Zeekr 7X EV First Drive: Fledgling Chinese EV Maker Takes Another Step Forward

It took 18 years for Tesla to launch six different electric cars. Chinese automaker Zeekr’s new 7X, a midsize SUV, is the eighth new EV from a car company that’s barely four years old. Since its founding in 2021, Zeekr—part of China’s Geely group—has also built four new factories and established four R&D centers and two design centers. Customer deliveries of the Zeekr RT, a self-driving robotaxi designed and engineered with Waymo, will begin within a few months. Tesla was once the global auto industry’s great disruptor, but fast-moving Zeekr makes it look as sclerotic as mid-’80s General Motors. 

Premium Tech and Style

What’s even more impressive is the 7X, which is about to go on sale in selected European markets and doesn’t look anything like an EV from a neophyte automaker. It’s built on a platform developed in-house, the rear section of which comprises a very rigid single aluminum casting rather than a welded collection of pressed-steel parts. It boasts a state-of-the-moment 800-volt electrical architecture that enables hyper-fast charging speeds and has a software backend anchored by Qualcomm’s powerful 8295 Snapdragon chip. Its exterior and interior design is modern and sophisticated. It’s put together beautifully, with high levels of perceived quality. In short, the Zeekr 7X looks like a premium EV that would be right at home on any driveway in America. 

At 188.5 inches, the Zeekr 7X is the same length overall as a Porsche Macan EV, but its slightly longer 114.2-inch wheelbase endows it with excellent interior room, especially for rear-seat passengers whose entry and egress are enhanced by rear doors that open a full 90 degrees. Short overhangs front and rear, a roofline that sweeps down to the backlight, and a black finish that runs around the car from the front spoiler to the side sills to the rear diffuser by way of the wheel openings, help visually tug the softly surfaced sheetmetal over wheels that range from 19 to 21 inches, depending on model.  

The front end is defined by a distinctive black graphic that runs from the front cutlines of the front doors along the fenders and around the nose of the car and includes a white light bar that connects the standard slimline Matrix LED headlights. A full-width red light bar, nestled in a sharply chiseled recess, runs across the rear. Flush door handles, frameless rearview mirrors, and hidden side-window seals, like those on a Range Rover Sport, add style as well as aerodynamic function. Other sophisticated design details: the clamshell hood and rear hatch that ensure discreet shut lines; subtle creases that lighten the visual mass over the wheel openings; gently muscular haunches over the rear wheels; and raised front fenders that, like those on a sports car, frame the hood’s center section. 

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How About the Inside?

The interior is defined by a chunky center console and a bluff dash that stretches from A-pillar to A-pillar and supports a low-profile binnacle that frames a 13.0-inch digital instrument panel. In the center of the dash sits a 16.0-inch landscape-format central touchscreen that controls a myriad of vehicle functions via a bewilderingly comprehensive menu. The good news is Zeekr says setting one-click shortcuts to frequently used functions is easy, and there’s access to apps and tools through widgets or directly from the soft keys at the bottom of the screen. Even better, there are also some physical controls beneath the touchscreen, and real switches in the steering wheel instead of capacitive units. Zeekr says both these features are a result of customer feedback and not born from complaints by grouchy auto writers like us who have spent far too much time being frustrated by such things. 

Standard interior features include power second-row seats, a heated leather-clad steering wheel, laser-etched ambient lighting displays across the dash and along the front door trims, and a full-length panoramic sunroof with a powered sunshade. Clever storage solutions include trays that slide out from under the rear seats. In addition to seven airbags, the Zeekr 7X comes equipped with a unique passenger safety feature, a window breaker. Mechanically actuated by way of a toggle under the armrest in the driver’s door, it is designed to shatter the driver’s window should the 7X become submerged in deep water, allowing occupants to escape a vehicle that, with a curb weight of between 5,280 and 5,588 pounds, isn’t very buoyant. Aquatic accidents must be a thing in China …  

More Safety

As befits a modern Chinese EV, the Zeekr 7X also comes equipped with the usual suite of driver assistance systems such as lane keep assist and emergency braking assist. One of the more complex ADAS functions standard on the 7X is automated lane change assist, which evaluates road conditions such as the speed of other vehicles and monitors blind spots before automatically initiating a lane change. A new braking system allows torque vectoring by braking to help reduce understeer.  

