China's Zeekr sees sales jump in Russian EV market

STORY: Sales of Zeekr electric vehicles have shot up in Russia over the last year.

It puts Chinese carmakers ahead of local competition in Russia's small but rapidly growing EV sector.

Chinese carmakers have already seized more than half of Russia's car market since Western competitors pulled out two years ago.

They left after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Governments in Europe and the U.S. are growing increasingly more wary of Chinese dominance in EVs.

But Russia has welcomed Beijing's brands across all automobile sectors to prop up its car industry.

From May 2023 to April this year, more than 20,500 new EVs were sold in Russia - a jump of about 350% on the previous year.

Industry data showed Chinese brands made up more than half of sales, while Russian carmakers sold fewer than 4,000 new EVs in that time.

Chinese premium brand Zeekr has led the charge - despite having no official representation in Russia.

Irina Frank heads a dealership in Moscow, and she said Zeekr sold more than 8,000 cars since June last year.

"In China, more than 30% of cars are electric vehicles. We (in Russia) still have less than 2% (of electric vehicles). Secondly, people understand that it is environmentally friendly, it is fashionable, it is profitable, it is more profitable than gasoline, I repeat once again - both from the point of view of maintenance and from the point of view of fuel costs per 100 kilometers. And it is the future."

A separate dealership said most buyers are wealthier than the average Russian.

They added premium cars are the only widely available category of EV, and around 40% of EV owners have charging facilities at home.

The Zeekr X, a compact SUV, is on sale from around just over $46,100, similar to prices in Europe.

But, in a statement, Zeekr said it had not entered the Russian market and had no approved sales network there.

The automaker said it had not deployed any infrastructure such as charging stations, or conducted any other related business in Russia.