Zeekr X: A Sad Tale of Range Disappointment

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Believing the range advertised, Barry bought his Zeekr X in February of this year and discovered that in the real world of country driving in rural Victoria, the car only achieved about 75% of the range that was advertised. Barry tells me: “The Zeekr X WLTP range is stated as 420km @ 15.5kWh per 100km, and this was a key factor in our decision to buy. Our car is not capable of producing anything near this, and we raised this with the Dealer Salesperson…Our car repeatedly yields a maximum range of 315–342km at between 19 and 21 kWh per 100km.”

In case some would think Barry a “hoon,” he explains: “I adhere to the speed limit, I do exceed the speed limit in overtaking manoeuvres, where possible I use Adaptive Cruise Control, I allow the car to dictate how it accelerates and decelerates to accommodate the speed zone.” He drives the car in “standard” mode, the middle setting, and has his air conditioning set on “eco.” Unfortunately, Barry is not alone in his disappointment over range amongst Zeekr purchasers here in Australia. “In the Facebook group it appears that others do have range underperformance. But if they live in the city, it’s not as much of an issue as it is for country miles.”

So far, despite repeated emails and trips back to the dealer, there has been no happy ending. The car just does not do what it is advertised to do. “The sticker says range 470km. WLTP says 420km. Ours will do 320km if you drive it to dead flat. The Dealer says there is nothing they can do.”

Barry’s purchase came with 1-year free charging through the Evie network, a 7kWh wall charger, and a data card for the car. Sadly, there are no Evie chargers in Warrnambool where Barry lives, so the dealer allowed them to collect their wall charger early. It could be installed and ready for the car’s delivery. But it did take a couple of requests.

Similar glitches to new electric car purchases ensued: “The data card for the car was not activated so we were unable to fully connect the car with the mobile app. Twelve months of free charging through the Evie network was part of the purchase, but the Evie voucher code was not available.” These issues were later resolved, but it would have been easier if it had all been sorted at the handover.

Barry has had recurring problems with “Google Maps placing the car in the Bismark Sea north of Papua New Guinea. The dealer advised us to re-boot the infotainment system to rectify. We have needed to do that on average twice a week as it’s become a recurring problem.” There have also been recurring issues with “both mobiles showing zero state of charge for the car which was incorrect. Dealer advised us to uninstall and reinstall the app, which we did and fixed it. We had to repeat that process several times as it was a recurring problem.” To make it worse, the user manual could not be accessed online due to a “server error.”

“The Google Maps Bismark Sea issue is much improved. Sometimes mapping starts with us in The Bismark Sea but then visually zooms across the world to where we are. The zero State of Charge is fixed. The User Manual is intermittently available.” Barry advised the dealership that he had some further warranty issues beyond the issues with advertised range and the tech listed above:

“Adaptive Cruise Control misreads speed zones frequently, accelerating to 110kph when no such speed zone exists. Sometimes enforcing yellow advisory speed zones and ignoring others. Sometimes recognising school speed zones but ignoring others. On one occasion interpreting a 20kph zone when no such zone existed. The distracted driver warning goes off relentlessly. “There is no list of what can be done via the voice command. A fob cover was supposed to be supplied when in stock – we are now aware that these are in stock but we have never been provided with one. There were online articles showing Zeekr have reduced the price of their new cars, and to compensate existing owners some free servicing was being provided. We have never received anything from Zeekr or the Dealer confirming this.”

After a recent over-the-air (OTA) software update, Barry’s speed zone problems appear to have gotten worse, with incorrect readings 15–20 times on a 20km drive.

Barry returned his car to the dealer in April hoping that all the issues could and would be rectified. He was given an identical car to use in the interim. Barry is very much a man who lets the numbers do the talking. “Our car did the trip from Warrnambool to Geelong at 19.8kWh per 100km, suggests total range 333km from a 100% charge. The loan car did the return trip from Geelong to Warrnambool at 15.3kWh per 100, suggests total range 431km from a 100% charge.” All Zeekr X’s have a 66 kWh battery. Warrnambool to Geelong is about 190 km.

A month later, the “Service Department advised that our car was ready to collect. The app was still showing a WLTP range of 362km from a 100% charge and that the car has not been test driven outside of Geelong West. I requested that the car be put through a real-world road test to investigate our range issue as previously raised multiple times.” Suburban driving cannot compare to highway driving.

Barry’s driving style was blamed for the discrepancy. “They gave an example of where a Zeekr had been driven for 25.3km in a duration of 62 minutes with consumption at 15.5kWh per 100km. They were suggesting that my car could not be having range issues because a different person with a different Zeekr X driving it on different roads under different conditions at an average speed of less than 25kph was producing 15.5kWh.” I can feel Barry’s frustration. And he is a patient man.

Well, there is a limit for everyone. Barry has now asked for his money back and sought to return the car to the dealership. This led to a further road test by the supervising technician. Barry reports: “The Dealership Service Advisor did 44km with air conditioner turned off at an average speed of 55-60kph allegedly using 17.6kWh per 100km. This translates to a maximum achievable range of 375km. The Dealer believes this test drive is reflective of real-world driving. The Dealership Service Advisor claims to have repeated the same test drive in two other Zeekr X’s with similar results, and states that this performance is within expected energy consumption range, and that our car has no faults. No evidence of any test drives was provided.” Note that this is still a higher consumption than claimed.

