2026 Zeekr 009 AWD review

Price and positioning

The Zeekr 009 Grand lands at $135,900 before on-road costs in Australia. That works out to roughly $143,210 drive-away in Victoria once LCT, stamp duty and rego are included. LCT bites hard here because the 009 sits above the $89,332 electric vehicle threshold, so expect a meaningful tax surcharge baked into the price.

Australia gets a single trim. China has four. The Grand is essentially the middle-of-the-range model with triple motors, the big battery, and the full luxury interior pack. Zeekr have not imported the four-seat "We" version with the rear minibar.

Rivals depend on how you frame it. As a luxury MPV, the Zeekr 009 sits against the Mercedes V-Class V300d ($147,600) and the Lexus LM 350h ($167,900), both of which the 009 comfortably undercuts. As an electric people-mover, the closest rival is the LDV MIFA 9 Executive at $115,000, though the MIFA 9 is dual-motor and less powerful.

Image credit: Zeekr Australia

Battery and charging

The 009 Grand carries a 116kWh CATL NMC battery (usable) built on an 800V architecture. That puts it in the same electrical league as a Porsche Taycan, Hyundai Ioniq 5 orAudi Q6 e-tron. The big number is DC charging speed: Zeekr claim up to 400kW peak, which is faster than almost any charger actually deployed in Australia today. In practice the charger sets the ceiling, and most public fast chargers here top out at 350kW.

Official WLTP range is 620km. That is a healthy figure, but efficiency is where the 009 reveals its physics. At 232Wh/km, it uses significantly more energy per kilometre than a comparable sedan or SUV. A Tesla Model Yaverages around 160Wh/km. The 009 is simply a bigger box pushing more air, so expect real-world range well short of the WLTP figure with five adults aboard.

AC home charging is 22kW, which means a fully empty 116kWh battery fills overnight on a three-phase supply. On a standard 7kW home wallbox it is 20 hours from empty, so treat the 009 like a Tesla Model X, you will want a proper three-phase install if you plan to charge at home regularly.

Image credit: Zeekr Australia

Running costs and ownership

Electricity is cheaper than fuel, but not as cheap as a smaller EV. At 232Wh/km and an average Australian residential rate of 30c/kWh, you are looking at about $7/100km to run the 009 at home. If you charge exclusively on public DC fast chargers at roughly 65c/kWh, that climbs to $15/100km, still cheaper than a diesel V-Class, but not enormously so.

Over 15,000km per year, expect $1,050 annually in home electricity, plus comprehensive insurance at $2,400-3,200 depending on your situation. Servicing is included for five years on the Grand trim, which is a genuine ownership cost saving over Mercedes or Lexus rivals.

Resale is the unknown. Zeekr is a new brand in Australia. The 009 is a niche product at the top of the range. Historical comparisons would put three-year residuals around 55-60%, which is below theKia Carnival (65%) and well below a Lexus LM (75%). If you plan to hold for 5-7 years that matters less. If you cycle through cars every 3 years, the 009 will be an expensive hold.

Safety

No ANCAP rating at launch. Zeekr intends to submit during 2026. The Zeekr 7X SUV, which uses similar active safety hardware, scored 5 stars under the 2025 protocol, a reasonable proxy but not a substitute for an actual 009 test.

Standard equipment is comprehensive. AEB with pedestrian and cyclist detection, adaptive cruise with stop-and-go, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring with steering intervention, 360-degree camera with 3D view, front and rear parking sensors, driver attention monitor, 7 airbags including a front centre bag. It is a full Level 2 ADAS package in line with European luxury norms.

We have not driven this car, so we cannot tell you how those systems behave on the road. The 360-degree camera with 3D view is the one to value most when parking a 5.21-metre vehicle.

Interior and the screen obsession

Inside, the 009 is where Zeekr's product planners earn their pay. It is genuinely luxurious in a way the LDV MIFA 9 is not. Nappa leather, Alcantara headliner, contrast stitching, diffused ambient lighting, soft-close everything.

Image credit: Zeekr Australia

The middle-row seats are executive captain's chairs with full power adjustment, heating, cooling, massage, and little fold-out tables for laptops or takeaway. This is where the 009 makes sense: kids doing homework at a fold-out table on the Chatswood-to-Homebush school run. The driver's seat gets 16-way power adjustment, both front seats have memory, and the steering column adjusts electrically for reach and rake.

The infotainment is a 15.4-inch central touchscreen paired with a 13-inch driver display. The UI is Zeekr's own software running on Qualcomm 8295 hardware. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both included, which is increasingly not a given on Chinese EVs at this price.

Image credit: Zeekr Australia

The party piece is a 43-inch roof-mounted screen for rear passengers, which deploys from the headliner and plays video from a connected phone or the car's own media. For families running netflix off mobile data on long drives this is genuinely useful. For adults who do not travel with children, it feels like an excuse to add a decimal place to the spec sheet.

Image credit: Zeekr Australia

Third-row access is through power-sliding side doors and a walk-through between the captain's chairs, and the panoramic glass roof extends over the rear rows. What you lose is boot space. With all three rows up, there is 370L behind the third row, enough for a weekly grocery shop but nowhere near the Kia Carnival's627L.

Image credit: Zeekr Australia

The Zeekr 009 AWD has 161 kW for every tonne of kerb weight, 693Nm of torque, a claimed 0-100km/h of 4.5s. It weighs 2,790kg. These are the figures that shape how quickly a car gets moving and how easily it parks.

Powertrain and performance

The 009 Grand runs a triple-motor setup: one on the front axle, two on the rear. Combined output is 580kW and 710Nm. For a 5.21m long vehicle weighing 2,715kg, that is genuinely absurd. Zeekr quote 4.5 seconds 0-100km/h, a remarkable claim for a people-mover.

The suspension is CDC adaptive damping with air springs front and rear. Zeekr claims 25-40mm of ride height adjustment, though at launch that feature appears to be software-locked in Australia.

Who is this actually for?

The Zeekr 009 fits a specific buyer: someone with a family of five or six, comfortable spending $135k+, already predisposed to EVs, and who values luxury over practicality. If any of those do not apply, there is probably a smarter choice.

If you just need a reliable 8-seater, the Kia Carnivalis 40% cheaper and holds value better. If you want electric but not luxury-grade, theLDV MIFA 9 is $20k cheaper and does 90% of the job. If you want the absolute pinnacle of people-mover luxury, the Lexus LM carries the stronger badge and resale but costs another $32,000.

The 009 lives in a narrow gap: it is electric where the LM and V-Class are not, it is genuinely luxurious where the MIFA 9 is not, and it is meaningfully cheaper than the V-Class or LM. For the right buyer, that gap is exactly what they wanted. For everyone else, it is an expensive novelty.

Verdict

The 009 is an achievement. Five years ago, the idea of a Chinese EV minibus with 580kW, a 116kWh battery, executive rear seats, adaptive suspension and genuine luxury materials landing in Australia under $150k drive-away would have sounded like a press-release fiction. It is here, and on paper it out-powers and out-equips almost everything else in the segment.

The limits are efficiency, LCT exposure, and brand risk. None of those are dealbreakers for the right buyer. If you want one of the best EV people-movers Australia sells in 2026, the 009 is among the top contenders on most metrics except value for money, and value is not why you would buy this car in the first place.

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• 9 New Chinese Car Brands Coming to Australia, the wave Zeekr is riding
• Denza Z9GT Confirmed for Australia, BYD's luxury counter-move