It is not James Bond’s car, even if the name – 007 – may have misled some. It is much more: it is the first large sedan from Zeekr, the dynamic Gothenburg-based offshoot of the Chinese group Geely, and it is also the first car of the brand to bear the signature of Stefan Sielaff, vice president for global design. Unlike the Zeekr 001 sportwagon and the Zeekr X urban SUV, both intended primarily for the European market, the Zeekr 007 is intended for the moment only for the Chinese market, like the large SUV Zeekr 009.
Premium Emancipation
However it represents the beginning of a new cycle and of a new design philosophy – it’s called Hidden Energy – which at a rapid pace will introduce on world markets an entire family of electric cars produced in China but designed in the new imposing design centre created not far from Volvo, which in turn is already owned by Geely. “Above all – says Sielaff – it represents the emancipation in a premium key from Lynk & Co’s design: now each brand has its own philosophy.”
Winding lights
This new language has been given a name: Hidden Energy. “It is the energy developed by the ying-yang contrast, the negative and positive of existence, which among other things appears in our logo,” he explains: “In our case the contrast is between human centric necessities – a quiet, flowing and muscular design – and those of technology, here represented in the interiors by the HMI and on the exterior by Stargate.” Stargate is the imposing wrap-around strip of front lights, 228 centimetres long and made up of 1711 LEDs, which not only illuminate but can also give all kinds of signals.
Clean, organic, muscular
“It’s a classic sedan, surprisingly very spacious, a feeling accentuated by the glass roof,” he adds: “The exterior language is very clean, organic, muscular, not overdecorated, a language that reflects a precise and controlled way of doing things, with a fantastic tension of the surfaces, without protruding handles, without rubber seals or door frames, elements that express quality like a great and simple wine, made possible by the great production precision in the Ningbo plant.”
High-quality materials
For the interiors Sielaff played the card of high-quality materials: “Aluminium and not painted plastic, for instance. It’s the details that are striking. The dashboard is very clean, the lighting is not just decorative or ambient: here is form and function, from my German design experience. The seats can be made of leather or a polyurethane which is difficult to distinguish from leather.”
Quick turnaround
Yet all this was born – “Not just designing a car, but developing a brand and a design philosophy and then industrializing,” he underlines – with record speed: two years, from October 2021, in times of pandemic. “We quickly went from sketches to digital 3D. With engineering in China and design in Gothenburg we proceeded with joint weekly reviews to reduce times.” With the close collaboration of Jon Rådbrink for the exteriors, Sergio Loureiro Da Silva for the interiors, Andes Sachs for CMF and Simon Adielsson for the digital design, a car was shaped which – in Zeekr’s intentions – “represents the new benchmark for luxury sedans.”
(Full article in A&D no. 264)
