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Emerging Chinese brand Zeekr has detailed its newest electric car.
Called Mix, the capsule shaped people mover is designed to maximise interior space providing oodles of room for families.
It is roughly the same length as a Toyota RAV4 but the distance between the front and rear wheels is more than a Toyota LandCruiser. This stretched wheelbase means it’ll have a cavernous interior with above average legroom for all rows.
This layout is a benefit of electric cars, which don’t need the mechanical connections between the front and rear that petrol, diesel and hybrid cars do.
Zeekr is part of the giant Geely Group, which includes Volvo and Polestar, and is built on its SEA-M platform that is designed for autonomous vehicles.
The Mix isn’t fully autonomous and requires a driver at all times but it has elements of self-driving concept cars.
The front seats swivel 270-degrees to create a living room-like experience in the cabin.
Double sliding doors and the absence of a B-pillar in the middle of the car create a huge opening for easy access. It also has a low floor for easy access for the elderly and very young.
The lack of conventional B-pillar doesn’t compromise the vehicle’s structure according to Zeekr.
It has embedded high-strength steel pillars in the sliding doors to help form the structure of the vehicle when driving.
The Mix uses a 76kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery that provides a driving range of up to 550km according to the generous China Light Duty Test Cycle (CLTC).
Customers can ditch the LFP battery for a more energy dense nickel Manganese cobalt (NMC) lithium-ion battery, which boosts range to more than 700km via the CLTC.
The LFP battery is capable of 5.5C charging rates. A 'C' rating is the speed a battery can charge: 1C means it can take one hour to replenish to full and a 2C rating takes 30 minutes, a 5C takes 12 minutes and a 10C takes six minutes.
Zeekr claims the battery can be filled from 10 to 80 per cent in about 10 minutes if you can find a suitably fast DC charger.
There is no word on if the Mix will come to Australia but Zeekr and the Geely Group are aggressively expanding to new markets around the world.
Zeekr has currently committed to bring its X compact SUV, 7X performance SUV and 009 people mover to Australia.
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