The top marketing person from the Alibaba ecosystem came to the rescue, and the public perception of Zeekr has reversed.

Upgrade from Orin to Thor, change from 400V to 800V, standard laser radar, and a motor power of 900 horsepower...

As a result, the selling price is 5,000 yuan lower than the old model (after subsidies).

For any brand, this would be a scenario where old car owners would hold banners to demand their rights.

Not to mention Zeekr, which has a "dark history" of "three generations in one year" and stabbing old car owners in the back.

Surprisingly, this time, instead of being widely criticized, the public opinion has reversed:

What on earth happened?

The new 001 model is upgraded with a lower price

The performance, configuration, and technology have all been greatly upgraded.

For example, the range of the rear - wheel drive version has increased from 675 kilometers to 710 km, but the battery pack capacity remains unchanged. The fundamental reason is that the 2026 Zeekr 001 finally uses the 800V high - voltage platform (officially 900V), which improves the overall energy efficiency of the vehicle.

In addition, the battery has been upgraded to a 12C charging rate, and the peak charging power exceeds 1000kW, which is the Zeekr version of "megawatt flash charging". It only takes 7 minutes to charge from 10% to 80%. However, the maximum power of Zeekr's self - built super - charging piles is still 800kW.

It is worth mentioning that when An Conghui, the founder of Zeekr and the former leader, was transferred to the CEO of Geely Group, Li Shufu gave him a new task - to be responsible for the newly established battery industry group to strengthen Geely's independent integration.

The new 001 no longer uses products from CATL and is equipped with self - developed battery cells by Geely Group: Quzhou Jidian. This may also be one of the cores of increasing the quantity without increasing the price.

The 800V platform directly drives the power upgrade: the output power of the four - wheel drive version reaches 680kW (an increase of 100kW compared with the old model), and the 0 - 100km/h acceleration only takes 2.83 seconds (excluding the starting time, and the actual measurement is expected to be about 3 seconds). The power of the rear motor of the single - motor version has increased from 310kW in the 2025 model to 370kW, and the 0 - 100km/h acceleration time has been shortened from 5.9 seconds to 4.98 seconds.

The biggest upgrade is in intelligence. The intelligent assisted driving chip has changed from NVIDIA Orin to Thor, which is standard across the entire series, and the computing power has increased by at least 2 - 3 times:

As the computing power has increased, the sensor solution has also been upgraded: the laser radar, which was only available in the mid - and high - end configurations before, has become standard across the entire series.

The software solution has also changed from Zeekr's self - developed end - to - end solution to Qianli Haohan H7 provided by Qianli Technology:

At the level of the intelligent cockpit, the 2026 Zeekr 001 finally comes standard with the Qualcomm 8295, and the HUD has been enlarged to 39.3 inches:

At the level of other configurations, a large number of upgrades have also been made:

As for the price, the 2026 Zeekr 001 starts at 269,800 yuan. After subsidies, you only need 254,800 yuan to drive it home.

In contrast, the 2025 Zeekr 001, which caused a huge controversy last August, had a higher starting price of 259,000 yuan.

For old car owners, Zeekr still "takes care" as before: they can upgrade, but it only includes the 8295 cockpit chip, and they have to pay an additional 10,000 yuan.

The 2026 Zeekr 001 has stabbed old car owners in the back again. For other automakers, this would probably be another scenario of online criticism and banner - holding protests at 4S stores.

However, compared with last year's rare "three generations in one year" event in the industry, the new Zeekr 001 has actually made netizens and users taste a sense of "sincerity":

Zeekr's official WeChat account has started a series of Q&A sessions for users, following Xiaomi's example. Under the several issues about the 001, there are all understandings and relieved comments.

Especially for some users who are still hesitating and want more free data usage time and three - electric system warranty rights, Zeekr replied to netizens immediately and still provides lifetime three - electric system warranty and data rights for users of the refreshed 001 during the transition period, winning a large number of likes.

It has only been a few days since Guan Haitao, the former marketing director of Zeekr, officially announced his departure. The change is really too big.

Who is the new marketing operator at Zeekr?

The new person who has brought a new atmosphere to the comment section is named Shen Fangjun:

A few days ago, Zeekr officially confirmed his joining, and he will serve as the Chief Business Officer (CBO) of Zeekr, fully responsible for core commercial functions such as brand marketing, sales system, user operation, and channel expansion.

Shen Fangjun graduated from Ocean University of China with a master's degree in food science. However, most of his subsequent career has been related to marketing.

For example, Haier Group, also located in Qingdao, was the stage where Shen Fangjun first made a name for himself.

At Haier, Shen Fangjun was known as the general coach of Haier's 800,000 blue V accounts. The team operated nearly 100 official accounts and channels. Among them, Haier's official Weibo account changed the cold - style communication of all brand official Weibo accounts at that time and created a unique and warm communication method. It was one of the earliest official Weibo accounts with personalized operation.

During this period, his most impressive operation was leading various blue V accounts to grab hot comments on celebrities' posts. No matter which celebrity posted a dynamic, Haier could always comment immediately, and the comments were always sent to the top by netizens, attracting the attention and replies of the celebrities themselves, leveraging the star interaction effect at zero cost.

Even, Shen Fangjun made the Haier official account profitable. Since 2015, Haier has successively opened advertising space rentals on WeChat official accounts and Weibo. Brands such as VIVO and Taobao have successively placed advertisements and cooperated.

In 2016, Haier's new media team announced its independence from the parent company and started an independent business, establishing Qingdao Chuangke Star Culture Media Co., Ltd. Shen Fangjun served as the CEO of the company, and Haier Group remained the main client. In 2017, he planned a marketing event for Haier called "Accepting KOL advertisements at a base price of one million yuan", which was quite eye - catching.

During his tenure at Alibaba, Shen Fangjun successively served as the person - in - charge of Tmall's industry operation and a senior management position at Alibaba's local life service. He led the planning of several phenomenon - level cases such as "Chinese Lucky Koi" and "Selling rockets and satellites in Taobao live - streaming rooms".

Taking the Chinese Lucky Koi as an example, at that time, to promote the outbound travel business and publicize that Alipay could also be used for payment abroad, Alipay mobilized major duty - free shops, airlines, large cruise ships, international hotels, etc. to provide prizes for the lucky winner.

This official Weibo post was quickly forwarded 3 million times. After the lottery, it made it onto more than a dozen hot searches in a row, setting a new record.

When the "Internet approach" has caused a lot of controversy, Zeekr still chose such a marketing leader with stronger Internet and retail genes.

This year is actually a crucial turning point for Zeekr to achieve large - scale profitability. At the beginning of the year, Zeekr set a goal of 320,000 vehicles, which means that the average monthly sales should exceed at least 25,000 vehicles.

In the first nine months, Zeekr's cumulative sales were 143,600 vehicles, only completing 44.88% of the sales target. Compared with 142,873 vehicles in the same period in 202