said its stores are seeing a large number of visitors following the Zeekr 001 price cut.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

Zeekr, the premium electric vehicle (EV) subsidiary of Geely Holding Group, has extended the opening hours of some of its stores until midnight to capitalize on consumer enthusiasm in the early days of a big price cut.

Zeekr's 11 full-service stores in 10 cities, including Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Guangzhou, have extended their hours until 11 pm, it said today on its social media channels.

Zeekr didn't announce what time these stores originally ended their business hours, though map information viewed by CnEVPost shows that a number of its stores are open until 7 pm.

Zeekr announced on August 11 that customers who purchased the Zeekr 001 during the year would receive a discount of between RMB 30,000 ($4,120) and RMB 37,000, which lowered the model's starting price to RMB 269,000.

Following the move, Zeekr stores saw a large number of customers visiting the store to experience and test drive its cars, the company said.

To meet customer demand for test drives and car purchases, Zeekr has extended the opening hours of these 11 experience centers with sales, delivery and after-sales functions, it said.

The Zeekr 001, Zeekr's first model, was launched on April 17, 2021, and deliveries began in October 2021

Throughout 2022, 71,941 Zeekr 001s were delivered. The company is targeting about 140,000 deliveries for its full range of models this year.

Apart from the Zeekr 001, Zeekr has two other models on sale -- the Zeekr 009 MPV, and the Zeekr X urban SUV.

The Zeekr 009 went on sale on November 1, 2022 and its deliveries begin on January 17. The Zeekr X went on sale on April 12 and deliveries began on June 12.

Zeekr delivered a record 12,039 vehicles in July, the second time this year it has surpassed the 10,000 mark, bringing yearly deliveries to 54,672 vehicles.

Additionally, Zeekr announced today that Jiang Jun, a former R&D executive at and core team leader of the autonomous driving product line, has joined the company as vice president in charge of the smart cockpit business.

($1 = RMB 7.2776)

Zeekr offers up to 10% discount for customers who buy Zeekr 001 within this year