Can old cars get a revival card? ZEEKR uses "crowdfunding" to show that it has never forgotten the old car owners it has stabbed in the back.

"In the past, a Toyota could be passed down through three generations, still running long after its owner was gone. Today, Zeekr updates its models twice in half a year, with three generations of models sold side by side."

When it comes to the Zeekr brand, one cannot avoid the meme of "Zeekr 001 having three major updates in a year".

In 2024, car owners could miraculously buy the 2023, 2024, and 2025 models of the Zeekr 001.

After more than a year, the Zeekr 001 was updated again in October. The refreshed version is equipped with a 900V high - voltage platform and the NVIDIA Thor - U chip, which can support three years of intelligent driving upgrades in the future. The starting price is only 259,800 yuan.

Just when the owners of the 2024 models felt lost and heart - broken again, Zeekr surprised them.

Recently, Zeekr actively launched a crowdfunding program to help old car owners upgrade their vehicles.

It is mainly targeted at the owners of the 2024 Zeekr 001 and 009, allowing them to upgrade the vehicle's assisted - driving hardware system through crowdfunding.

Suddenly, the old car owners felt as if they had been pulled back from the edge of a cliff.

Many car owners said that they had misunderstood the Zeekr brand before. In essence, Zeekr is still a conscientious brand that respects consumers.

Why did Zeekr think of its old customers again?

Zeekr launched the crowdfunding project at the end of November.

The package price for the Zeekr 001 is 33,500 yuan (including the Qianli Haohan H7 intelligent driving domain controller and software services), and 38,500 yuan for the Zeekr 009. The replacement process will start after the number of participants reaches the standard.

Moreover, all eligible car owners can get a "Qianli Haohan Assisted - Driving Equity Voucher" worth 20,000 yuan, which can be used to offset the crowdfunding cost or the balance of future car purchases. The validity period is until 2030.

That is to say, the owners of the 2024 models only need to spend more than 10,000 yuan to get a new intelligent driving system. If the owners don't want to upgrade, they can still get a 20,000 - yuan coupon for future Zeekr car purchases.

From this perspective, Zeekr is quite sincere. Spending more than 10,000 yuan can upgrade to the latest intelligent driving system.

But thinking back, more than a year has passed since the Zeekr rights - protection incident. Why is Zeekr taking care of its old customers again?

On the one hand, Zeekr may have really changed its mind and has been trying to compensate the old car owners, but it takes time to formulate a plan.

On the other hand, Zeekr cars are not as popular as before.

According to official data, in the first 11 months, the cumulative sales of the Zeekr brand were 193,900 vehicles, 1% less than last year.

This is mainly due to the sharp increase in sales in November. In November, Zeekr sold 28,843 vehicles in a single month, a month - on - month increase of 34.64%.

High sales in November are normal. The sales of many brands such as XPeng and NIO have increased significantly.

Mainly in October, the state announced that the subsidy policy would be cancelled in 2026. User demand was advanced, and there was a wave of the "last - train effect" in the industry.

Excluding November, Zeekr's performance is not ideal.

For example, in October, the sales of Zeekr brand cars were 21,423 vehicles, a year - on - year decrease of 14%.

While it is difficult to increase sales, Zeekr's pressure is also increasing.

Since Geely required the implementation of the "One Geely" strategy, Lynk & Co, which was focused on sales volume, has been integrated under Zeekr. It can be seen that Geely has high expectations for Zeekr within the company.

According to Tianyancha APP, Zeekr completed the merger with Lynk & Co on February 14 this year and established the Zeekr Technology Group.

But Zeekr may disappoint people this year. At the beginning of the year, Zeekr set a brand sales target of 320,000 vehicles. Now, after 11 months, it has only completed 61% of the annual target. With only one month left, Zeekr needs to sell at least 110,000 vehicles in a single month. The pressure is extremely high.

An important reason affecting sales is that last year, Zeekr updated its models too frequently. Old customers felt betrayed, which affected the brand's reputation.

Although it did not affect Zeekr's sales in 2024, the fact that "Zeekr betrayed its old car owners" has become a common perception, which affects the purchase intention of potential customers.

