Chinese brand Zeekr - part of the Geely Group, which includes Volvo, Lotus and Polestar - has announced an all-new model for Europe at the Brussels motor show, which will be called the 7GT; and as part of that reveal, the marque has taken a significant step closer to arriving in Ireland.
Have we got confirmed Irish launch dates and prices for the cars?
Not as yet, no. However, with Zeekr already selling cars in Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway, the company confirmed it will be arriving in the UK in the very near future. So while there has been no specific announcement for the timing of cars being sold here, the fact the manufacturer is launching imminently in our nearest right-hand-drive market indicates we might not have to wait too long to receive its products ourselves.
What's the car revealed in Belgium all about?
The Zeekr 7GT is a 'shooting brake' electric vehicle (EV), which means it is a kind of rakish estate, rather than an SUV or crossover. That dovetails the 7GT with the existing Zeekr 7X SUV, with which it shares hardware, and means it is not a replacement for the pre-existing 001; that's a larger, grander electric shooting brake sitting above the 7GT in the portfolio.
Its close relationship with the 7X is obvious in the front-end styling, as it has the 'visor'-like black band in the nose which houses lighting and radar systems. The earlier, older 001 and smaller Zeekr X SUV models have higher-mounted, separate headlight units instead.
Measuring 4,817mm from front to back, the 7GT is about 153mm shorter than a Zeekr 001, with a wheelbase reduced by 100mm to 2,900mm overall, and it's 104mm lower too, although it is 80mm wider.
It looks pretty nice outside. What's the interior like?
As with so many Chinese EVs, the focus inside the Zeekr 7GT is on technology. Occupants are greeted by a 13-inch infotainment screen dominating the dash, while the driver is the beneficiary of a 35.5-inch augmented reality head-up display.
There's a full-length panoramic sunroof up top, while further features include five driving modes (including Snow and Sport), a through-load ski hatch in the back and even camping customisation settings for the interior.
The Zeekr 7GT has roof rails and "advanced towing capabilities” according to its maker, which hints at its lifestyle aspirations - and to help out with storing the associated clobber of such activities, the GT has a 456-litre boot behind the passenger compartment.
Front boots ('frunks') are rated at 65 litres in the single-motor cars and 32 litres for the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive flagship.
What about power, performance, chassis and all the EV stats?
The 7GT sits on the same high-power, 800-volt architecture as the Zeekr 7X, which means at its fastest DC charging rate of 480kW it can get its smaller battery pack from 10-80 per cent state-of-charge in just 13 minutes; it'll only take 16 minutes for the bigger unit.
There are two batteries to choose from, incidentally - a 75kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) item or a longer-range 100kWh nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) item.
From this, Zeekr creates three distinct models of the 7GT: Core RWD, Long Range RWD and Privilege AWD. The first two of these have a single 310kW motor mounted on the rear axle, hence the 'RWD' bit of their nameplates, and that means peak outputs of 421hp and 440Nm of torque.
The difference in weight between them is a mere 20kg (2,265-2,285kg respectively), so both RWD GTs can run 0-100km/h in 5.3 seconds. The main switch between the pair is that the Core runs the 75kWh battery and can go up to 519km to a charge, while the Long Range variant increases that number to 655km.
Above these is the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive Privilege. Power leaps to 646hp backed up by 710Nm of torque, with the kerb weight standing at 2,405kg. This means the GT is lighter than the related 7X, so it's half-a-second quicker to 100km/h from a rest than the swiftest version of Zeekr's SUV; the new shooting brake can run the benchmark sprint in just 3.3 seconds. The payoff is outright range reduced to 558km.
As stated earlier, all models can top up at a 480kW, with 22kW AC charging also possible. One visual identifier of the three grades of 7GT comes via the alloys: the Core car runs on 19-inch 'Aero' wheels, the Long Range RWD switches these to a 'Multispoke' design of the same size and the Privilege AWD gets its own 'GT' design of 20-inch rims.
The Chinese company says it has tuned the steering and suspension - the latter featuring double-wishbone front and five-link rear set-ups - of the 7GT to "sharpen the driving experience”. On the upper Privilege model, larger brakes are fitted that are claimed to provide superior cooling and resistance to fade.
Anything else to add?
Since it launched in 2021, Zeekr has sold 550,000 cars globally, but the key now is cracking Europe. It says an "aggressive” pan-European rollout plan is on the cards to expand Zeekr's presence, and Lothar Schupet - the acting CEO of Zeekr Europe - said at the Brussels show launch of the 7GT: "This launch marks the start of a very exciting year of expansion for Zeekr in Europe, with more products to come.”