed by customers.“With a soft launch of our website around four weeks ago, we’ve already amassed more than 1000 registered interests. This is a bit above expectation and it’s definitely a very positive and welcome result.”

Zeekr Australia national retail sales manager, Ryan Collins, said that there is no pressure for dealerships to take high stock levels onboard in order to push volume to the market.“We’re asking our dealer group to order what they’re comfortable to order – and that’s what Zeekr is about, a partnership of franchising,” he said.

“And why we’ve chosen a franchise model is to build with our partners, as opposed to being an OEM that dictates to the market and says ‘this is what we’ll take’.

“Some of our dealers have been very comfortable in ordering cars, and some are taking it week by week as they go, and we will go on that journey with them as we get closer and closer to our launch.”As for the spread of dealers across major locations, the brand wouldn’t divulge any specifics, but Mr Collins said that Zeekr Australia was open to diversifying its options across the landscape. He said there was no target number of dealer locations as yet.

“It’s something we really don’t, at Zeekr, have a number on specifically,” he said.

Connal Yan

“Again, we will let the market decide and the dealers will also have a say in that in terms of the areas that we’re looking at breaking up into PMAs (prime marketing areas) and we’ll assess it.”

Zeekr Australia head of ownership experience, Matthew McRoary, said the brand will offer maintenance across its dealership network for those who wish to service at Zeekr dealerships.

“Servicing is every two years or 40,000km, whichever occurs first, and how that plays out we will announce (closer to the launch),” he said. 

“As we are a franchise model, naturally they will be in line to do it. We can’t step in the way of consumers choosing to service elsewhere, but we do highly recommend the Zeekr partners.” Another means of service that won’t require a physical interaction is the brand’s over-the-air (OTA) updates. All Zeekr models will feature a 5G Optus sim card for data and will receive software changes wirelessly as they are released.

“OTA updates are standard with all of our products, and our connectivity package is standard, at no additional cost to the consumer at this point in time,” said Mr McCroary.

Zeekr X

The Chinese brand – which is under the Geely Holdings umbrella – is set to offer two versions of the Zeekr X, with the entry-level single-motor RWD version to start from “less than $60,000 before on-road costs”, while the more richly specified dual-motor AWD will kick off “under $70,000 plus on-roads”. While the final pricing is yet to be confirmed, the business has announced initial specification details for the two-model range, and also confirmed the Zeekr 009 electric people-mover will arrive before the end of 2024, with the Zeekr 7X electric midsize SUV, with more mass-appeal, due in 2025.