The headquarters gate was blocked in exchange for increasing sales without raising prices. Zeekr's renewal caused a lot of trouble. What's the problem?

A new car is launched on the market with a lot of new configurations, which greatly improves the driving experience, but the price does not increase. What will be the result?

The Zeekr brand said: There will be rights protection, complaints and rumors.

This strange thing happened after the new Zeekr 001 was recently launched.

On August 13, the 2025 Zeekr 001 was launched. Compared with the previous model, the new car has been upgraded in terms of intelligent driving system and smart cockpit, while the price remains basically unchanged.

In theory, this upgrade method of increasing volume without increasing price should be recognized by users. However, after the new car was launched, it quickly caused huge controversy. Many videos of car owners blocking the gate of Zeekr headquarters were uploaded online, and there were even screenshots of Zeekr Auto CEO An Conghui insulting users, forcing Zeekr's legal department to issue a statement to hold the rumor makers accountable.

How did a good thing turn out like this? Because the car owners are divided into early and late owners, and the main force of the angry condemnation this time is the old owners of the 2024 model.

The new Zeekr 001 is equipped with the latest version of the Haohan Intelligent Driving 2.0. The official claims that this is an "end-to-end" intelligent driving assistance system that uses a more powerful ultra-long-range laser radar. At the same time, the Mobileye assisted driving chip on the 2024 model has been upgraded to two NVIDIA Orin intelligent driving assistance chips.

In addition, the SCM scene recognition model has been integrated, adding 1,000 new traffic scene recognitions, which can accurately predict the behavior of surrounding vehicles and pedestrians 1.2 seconds in advance to avoid accidents.

Officials also said that such an intelligent driving system can allow new cars to "not take over" in complex vehicle use environments such as construction roads, switching between main and auxiliary roads, and three-dimensional traffic intersections.

Isn’t this good? Why is the old car owner angry?

In common sense, it is the manufacturer's own decision what to install on a car. The new energy market is developing rapidly, and it is normal for a car to be upgraded quickly. But the problem is that Zeekr's speed is too fast.

The new and old Zeekr 001 models seem to be one or two years apart, but in fact, their birth dates are only half a year apart.

This is where the anger of old car owners comes from.

After working hard to buy a house, a few months later, I suddenly found that although the price of the new house did not fluctuate, it came with fine decoration and three years of free property management fees. The old car owner's anger is indeed justified. Who likes the feeling of being backstabbed and deceived?

Now the question is, many smart driving systems can be upgraded. For example, Huawei’s intelligent driving system has evolved from ADS 2.0 to ADS 3.0 within a year. Not only has no one opposed it, but it has been recognized by more users. Why doesn’t Zeekr adopt this approach?

In the article "Zeekr 2025 New Product Release and Answers to User Questions", Zeekr made it clear: The 2024 Zeekr 001 uses Mobileye's intelligent driving solution, which is significantly different from the vast intelligent driving 2.0 system equipped on the 2025 Zeekr 001 in terms of underlying chips, system layout, wiring harness layout, etc. These are two completely different solutions and therefore cannot be upgraded.

This can also explain why old car owners only complain about the Haohan Intelligent Driving 2.0 system when both the intelligent driving system and the intelligent cockpit of Zeekr 001 have been upgraded? It's very simple, because the intelligent cockpits of the new and old models are Zeekr's own, and a single OTA can achieve seamless switching between the new and old systems.

As for why they were in a hurry to launch the new model, Zeekr officials also explained that after the launch of the Haohan Intelligent Driving 2.0 system, it received widespread acclaim, so the factory worked overtime and brought forward the release of the version originally scheduled for the end of the year to August 13.

Obviously, Zeekr wanted to take a gamble, using more competitive models to attract more users, and at the same time "gamble" that old car owners would not collectively stand up to oppose. But judging from the results of the past two days, Zeekr obviously lost the gamble, and the backlash from old car owners exceeded the official expectations.

Zeekr is considered a mainstream new energy brand in China. It is backed by Geely Automobile, a well-established company. Its leader, An Conghui, is also a veteran with decades of experience. Why is he so impulsive this time?

This brings us to the classic question: Who is to blame for this incident?

First of all, it is undeniable that Zeekr Auto acted too hastily in the whole incident.

The research and development of an intelligent driving system may take one or two years to mature. As a well-known brand, Zeekr should make product plans in advance and take the interests of users into consideration, rather than waiting for users' dissatisfaction to erupt and then being "honest after the fact."

But there is also an invisible and most critical problem in this incident, which is the "involution" environment that is becoming increasingly out of control.

According to common sense, if Zeekr finds that the Haohan Intelligent Driving 2.0 system is easy to use and has been recognized by users, then it can just put it directly on the new car when the next Zeekr 001 is launched. However, Zeekr does not dare to do so because the market is too involuted and the "shelf life" of any advantage is very short. If the new car is launched at the end of 2024 as originally planned, this advantage will have disappeared.

This kind of internal circulation has actually exceeded the normal scope and violated the basic laws of industry development.

According to Zeekr's official statement, the development cycle of a high-end model like Zeekr 001 is about 14-18 months, but the internal competition in the automotive industry has now reached the point where a new car becomes outdated in just half a year.

Many people still remember the battle between Huawei and Apple before 2020. At that time, Huawei released two flagship phones a year, which made Apple feel very exhausted. But even so, the flagship phones of Huawei and Apple have a "shelf life" of at least one year. The psychological impact of a mobile phone worth a few thousand yuan and a car worth hundreds of thousands of yuan on users is definitely not on the same order of magnitude.

If a flagship phone from Huawei or Apple fails, the worst that can happen is that they have to start over again and recover after a year without any serious damage. However, car manufacturers spend a lot of money and energy developing a new car, but before they can see any benefits, it becomes obsolete in half a year. This puts enormous pressure on the car manufacturers and may even lead to a financial crisis.

If leading brands like Zeekr begin to feel that they cannot withstand this kind of internal pressure, let alone other ordinary brands.

As many arguments have pointed out, this low-level internal competition, which is similar to grabbing the "first taste of the soup", will directly eliminate a large number of small and medium-sized manufacturers and destroy the entire industry's benign ecosystem of gradual progress and safety priority.

In a high-pressure environment, small and medium-sized manufacturers will inevitably resort to unconventional means to survive, such as cutting corners, selling inferior products as good ones, squeezing workers' wages, delaying payments to suppliers, etc., which will eventually erode the reputation and heritage that the brand has worked so hard to build. A market with only top brands is unhealthy in any case.

In fact, Zeekr 001 "backstabbing" old car owners is not an isolated case. Not long ago, the price of Formula Leopard 5 was reduced by 50,000 yuan, also due to the pressure brought by this internal competition.

Cars are the most expensive commodity for ordinary Chinese consumers besides houses. If they are stabbed in the back at any time, it will dampen their enthusiasm and put the development of the entire industry into trouble.

This time, it was Zeekr that got into trouble, but it is a warning to all car manufacturers.

The automotive industry certainly needs competition, but any competition should be under the rules. Excessive internal competition can only lead to the only result of quick success and instant benefits. It can be seen that if the industry does not strengthen self-discipline and stop internal friction, everyone will be the ultimate loser in the large Chinese new energy market.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.