Geely making a smart move by making a Zeekr EV that’s exactly like the smart#1?
Looks like the smart#1 will have some family rivalry soon as carnewschina.com has spotted the new Zeekr compact EV SUV, which looks to be the same size as the smart#1.
Codenamed BX1E, the EV apparently stays on the same SEA architecture as the EV from smart and will “hit the market” in 2023.
According to carnewschina, the BX1E has low ground clearance, a smooth aerodynamic shape, and low-positioned bumpers, which doesn’t make it look like an SUV – but if we look at the pictures, it looks just like the shape of the Volkswagen ID.4, which is basically an SUV in the EV world.
They go on to say that from the side, the BX1E has lot of space between the B-pillar and the C-pillar, which might give rear occupants a lot of space. However, due to the upward kink at the rear door, passengers will not get too much visibility because of the small glass area.
Not much is known about the specs of the Zeekr BX1E, but since it is built on Geely’s SEA architecture, it can potentially come with similar specs as the Smart #1, which basically has 350km of driving range and a single-motor that sends 272 PS hp to the rear wheels.
The most interesting part of the carnewschina piece is that they reckon the BX1E will be positioned higher than the Smart #1.
Whatever it is, it feels like Geely is about to cannibalise its own products, which might be a clever move considering that Zeekr is 100% Geely’s while smart is a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz Group and Geely Holding.