In 2024, the Zeekr brand delivered a total of 222,000 vehicles, an 87.2% year - on - year increase. Instead of being affected, it sold very well.

But in 2025, Zeekr was really affected.

The current difficulty in increasing sales is the best proof.

The most regrettable one is the Zeekr 001. It used to sell 14,000 vehicles per month at the beginning, but since this year, its sales have been on a continuous downward trend. In the first few months of this year, its sales once dropped below 4,000 vehicles. From a hit model that sold one vehicle per minute, it is now gradually fading away in the user trust crisis.

Now, helping old customers upgrade through crowdfunding can also help improve the favorability of the newly launched 2026 Zeekr 001.

It tells potential users that Zeekr still cherishes its old customers, reducing the influence of the public opinion from old customers, especially the 2024 model owners.

Moreover, Zeekr's 20,000 - yuan voucher has a hidden agenda. Its validity period lasts until 2030, six years after 2024.

According to the data of the Passenger Car Association, the average car - replacement cycle for Chinese people is 5 - 8 years, and it is even shorter for new energy vehicles, probably 5 - 6 years.

The six - year usage right is almost the car - replacement cycle for the 2024 model owners.

Even if the crowdfunding is unsuccessful, Zeekr can still influence the old car owners to choose Zeekr again when they replace their cars in the future through this equity.

Many people also say that Zeekr's crowdfunding upgrade has a promoting effect on the industry, and other car companies will have to follow in the future. It is a good thing.

From this aspect, Zeekr does play a certain exemplary role in protecting the interests of old new - energy car owners.

But first, let's not ask why the rights and interests of old car owners were damaged...

Moreover, Zeekr made this move after careful consideration. Its sales have reached a peak, and the performance pressure is increasing. During the period when the new 001 is selling well, the future of new - energy vehicles will shift to value competition, and old car owners are becoming more and more important.

It can be said that Zeekr has made a smart move, killing three birds with one stone.

In addition, the crowdfunding upgrade is not an original idea of Zeekr. XPeng is the pioneer.

In November last year, XPeng launched a chip crowdfunding upgrade plan, covering seven models such as the P7, G3, G9, and G6: three models can upgrade the intelligent cockpit chip, and four models can upgrade the intelligent driving chip.

Each model has a crowdfunding threshold of one thousand or four thousand people. If the standard is reached, the upgrade will start and the money will not be refunded. If not, the full amount will be refunded and the project will be terminated.

Before XPeng started the crowdfunding model, there were also cases of car companies upgrading chips, and the upgrades were either free or very cheap.

For example, Zeekr once upgraded the cockpit chip of Zeekr 001 users for free, replacing the Snapdragon 820A with the more powerful 8155, covering users of delivered cars, cars ordered but not delivered, and newly ordered cars, and received unanimous praise from the market.

Previously, Tesla also offered a very attractive price for its upgrades.

But since XPeng launched the crowdfunding upgrade, this model of "both appeasing old car owners and reducing costs" has been imitated by many companies.

In July this year, GAC Trumpchi was the first to follow, launching an "820A chip upgrade crowdfunding" for GS8 owners, priced at 3,999 yuan, which can upgrade the old car's infotainment system from the Qualcomm 820A to the 8295P.

Zeekr's current crowdfunding for the 001 and 009 is a further development of this model.

From the enterprise's perspective, the crowdfunding model seems to be a safe and rational choice to meet niche needs.

XPeng officially revealed that a single chip upgrade requires 10 months of work, about 300 person - months of effort, and 9 million yuan in R & D costs. If the final number of applicants is too small, the cost cannot be spread, and the input - output ratio will be seriously imbalanced.

So some people say, "Zeekr gave up the free upgrade this time and chose the crowdfunding model because the cost pressure is too great. This time, Zeekr is losing money to gain popularity and really going all out for the old car owners."

It is possible that Zeekr has really made a great effort.

