No-one gets it right first time. George Lucas’s debut movie was pants, Nirvana’s first album was like drinking Bleach through your ears and even the great Oscar Piastri failed to win the world championship in his debut year in F1.
And yet Zeekr’s first effort in the hugely competitive, Tesla Model Y dominated, mid-sized, electrified SUV market, the 7X, is mighty impressive, particularly when compared to the initial offerings of some other Chinese brands.
Ev Authority attended the launch in South Australia where we drove early and unregistered versions of the 7X on a gravel rally stage, through a quarry that’s been turned into an off-road course and, strangely, around The Bend race track.
READ MORE: Beyond 2000! 2026 Zeekr 7X electric SUV locked-on for an arrival next month with bulging order book as battle with Tesla Model Y and Polestar 4 looms
READ MORE: Zeekr 7X priced for Australia: Latest Chinese electric SUV undercuts Tesla Model Y as premium EV brand goes for mainstream sales
READ MORE: 2025 Zeekr 009 Review: The maddest, fastest people mover on sale, but who’ll actually buy one?
It’s fair to say there’s some fevered excitement in the market about this Zeekr, with the brand claiming to be holding more than 2000 orders (deliveries begin next month), mostly from people who’ve never even sat in one, let alone driven it, so I’m betting they’ll be quite curious to read more.
Early adopters were no doubt encouraged by Zeekr’s offer to give the first 1000 7X buyers a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre vehicle warranty and seven years of roadside assistance – up from the five years of each everyone else now gets – plus a 7kW home charger and both Type 2 and mini portable (10-amp) charging cables.
2025 Zeekr 7X price and equipment
It’s surely no accident that the headline-grabbing, entry-level price of $57,900 for the Zeekr 7X single-motor Rear-Wheel Drive model comes in just under its most obvious competitor – and Australia’s best-selling EV – Tesla’s Model Y.
It’s worth noting, however, that the 7X’s other attention-grabbing numbers – 475kW, 710Nm and a supercar-worthy 0 to 100km/h sprint of 3.8 seconds – are only available if you step up to $72,900 for the Performance All-Wheel Drive variant.
The sensible centre – meaning people who just want a car and not a rocket ship – might be found in the Long-Range Rear-Wheel Drive Zeekr 7X at $63,900, which offers 615km of range from the same 100kWh battery found in the AWD model and a 6.0-second 100km/h dash (compared to 480km for the 75kWh battery base model and allegedly 543km for the Performance).
Unfortunately, based on our admittedly real-world adjacent first drive experience, you really do need to shell out top dollar – and, to be fair, $72,900 is still pretty remarkable value for this much mid-sized, five-seat SUV, and this much performance, from a brand that positions itself as being “premium” – to get the best out of the 7X as it is the only one that gets air suspension, with continuous control dampers and five levels of height adjustment.
Zeekr’s other big selling point with the 7X is that it comes with “cutting-edge” 800V electrical architecture, which means it can be charged at 450kW DC (or at least the base one, the other two manage 420kW). Indeed,. This is too cutting edge for Australia, where for now you won’t find a charger capable of delivering such wonders, but Zeekr argues, fairly enough, that it is future proofing this vehicle for tech that’s yet to come.
And, using a 350kW charger, it claims the 7X can be charged from 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 13 minutes for the Rear-Wheel Drive, or 16 minutes for the Long-Range Rear-Wheel Drive and Performance All-Wheel Drive variants.
Numbers and prices aside, the most noticeable thing about the 7X is how good it looks and the fact that it doesn’t feel like yet another carbon copy of the Polestar/Volvo/Geely design hegemony (Geely is the parent of all of them), inside or out. Indeed, if it looks like a copy of anything it’s a Porsche Macan, and if you’re going to borrow from any company’s design, Porsche is a good place to go.
