Chinese luxury EV maker Zeekr will add a saloon to its line-up this year as it prepares to launch in Europe this coming winter.

The Geely-owned brand will launch a new model every six months as part of an expansion plan that targets 650,000 sales a year by 2025, CEO An Conghui told journalists and analysts in a results presentation on Tuesday.

Expanding in Europe by the end of 2023 and to the US in 2024 will help the brand grow, An said. “Zeekr is a well-established product in China but will expand rapidly in international markets, which is our original goal,” he added.

Last year, 71,941 examples of the Zeekr 001 shooting brake were sold in China. “By 2025, we will have eight models to achieve 650,000 units. We believe this is achievable,” An said.

Zeekr currently sells the 001 and Zeekr 009 MPV in the Chinese market, and deliveries of the new Zeekr X compact SUV will start in the third quarter.

The new saloon, codenamed CS1E (for ‘compact sedan first-generation electric’), is tipped to be longer than the X and expected to become a rival to the Tesla Model 3.

An didn’t expand on which models would come to Europe, but the 001, X and CS1E look most likely. No UK plans have been revealed.

Zeekr cars so far have used Geely’s Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA), which underpins several other EVs, including the Smart #1 that’s already on sale in the UK.

The 001 was originally planned to be a new model for Lynk&Co, but Geely decided it was upmarket enough to create a new brand for its launch in 2021. 

Zeekr has an engineering and design team numbering around 1000 working in Stockholm, Sweden.

It took over Geely’s China Euro Vehicle Technology (CEVT) operation there, which among other tasks developed the CMA platform used by the Volvo XC40 and other Geely models.