Space Zeeker: Lynk & Co’s Zeekr 001

“Because it has bespoke architecture, we wanted the car to be bespoke, and give these cars the best chance,” says Stefan Rosén, vice president Lynk & Co Design. Geely Holding’s new Zeekr 001 was designed in Sweden and rides on the new SEA (Sustainable Experience Architecture) platform.

Designed with a mandate of ‘no more boring EVs’ what does this actually mean? “We didn’t want to just do a BEV drivetrain, it was the starting point of something new,” Rosén elaborates. One important aspect in making it appeal to customers was to make the car attractive through design and not just drivetrain. To accommodate the batteries needed for long range, the wheelbase is very long at 3 metres. “If you have such a long wheelbase and sit on top of it you could end up with what are normally considered awkward proportions, so we asked ourselves how we could do this really attractively,” says Rosén.

One of the keys was making sure the wheels were a decent size – 21 inches as standard. “We wanted to break free from the norms and create a great car rather than trying to fit it into any boxes that existed,” says Rosén. While there was a definite desire to do something new there were some important considerations. With a fastback design rear headroom is always a problem. “To give this car really good rear occupant space we pulled back the roofline. And then we were thinking should we continue and do more like a wagon style? But a good car needs to be good looking and sloping the roof down there very much helps with aerodynamics,” says Rosén. The Zeekr 001 is categorised as a shooting brake, although, that is really the result of the design rather than deliberate.

Cargo capacity is quoted as a huge 2,144 litres. “We created a car which has a very large interior space. For rear occupants there is massive legroom and ample space around the head. The car is deceptive, it is bigger than when you look at it because of those wheels – the wheel size really makes it look proportionally good,” explains Rosén. It has a length of 4,970mm and is just shy of two metres wide.

Although originally shown as the Lynk & Co Zero concept the new brand reality of the Zeekr was known from an early stage. “Creating a new brand with the first car was quite secondary, we wanted it to be quite strongly linked to Lynk & Co. The Lynk & Co brand already has strong recognition in China with being modern, progressive and standing out in the marketplace,” says Rosén. Going forward the brands will be stretched away from each other.

Although the Zeekr 001 will initially only go on sale in China the car has very much been designed for the global marketplace. “It is not up to us here in the design department to say where this car should be sold, but we make sure the car has a global appeal. So, we don’t do something that is quirky that we know will have a problem being accepted in some parts of the world,” explains Rosén. There are for example quite deliberately no traditional Chinese motifs in the car although inspiration has come from Chinese arts and crafts, particularly their attention to detail.