Geely, the owner of Volvo Cars, in April launched Zeekr to target growing Chinese demand for premium EVs that has boosted sales for Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc and Chinese peer Nio (NYSE:NIO) Inc.
Parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and Geely Automobile jointly invested 2 billion yuan ($306 million) in the Zeekr venture.
Executives said that Zeekr would use a direct sales model to manage pricing and inventory. The brand plans to open more than 100 stores this year. Geely is making Zeekr 001 cars in China’s eastern city of Ningbo.
