Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The Mix is of course an electric van, because Zeekr is an electric-only brand. Zeekr hasn’t launched in the USA yet (or the UK) but entered the lucrative European market last year with the 001 shooting brake and X compact car. Since its debut in October 2021, Zeekr has delivered 240,000 vehicles, so not a huge player so far, but it’s also part of massive automotive behemoth Geely, which owns numerous brands only available in China but also Volvo, Lotus, Polestar, LEVC and Malaysian carmaker Proton.
What’s Special About The Zeekr Mix?
Being electric, the Mix has been able to maximize its interior space, as its motors are small and its batteries beneath the floor. However, one of the key design innovations with the Mix is its lack of a B-pillar. On both sides, the front door slides forwards and the rear one backwards. This makes for a wide opening to get into both the front and rear seats of the car. In the prototype demo vehicle, there was a table in the middle and the front seats could rotate, turning the car interior into a dining area.
The idea is that this is a perfect format for families on a day out. Now that China is more affluent, its people are looking for better ways to enjoy their leisure time, so vehicle designs are starting to be oriented more towards this than being purely utilitarian. At the Auto China show, there were quite a few vehicles on display with bicycle racks or offroad-focused cars aimed at exploring China’s immense countryside. Design studies of the Mix also showed it as a camper van.
It might be a cause for concern that the Mix has no B-pillar, but that’s not entirely true. The edges of the doors are strengthened with built-in pillars, so when the doors lock into place, they actually form a B-pillar. The design still needs to go through independent safety testing to certify this system works, because this is not a production vehicle yet (and Zeekr didn’t say when it would be other than “soon”) but it’s a very clever piece of engineering. Zeekr expects a five-star safety rating globally when the Mix enters the market.
The Mix is of course an electric van, because Zeekr is an electric-only brand. Zeekr hasn’t launched in the USA yet (or the UK) but entered the lucrative European market last year with the 001 shooting brake and X compact car. Since its debut in October 2021, Zeekr has delivered 240,000 vehicles, so not a huge player so far, but it’s also part of massive automotive behemoth Geely, which owns numerous brands only available in China but also Volvo, Lotus, Polestar, LEVC and Malaysian carmaker Proton.
What’s Special About The Zeekr Mix?
Being electric, the Mix has been able to maximize its interior space, as its motors are small and its batteries beneath the floor. However, one of the key design innovations with the Mix is its lack of a B-pillar. On both sides, the front door slides forwards and the rear one backwards. This makes for a wide opening to get into both the front and rear seats of the car. In the prototype demo vehicle, there was a table in the middle and the front seats could rotate, turning the car interior into a dining area.
The idea is that this is a perfect format for families on a day out. Now that China is more affluent, its people are looking for better ways to enjoy their leisure time, so vehicle designs are starting to be oriented more towards this than being purely utilitarian. At the Auto China show, there were quite a few vehicles on display with bicycle racks or offroad-focused cars aimed at exploring China’s immense countryside. Design studies of the Mix also showed it as a camper van.
It might be a cause for concern that the Mix has no B-pillar, but that’s not entirely true. The edges of the doors are strengthened with built-in pillars, so when the doors lock into place, they actually form a B-pillar. The design still needs to go through independent safety testing to certify this system works, because this is not a production vehicle yet (and Zeekr didn’t say when it would be other than “soon”) but it’s a very clever piece of engineering. Zeekr expects a five-star safety rating globally when the Mix enters the market.