Another pleasing feature of the 7X is that it feels properly premium – with chunk-thunk doors – inside, while feeling different enough from its aforementioned close relatives at Polestar and Volvo (which can feel like the same car inside). I was unfortunate enough to sit in the back while someone tested the Zeekr’s gut churning acceleration, and while trying not to vomit on my shoes I noted that the rear legroom was also impressive.
In terms of other inclusions, all 7Xs offer 3kW vehicle-to-load (V2L) functionality and a generous 539 litres of rear storage, or a huge 1978 litres with rear seats folded.
Standard warranty is five-years, unlimited-kilometres plus an eight-year, 160,000km battery warranty, and standard equipment includes AEB, blind-spot monitoring, front and rear cross-traffic alerts, surround-view camera, seven airbags, 19-inch alloy wheels (up to 21-inch for the Performance), Panoramic glass roof with power sunshade, autonomous parking assist, the must-have 16-inch touchscreen infotainment system, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, 14-way power driver’s seat and 10-way power passenger seat, both heated, as are the rear seats and the steering wheel.
The Performance also gets Nappa leather upholstery and silly automatic doors that open at the push of a button and are strangely annoying, but I’m sure you’d get used to them.
2025 Zeekr 7X: What we think
Launching a large-ish, heavy electric SUV on a race track sounds like a self-evidently stupid idea, and sure enough the tyres were completely shot and grumbling and squealing by the time I got to have my turn, but your options are limited when you don’t have any registered vehicles available.
It’s also possible that the power and performance figures made someone think the AWD version actually is a track-ready tearaway. What was clear was that the base-model RWD version was not at home on The Bend’s fast and flowing layout.
It’s hard to say for sure whether the standard double wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension is actually not great and whether the amount of body roll we experienced is a concern until we get to drive the Zeekr 7X Rear-Wheel Drive on public roads, and the fact that it was being belted along at speed did not help (nor did this kind of driving do the battery range a lot of good).
So, as a first effort, we’ll have to reserve some judgment on the Rear-Wheel Drive variants.
What was clear, however, is that the Performance All-Wheel Drive, hugely aided by its air suspension and adjustable dampers, is a different proposition. Even on the track, where we could take full advantage of its full-force acceleration, it rode and handled pretty well, even if its brakes did start to smell awful. Obviously, this is not what the 7X was built for, nor will one ever see a race circuit again, quite likely, but the fact that it coped so well in such conditions was impressive.
We actually learned a lot more about it on some gravel rally stages nearby, a brief blast along some private black top, and a bit of off-road adventuring. Playing with the adjustable suspension, you could really see that the Comfort and Sport settings made a difference, it genuinely handled the dirt – even under extreme provocation – pretty well, and the levels of NVH and ride quality all seemed to be pretty good.
There are some foibles, of course, like the fact that you have to use the screen to do simple, silly things like adjusting the steering wheel position, and that the Zeekr offers many, many stupid fake noises and childish features, like the ability to play the sound of a horse whinnying or a cat meowing through the external speakers.
Over all, though, this looks like one of the better offerings to come out of China so far without a Tesla or Polestar badge.
2025 Zeekr 7X: Verdict
We’ll have to wait and see how it does in the real world, but at the price point – and considering all the included fruit, the fast charging and the outrageous levels of power and speed on offer – a $72,900 Zeekr X feels like a pretty tempting proposition for those who want a punchy family SUV, but not a Tesla.
2025 Zeekr 7X: Verdict
2025 Zeekr 7X Performance All-Wheel drive price and specifications
Price: $72,900 (plus on-road costs)
Basics: EV , 5 seats, 5 doors, medium SUV
Range: 543km (WLTP – good luck getting that if you put your foot down)
Battery capacity: 100kWh NMC
Battery warranty: 8 years/160,000km
Energy consumption: ??kWh/100km (ADR)
Motors: 1 front, 1 rear, 475kW/710Nm.
AC charging: 22kW, Type 2 plug
DC charging: 420kW, CCS combo plug
0-100km/h: 3.8 seconds
