Zeekr X 2025 review | First Drive

If you’re yet to have heard about Zeekr, it's part of the new wave of EVs and lives under the same Geely umbrella as Smart and Volvo, but if you’re after a full breakdown of what the firm is about then you can learn more in our review of the company's 001 saloon.

Sadly, we found the 001 to be decidedly subpar in areas such as autonomous tech and regenerative brake modulation, to the extent that we would find it hard to recommend. Despite it looking smart, having excellent battery tech and a performance model that accelerates faster than a Porsche 911.

The X is Zeekr's second-ever car and our first opportunity to see if it can fix the obvious wrongs of the 001. Let's see if it can do it as we test it here in top-end specification 428PS (315kW) Privilege form.  

While it doesn't look like it in the pictures, the Zeekr has the tall-and-narrow stance of a Volkswagen ID.3, but it's a far more interesting design compared to the German car.

Zeekr’s designers have used a barrage of creases and plastic trims to break up the X's shape and disguise the fact that its floor packs a massive battery. It has the same corporate face as the other Zeekr, with a black facia and bookended by vents that send air around the front wheels like a handlebar moustache. 

There's a hint of Tesla Model 3 to the platypus-style bonnet and some BMW i3 to the car's stepped window line, but despite all these influences the Zeekr looks original — and premium. The LED light bar at the back of the car has crystal-like segments and a 3D depth that makes the X look like it comes from a premium German brand, not a new entrant that has only been operating since 2021 and costs around a third less than rivals.  

First, let's deal with the elephant in the room. Does the X fix the frankly terrible autonomous driving in the company's first model, the 001? Yes, it does.

The X can handle autonomous motorway driving and anything else. It doesn't hurtle towards the car in front or viciously stamp on the anchors when only light braking is needed. Sure, in corners it gets upset passing cars in other lanes, slowing to prevent a perceived collision, but it's no worse than in competitors. Zeekr has also cracked another 001 issue: one-pedal driving; you can now smoothly slow down by bleeding pressure on and off the accelerator pedal. 

With its autonomous driving sorted, the X is a decent motorway car with a silent drivetrain. It's just a shame the pillarless doors and poor sound deadening mean it's not as quiet a cruiser as a Volkswagen ID.3. 

Acceleration is as you'd expect with 428PS (315kW) and four-wheel drive, which is to say, excellent. The Zeekr can take you from city to motorway faster than laser pen flashes on a whiteboard: 0-62mph done in 3.8seconds (faster than a Porsche 911) all while carrying the family and their luggage. 

That said, the 911 will have no worries in corners. The moon has more signs of life than the Zeekr's steering, and if you're unperturbed by that, pushing on results in terminal understeer that (definitely) will put you off going any faster.

The Zeekr is best treated like a silent old Audi RS3 — very slow in to avoid the front washing out, then feed in the throttle using the prodigious grip to sling you out the other end.  

This isn't quite so fun at night, mind. The X's headlights are pretty useless by modern standards, with a large dark spot in the middle of the beam, irrespective of whether the lights are dipped. 

Of course, not many people will feel the need to drive the X like they're setting lap records, but its 'right now' acceleration makes it ideal for nipping in and out of gaps in traffic in town, and it's here that the relatively compact X is released back into its natural habitat. 

But there is room for improvement. The steering's indirectness makes the X feel more unwieldy in tight spaces than its modest dimensions would have you believe, and its 11.5m turning circle is some way off the 10.2m an ID.3 manages. 

With maximum charging speeds of 150kW, the X can't match the 500kW of the larger 001, but it's quick enough to deliver a ten to 80 per cent battery top-up in 30 minutes, and its advertised range of just under 250 miles is believable based on our time with the car. 

The interior of the Zeekr X looks just as sophisticated as the exterior. The car's large central infotainment screen deals with almost all the controls, and a pillar box display takes the place of an instrument binnacle. The design is minimalist with no buttons, and most of the interior is covered in vegan leather that looks and feels plush. 

Metal, barrel-shaped electric window switches are a nice touch point, and the sunglasses holder on the roof and the grab handles are made from posh fabric. The LED lighting is also pretty swanky, with a strip on the dashboard and both the doors giving a glowing colour show that you won't find anywhere else. However, the X isn't exempt from Zeekr's need to fiddle. Where you'd expect to find handles to open the door (intuitive and work almost instantly), you get slow and less satisfying buttons.  

You can tell the Zeekr X was designed from the ground up to be an EV. Because there's no centre console, it feels very airy up front thanks to the panoramic glass roof, and the seats, which are heated and massaging, are easy to get comfortable in. You also get a heated steering wheel. The X can comfortably carry four adults (a fifth would be a squeeze) and it has a 362-litre boot. 

An 8.8-inch slat screen lives behind the steering wheel that is clear, colourful and easy to get your head around. The Zeekr's 14.6-inch centre screen carries most of the load, it being easy to operate considering its bewildering number of functions, with rows of fast keys at the bottom of the screen. The display reacts to the same hand gestures as an iPad and flashes through menus with zero friction. 

The onboard sat-nav works well and is handy to find a charging station quickly. Nevertheless, you'll probably end up hooking up your phone with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, both of which work without gremlins. 

The infotainment system has a mode for almost anything, Driving off-road, camping, leaving a pet in the car — you name it, and if you're bored, you can play cat, horse and tractor noises through the car's external speaker. We'll stick to the 13-speaker Yamaha stereo, though.

The Zeekr X certainly takes an evolutionary step from the 001. As a family crossover, Zeekr's dynamic shortfalls are less cruelly exposed — the X doesn't handle like it's on rails but then you don't look and expect dynamic flare to be served by the bucket load. It does however deliver a load of instantaneous thrust without any histrionics. A solid range and fast charging make it an easy car to live with day-to-day. 

Inside, the X feels as good as anything European — and better than lots — with satisfying touchpoints and bedazzling visuals wrapped in pretend leather and backed by heavyweight infotainment. It's very well packaged but suffers from poor cabin refinement. 

The Zeekr X moves the game on from the 001, and while it's not without its faults, if the company can sort out the driving dynamics and improve ride comfort it would have a car capable of easily beating the Volkswagen ID.3. Quite an achievement, given its only the second car it’s built.