One luxury electric brand founded in 2021, one near-premium brand from 2016 sold by order and subscription, and an ownership chart redrawn twice in just over a year.
Zeekr is Geely's luxury electric brand, founded in 2021, and Lynk & Co is a near-premium brand established in 2016 that sells directly and by subscription. Zeekr owns 51% of Lynk & Co, Geely Auto holds 49%, and Geely Auto fully owns Zeekr after a privatisation completed in December 2025.
Zeekr built its 500,000th car on 16 June 2025, a 009 Brilliant Edition, only 44 months after the first 001 rolled off the line in October 2021. In that time it also took control of an older sister brand, Lynk & Co, and was then taken private by its own parent, Geely Auto.
Zeekr is the luxury electric brand, and Lynk & Co the near-premium one that sells by order and subscription. They sit side by side in Geely's upmarket push, and since late 2024 their ownership has been rearranged more than once, which is where most of the confusion about them starts.
Zeekr brand: from the 001 to the 500,000th car
Geely Group founded Zeekr in March 2021 as a premium electric brand, meant to take on Nio, Tesla and others. The first model, the Zeekr 001, was launched in April 2021 and deliveries began in October. It was a car originally planned for sister brand Lynk & Co: the Lynk & Co Zero concept shown at the Beijing Auto Show in September 2020 was expected to be that brand's first fully electric vehicle, and instead became the Zeekr 001.
The name is a three-part code. ZE means zero, which the company treats as the starting point for endless possibilities. E nods to an evolving electric era. Kr is krypton, a rare gas that glows when electrified. Zeekr models are based on the SEA platform that Geely presented in autumn 2020.
Growth came quickly. In 2022 Zeekr delivered 71,941 examples of the 001 to customers in more than 330 Chinese cities, and its charging subsidiary, Zeekr Power, reached more than 110 cities with over 660 stations. The company says its factory can build up to 300,000 vehicles a year, with room to expand.
Money, partners and the Waymo robotaxi
Funding followed the same pace. In August 2021 Zeekr raised US$500 million from five investors, among them Intel Capital, CATL and Bilibili. By 13 February 2023 it was valued at US$13 billion after raising a further US$750 million. In May 2024 it filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange and raised around US$441 million, described as the largest IPO by a Chinese firm since 2021.
Technology partnerships fill out the picture. In December 2021 Geely announced that Zeekr would work with Waymo on an electric, autonomous ride-hailing vehicle for Waymo One in the United States. The finished vehicle, fitted with Waymo's technology, was shown in Los Angeles in November 2022. In January 2022 Zeekr and Mobileye announced a cooperation with a goal of putting consumer autonomous cars with L4 abilities on sale by 2024. In August 2022 Zeekr announced a deal with CATL that made it the earliest brand to put the Qilin long-range battery into global mass production, starting with the 001, with a pure electric range of more than 1,000 km (620 mi).
The 2025 model that angered 2024 buyers
In August 2024 Zeekr faced criticism after launching the 2025 model year of the 001 in China only six months after the previous version arrived in February 2024. Customers who had recently bought the earlier car protested. The 2024 model carried Mobileye chips that cannot be upgraded to the Haohan Intelligent Driving 2.0 system of the 2025 car. Zeekr chief executive An Conghui (Andy An) acknowledged the problem and said the company could have explained its product plans better.
Questions also arose over sales reporting. Reuters and the China Securities Journal reported that in Xiamen in December 2024 Zeekr recorded 2,737 sales, 2,508 of them to companies, yet only 271 vehicles were registered for licence plates, and many cars had been pre-registered for insurance with local firms before reaching customers.
Zeekr built its 500,000th car 44 months after the first, and by then it already owned 51% of an older sister brand.
Lynk & Co brand: a near-premium challenger from 2016
Lynk & Co dates from 2016, when Volvo Cars, Geely Auto Group and Geely Holding set it up as a joint venture of three partners, and it is headquartered in Hangzhou. Inside the group it was set up to behave like a startup, with direct-to-consumer sales and a subscription model, while sharing engines and platforms with Volvo and Geely vehicles. Geely designer Peter Horbury said the aim was a near-premium brand positioned between Volvo and Geely.
The name has a taxi in its history. It grew from an internal code, Lynk, meaning interconnected cars, to which "& Co" was added to give a young feel. Geely executives settled the full name in a casual conversation in a taxi, borrowing the spirit of labels like Pull & Bear and Abercrombie & Fitch, and it was formalised within three days. Ford briefly objected because of the similarity to its Lincoln brand. Lynk & Co called that an unintentional coincidence, and Ford dropped its threat of legal action.
Platform, plants and the first models
The cars rest on the Compact Modular Architecture, developed by China Euro Vehicle Technology, which Volvo, Polestar and Geely models also use. In August 2017 Zhejiang Geely Holding, Geely Auto and Volvo signed the agreement establishing the joint venture, with Geely Auto controlling 50%, Volvo 30% and Zhejiang Geely Holding the remaining 20%.
The 01 crossover was the first product, with the production version shown at the 2017 Auto Shanghai show. It was built in Volvo's plant in the Luqiao district of Taizhou, on the same line as the Volvo XC40 and the Polestar 2. A concept of the 03 sedan appeared at the same show, and the 02 followed as a smaller hatchback with crossover styling. A planned 04 compact hatchback was cancelled by 2020, and its name went to an electric scooter instead.
Production later spread. The 02, 02 Hatchback and 03 came from a plant in Zhangjiakou, the 01, 06, 08 and 09 from Meishan, 50 km from Ningbo, and the 05 and 07 from Geely's Luqiao CMA Super Factory. A headquarters building near Karlatornet in Gothenburg, Sweden, won an architectural award for best interior design in 2022.