In 2022, when Zeekr upgraded the 820A cockpit chip of the 001 to the 8155 for free, only about 25,000 cars had been delivered, and it could afford the cost of more than 40 million yuan. Now, more than a dozen0,000 2024 models of the 001 and 009 have been sold. If it were to offer free upgrades again, this expense would be quite large for Zeekr, which is still in the red.

Moreover, compared with chip replacement, this time Zeekr is comprehensively replacing the intelligent driving system, which is more technically difficult and complicated.

Therefore, some people evaluate Zeekr as a conscientious company in the industry. Other car companies would probably not care about it long ago, but Zeekr still provides an option for old car owners.

However, from the user's perspective, should users really thank Zeekr for going all out to give old users a "second chance"?

Is Zeekr's crowdfunding a "second chance" for car owners?

Facing the same problem of car - model iteration this year, NIO car owners said to Li Bin in person, "NIO's cars have a lower resale value than even the defunct HiPhi."

From the user's perspective, this is true. Every time a car company iterates its models, it is like a "depreciation" of the old customers' cars.

There is nothing wrong with what the NIO car owners said. In terms of resale value, a car may be more valuable if the car company goes bankrupt.

From this point of view, car owners really don't need to empathize with car companies. Moreover, when Zeekr launched the 2025 models, it didn't consider the feelings of old car owners at first. Didn't it know that the iteration time was too short when it updated the models once every half a year?

Moreover, Zeekr's "cost pressure" seems more like an excuse.

The core reason for the difficult upgrade is actually the subsequent passive adjustment caused by Zeekr's wrong early technology route selection.

Zeekr officially said that the Mobileye intelligent driving solution used in the 2021 - 2023 models has fallen behind the industry average in terms of technological iteration and can no longer meet users' expectations for high - level intelligent driving functions.

Although the 2024 models are equipped with lidar and have the basis for further upgrading, the underlying chips, system architecture, and wiring harness layout still need to be significantly adjusted, which is equivalent to correcting the previous technological decisions.

After all, this is essentially a mistake in early technological decision - making, which should be an operational risk borne by the car company. Now, it is quietly transferred to users through the crowdfunding upgrade.

Moreover, this crowdfunding upgrade is essentially a compensation for the users' dissatisfaction in August last year.

In March 2024, the 2024 Zeekr 001 was launched. Many car owners said that the sales department had verbally promised that "there would be no model changes within the year", and the official even stepped in to refute the rumor that "the car's infotainment system would not be upgraded". But in August, the 2025 model was suddenly released, with additional lidar and dual Orin - X chips, and the starting price was also reduced by 10,000 yuan.

Some old car owners couldn't bear it and went to Zeekr's Hangzhou headquarters to hang banners to protect their rights.

Zeekr then provided a plan of "free upgrade to the new model for undelivered orders and a 10,000 - yuan repurchase voucher for users who had already picked up their cars", which was questioned for lack of substantial compensation. It also reported "being cyber - bullied" and emphasized that "model iteration is a normal behavior", without responding to the responsibility of sales misguidance and failure in user expectation management, and failed to properly handle the grievances of the 2024 Zeekr 001 owners.

It was not until the "User Co - creation Meeting" in September that Zeekr first admitted that there was a deviation in the early intelligent driving hardware route and proposed "crowdfunding upgrade" as a remedy. However, the plan was implemented late, and users had to pay part of the cost themselves, so it was difficult to regain the over - drawn brand trust.

One week has passed since the crowdfunding plan was launched, and the crowdfunding for the two models has not been successful yet, indicating that users' enthusiasm is not high.

It's very simple. Users were hurt at that time but not compensated in time. Now, more than a year later, they have already healed themselves.

This is like a relationship. Late - coming affection is always useless. If you don't cherish at the beginning, it will be even more difficult to win back later.

Moreover, some car owners calculated that they had already spent an additional 15,000 yuan to choose lidar for the 2024 Zeekr 001. Now, if they participate in the "crowdfunding upgrade", they have to pay more than 10,000 yuan. The total of these two amounts is higher than the price difference between the new 2025 model, which is equivalent to "paying a premium for an old car".

In addition, some careful car owners noticed that