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What About the Powertrain?

The Zeekr 7X is available in three trim levels. The base car, dubbed Core RWD, boasts Zeekr’s new 416-hp, 325-lb-ft high-efficiency e-motor with an inbuilt silicon-carbide inverter mounted at the rear axle and driving the rear wheels. It’s powered by a 75-kWh version of the company’s second-generation “Golden” battery, which uses low-cost LFP chemistry and delivers a claimed range of 298 miles under the European WLTP test protocol, which equates to roughly 255 miles in America’s tougher EPA test. The volume-selling 7X is likely to be the mid-spec Long Range rear-wheel-drive version, fitted with a 100-kWh NMC battery pack that pushes the claimed WLTP range to 382 miles, or about 328 miles under the EPA test. Zeekr says both rear-drive 7X models accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in less than 6.0 seconds, and that the 800V electric architecture means the LFP battery can charge from 10 to 80 percent in as few as 13 minutes on a 360-kW fast charger, with the NMC battery taking 16 minutes. 

The 7X Privilege model sits at the top of the range and packs a dual-motor powertrain with total system output of 630 hp and 524 lb-ft that will snap it from 0 to 60 mph in less than 3.8 seconds. Zeekr claims the 7X Privilege has a WLTP-certified range of 337 miles, which suggests a likely range of 298 miles under the EPA test. This compares rather favorably with the Porsche Macan Turbo EV’s EPA-rated range of 288; the Porsche also has 630 hp but costs more than twice as much as the Zeekr when comparing the cars’ European pricing. 

Extra Details

Th Zeekr 7X Privilege comes standard with height-adjustable active air suspension and continuously variable shocks, larger 14.9-inch ventilated front discs, 21-inch wheels, six drive modes, and Nappa leather seat trim. Our 7X Privilege test car was also equipped with the optional Comfort package that added, among other things, an augmented-reality head-up display, a thumping 2,160-watt 21-speaker audio system, an air fragrance system, heated and cooled massaging front seats, and electric powered doors. 

On the road, the fully loaded Zeekr 7X Privilege generally feels as sophisticated as its design and specifications suggest, but only to a point. The punchy powertrain is smooth and quiet, getting the Chinese SUV effortlessly and briskly out of corners and along the straights. Brake feel is notably good, and the transition between regenerative and mechanical braking is imperceptible. The car’s steering is accurate and well weighted; road and wind noise are low.  

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But Zeekr’s air suspension isn’t as supple as it should be. Even though transmitted noise levels are commendably low, the vertical motions are sharp even with the suspension set in Comfort mode—road impacts are accentuated by the relatively low-profile 265/40 21-inch tires. We suspect the 7X would ride better on the steel springs and 265/45 tires fitted to the 20-inch rims that are the optional setup on the mid-spec 7X Long Range RWD. Yes, you would lose the ability to raise the suspension 1.8 inches over the standard 6.8 inches of ground clearance in Off-Road mode (which is only available on the 7X Privilege), but it makes more sense overall. And speaking of tires, credit Zeekr for not skimping when specifying the rubber: Our test cars rolled on Continental eContact 7s or Michelin Pilot Sport EVs. 

The other area where the Zeekr 7X just misses the mark is high-speed stability, especially when compared with the Porsche Macan EV. At 90 mph or more, the Zeekr tends to move about a bit, especially in crosswinds. You can tell this is an SUV developed by engineers who don’t have an autobahn in their backyard. But it’s a minor quibble few customers outside Germany will ever notice. 

Sum It Up

Roomy and lavishly equipped, quiet and powerful, the Zeekr 7X Privilege is a rather competitive offering in the premium electric SUV segment, a step forward in terms of its poise and precision on the road from the 007 sedan we tested in China last year. It’s another Chinese EV that demonstrates the incredible speed at which the country’s automakers improve their design, engineering, and manufacturing skills. And it’s yet another Chinese EV looming large in Tesla’s rearview mirror, threatening to blow by it in the fast lane.