Last week, Barry returned the loan car. Once again, he collected the data:

• Trip Distance: 191.9 km
• Driving Time: 2h 14m
• Average Consumption: 20.9 kWh per 100 km
• Remaining Range: 114 km (using dynamic range projection)
• Total Range Possible: 305.9 km

Both Warrnambool and Geelong are coastal towns, so the elevation above sea level is not a factor. He tells me: “I have stressed this to the Dealer and their technician that there are an equal amount of inclines as there are declines, so it is a fair test both ways. I can’t factor in prevailing winds (mostly from the west) or the rotation of our planet.”

Barry met with the Dealer Sales Manager and detailed his ongoing issues and the car’s underperformance. He made the point about living in the country and the need for greater range. “If we had known the car could not do more than say 300km of country driving (allowing to not completely flatten the battery) we would not have bought this car as it does not meet our needs.” When Barry asked for his money back, he was told that the matter had been referred to Zeekr. Their response: as the Dealership Service Department has said that there are no faults, there is nothing that Zeekr can do.

Here is an excerpt from their email:

“The figures reported on the Zeekr website, as well as the Energy Consumption Labels, are a requirement of vehicle manufacturers and importers in Australia as part of Australian Design Rule (ADR) 81/02. These labels and figures are designed to support consumers in making informed choices in comparison against other vehicles tested under a common standard and no test can simulate all possible driving scenarios and conditions and therefore will have some form of variation.

“There is a specific disclaimer on the website that states: The Energy Consumption, Range and CO₂ Emissions figures are determined by testing under static laboratory conditions in accordance with Australian Design Rule (ADR) 81/02. Real world Energy Consumption, Range and CO₂ figures will vary depending on many factors, such as individual driving style, vehicle load & condition, high voltage battery age & condition and road, traffic and weather conditions. ADR 81/02 test results are meant for the purposes of comparison amongst vehicles tested under the same procedures only.

“Actual results depend on factors such as traffic conditions, vehicle condition and how you drive.

“While you have made an assessment of your vehicle driving from Geelong West to Warrnambool, achieving an energy consumption of 19kWh / 100km, I do need to point out, the vehicle was driven in ‘standard’ mode, which is the middle setting and has a higher energy consumption than the eco drive cycle. We are also unaware if the air conditioning was running in ECO mode, what fan speed, what temperatures etc as these will all form part of the energy consumption requirements of the vehicle. Further points to note, as the vehicle has not been driven to 0%, it has not been possible to account for the energy reduction that occurs when the battery state of charge begins to get low meaning, while you may be achieving 19kWh/100km at a higher state of charge, when this reduced to the lower limits, the energy consumption of the vehicle is also reduced to prolong battery life and will also extend the operating range.

“While I understand the vehicle is not meeting your expectations, the vehicle is operating to design intent and does not warrant a refund of the vehicle.”

Barry finds much to like about the Zeekr X, and waited a long time for its arrival in Australia. “However underperforming by 22.5% is not acceptable.” I asked Barry if he was planning to take it further. “My view is the formal channels with Australian Consumer Law are difficult for those with a claim. The system is clunky, onerous, expensive and dissuasive. So it indirectly (or maybe unintentionally) favours businesses that behave badly.” He goes on:

“For now we continue to live with the car. I am trialling driving it in ‘Comfort’ mode. The car defaults to ‘Standard’ acceleration mode so every time you get in the car you have to select if you want or need something other than ‘Standard’. It appears that you cannot set the default acceleration mode to something of your personal choice — it’s ‘Standard’ and that’s that.

“Interestingly the Head of Ownership Experience calls it ‘Eco’ mode which is not one of the acceleration options.”

As for the inconvenience, Barry details his regular trips: “We regularly do a trip from Warrnambool to Yarrawonga. In our previous petrol car that was a six-hour trip with one stop for toilets and lunch. Based on an expectation of 420km from a full charge I had figured we should be able to do that trip with one recharge at the halfway point and the charge should take 45-50 minutes to give us enough charge to reach Yarrawonga. That would be lunch and toilet break and mean the trip would then take more like seven hours. The reality is that it requires two stops of one hour and the trip now exceeds eight hours.

“When we visit my Mother In Law, because of the scarcity of recharging stations in her area, we have to stop and charge for an hour before we go down the peninsula to her home. A 420km range would mean we would not need that recharge until we were heading home. It has made that trip into a four-hour trip instead of three. Again — not what we were expecting!

“I worked my entire career in a customer facing role where customer service was your first priority. The Head of Customer Experience strangely enough has at no time sought to investigate our range issue in pursuit of a solution or resolution. Instead, the approach feels heavy handed if not somewhat belligerently inflexible with a focus on making us just go away, rather than taking a solutions-based approach. That really grates!”

Is it the car? The dealer support? The head office? Most likely, it’s a combination of all three compounded with false advertising. I hope it doesn’t give EVs a bad name. I will let Barry have the last word: “In spite of how unworkable Australian Consumer Law can be, I will navigate a path through there as needed. I don’t intend to allow a corporate bully to treat us this way.” To be continued.