Lynk & Co subscription and the direct-sales model
In most markets Lynk & Co skips the dealer. The brand was influenced by Tesla's success with direct sales, and each car is ordered by the buyer and tailored with equipment packages, either online or at a retail outlet. A vehicle subscription service sits alongside. The brand had opened 221 retail outlets in China by 2019 and expanded to Europe in 2020.
Europe has been the hard part. Only electric and plug-in hybrid models are offered there, and the company lost 1 billion Swedish kronor, about 100 million euros, across 2020 and 2021 while China sales stayed steady. The brand is sold in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, and in 2024 it appointed the automotive group SEEAG to open southeast European markets, starting with Romania and Greece.
The model of selling has shifted too. In March 2026 Volvo Cars was named exclusive importer of Lynk & Co in Europe, and it will sell the cars through its European retailers. Buyers in Europe will be able to find the cars at Volvo's retailers, a change from the direct-sales approach that defined the brand.
Beyond Europe
Lynk & Co entered the Middle East in May 2023, with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait the first markets, and reached the Philippines in March 2024 through the distributor UAAGI. In 2021 Geely announced plans for Russia, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand by 2025. The United States has been under consideration since 2018, with a San Francisco headquarters planned by 2020, but little has come of it. In 2023 the company disclosed plans for a first electric vehicle there by 2024, using the subscription approach it already runs in Europe. In Brazil it will sell from 2026 under its own operation, separate from Zeekr and from any partnership with the Renault Group.
Who owns Zeekr and Lynk & Co now
The structure moved in three steps. In November 2024 Geely Holding Group handed its 11.3% holding in Zeekr to Geely Auto, lifting Geely Auto's shareholding to 62.8%. Zeekr then bought Geely Auto's 20% of Lynk & Co for 3.6 billion yuan, and Volvo Cars' 30% for 5.4 billion yuan. On 14 February 2025 Zeekr announced the completion of the deals, and Lynk & Co became a subsidiary brand of Zeekr Group.
| Owner of Lynk & Co | Before November 2024 | Since 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Zeekr | None | 51% |
| Geely Auto | 50% | 49% |
| Volvo Cars | 30% | None |
| Geely Holding Group | 20% | None |
Zeekr itself then changed hands. In May 2025 Geely Auto announced plans to acquire the 34.3% of Zeekr it did not own, with a delisting to follow. In July 2025 the two signed a merger agreement under which Geely Auto bought all remaining shares, making Zeekr a wholly owned subsidiary, and the privatisation was completed in December 2025.
Zeekr and Lynk & Co models and platforms
Zeekr's current range is mostly electric. The 001 is a full-size shooting brake, the 007 a mid-size sedan with a 007GT shooting-brake variant, the 009 a full-size MPV, the X a compact SUV, the 7X a mid-size SUV and the Mix a compact MPV, all battery-electric. The 8X and 9X are full-size SUVs with plug-in hybrid power. A Waymo-based robotaxi, the Ojai, entered production in 2024 and service in 2026.
The M-Vision concept of 2021 hints at where the platform thinking goes. It is built on a SEA-M architecture with an open interior, flexible seating, no B-pillar and an electrical backbone designed for autonomous driving, and it serves as a base for robotaxis, people carriers and logistics vehicles.
Lynk & Co's range leans on plug-in hybrids. The 01 compact SUV dates from 2017, the 03 compact sedan from 2018, the 05 coupe SUV from 2019 and the 06 subcompact SUV from 2020, with the 01, 03 and 06 offered in combustion or plug-in form. The 07 sedan and 08 SUV are plug-in hybrids, the 09 SUV comes with combustion or plug-in power, the 10 full-size sedan is a battery-electric or plug-in, the 20 compact SUV is electric, and the 900 is a full-size plug-in SUV. The 02 left the range in 2023, and the Z10 sedan ran from 2024 to 2026.
Racing for the badge
Lynk & Co has backed Cyan Racing, the team once known as Polestar Racing, since 2019, and entered the WTCR World Touring Car Cup (today the TCR World Tour). That made it the first Chinese marque to compete in an FIA championship. Four Lynk & Co cars ran for the team in 2019, which won the teams' title while Yvan Muller finished third among the drivers.
What did Zeekr and Lynk & Co plan for their ranges and markets?
Zeekr set out its product plans on 8 August 2025. The Zeekr X will gain a Golden Battery option and some small interior changes ahead of the final quarter of 2025. Then, in the last three months of the year, the 001 and 7X will receive Nvidia Thor-U driver-assistance chips and 900V power electronics, and the 007 will get minor interior and exterior changes. According to Zeekr, all other models will not be updated in 2025, a commitment it framed as keeping updates to more than a year apart.
The geographic plans are broader. Zeekr opened its first European showroom in Stockholm in 2023, and Sweden and the Netherlands were its first European markets. In 2024 it added Israel, Norway, France, Germany and Denmark, and it entered Australia. It entered Thailand in July 2024 with the Zeekr X and planned to enter Brazil in September 2024. South Korea was planned for 2025 and Zeekr Korea debuted in May 2026. Indonesia is planned for 2026, alongside Lynk & Co and via Geely Auto Indonesia, having slipped from 2025.
Zeekr's European base has moved as well. Its European headquarters and sales office shifted from Gothenburg to Amsterdam because of the higher concentration of experienced sales professionals. Research and development remains spread across Ningbo, Hangzhou and Shanghai in China and Zeekr Technology Europe in Gothenburg, formerly China Euro Vehicle Technology, where the global design centre also sits.
