On ice with Zeekr: what it’s like to drive the future in a New Zealand winter

Zeekr invited global media to the South Island of New Zealand to put its newest models through conditions most drivers from Asia will genuinely never encounter. On ice and in the snow, at a dedicated proving ground built specifically to expose a car’s weaknesses. This was Zeekr On Ice, the Southern Hemisphere’s first Zeekr Ice Experience, and The Business Times was there.

The design story behind the 7GT

Before getting behind the wheel, we spoke with Javier Garcia-Gallardo, head of Zeekr Design Shanghai, who described a design team of around 350 people from more than 30 nationalities, split between Gothenburg and Shanghai, working to define what he calls the future of car culture. The 7GT, he explained, mixes two ideas that usually sit in tension: sportiness and space. Its 2,900 millimetre wheelbase and short overhangs give it proportions Garcia-Gallardo described as extremely sexy.

What it actually felt like on the ice

The 7GT was then put through its paces at the proving grounds, located at an altitude of roughly 1,600 metres on the Pisa Range in New Zealand‘s Cardrona Valley, between Queenstown and Wānaka. Surrounded by snow-covered peaks and alpine valleys, it is the only such facility in the Southern Hemisphere that serves major global manufacturers for this kind of extreme testing. The programme for the global media gathered covered everything from vehicle dynamics on snow to slalom and grid slalom runs, power slides with transitions, a full gymkhana circuit and hot laps.

Across the cold-start and low-grip sections designed to break confidence rather than build it, the 7GT held up impressively. The handling was tight and the interior felt genuinely luxurious throughout.

Where the 7GT sits in an increasingly crowded line-up

The trip also offered exclusive access to Zeekr’s future model line-up, including the highly anticipated 8X and the category-redefining 9X, alongside the performance-focused 7GT.

Sgcarmart’s JayJay Lin, who also joined the trip, described the 9X in striking terms: for him the first thing that comes to mind is a Rolls-Royce, a gigantic three-row SUV that is stately, full of tech and full of power. The 7X, by contrast, reads as more of an everyday drive with sporty ambitions for the weekend, while the 7GT stood out as the most distinctive offering in the range.

The verdict

Zeekr brought the 7GT to New Zealand to prove a point, and across every section of ice and snow that day, it did exactly what it was supposed to do, which was to impress us. Whether it lands with buyers in Asia is something that will become clearer in the coming months, once marketing for the 7GT begins rolling out across the region. 

Watch now.

Discover more episodes at bt.sg/podcasts. Got feedback? Email us at btpodcasts@sph.com.sg.

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Produced by The Business Times Podcast team in collaboration with Studio +65.

New Zealand footage courtesy of JayJay Lin, Sgcarmart.

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