From a Chinese flagship to the global luxury car market, Chinese automobiles are entering a new stage of going global.

On September 22, the first Chinese new-generation luxury flagship SUV in the world equipped with the SEP Ocean Super Electric Hybrid — Zeekr 9X, officially shipped to the UAE from Fuzhou Port Jiangyin Port Area.

This is the first large-scale overseas shipment of Zeekr 9X, also meaning this Chinese flagship officially enters the Middle East market. Currently, Zeekr 9X sells for over 800,000 RMB in the UAE market, and approximately 1,000,000 RMB in the European market. The customized version of Zeekr 9X launched by the top modification brand Mansory sells for even more than 2.7 million overseas.

From relying on cost-performance to open overseas markets in the past, to today entering the global high-end market with products ranging from 500,000, 800,000 to million-level products, the logic of Chinese cars going overseas is changing.

01 First Large-Scale Shipment, Why Did Zeekr 9X Choose the Middle East as the First Stop?

On September 22, vehicles carrying Zeekr 9X departed from Fuzhou Port Jiangyin Port Area, heading to the UAE.

Zhao Chunlin, head of production and manufacturing at Zeekr brand, introduced that Zeekr 9X officially started going global in September 2026, with the first stop locked on the Middle East market, and will subsequently expand to markets such as Central Asia, Europe, Latin America, etc.

Different from the path of some models "developing domestically first, then modifying for overseas markets", Zeekr 9X adopts a global forward development model.

From the beginning of product development, Zeekr 9X has included the global market in product planning, simultaneously considering regulations and user needs of different countries and regions, and adapting for software localization, chassis calibration, and after-sales systems.

Zhao Chunlin stated that currently Zeekr 9X is sold in the form of complete vehicle export, with overseas versions sharing capacity with domestic versions. With increasing overseas market demand, it is preliminarily estimated that overseas demand may take away about 50% of capacity. And in the UAE market, the pre-sale heat of 9X has already appeared. As of the shipment, orders for 9X in the Middle East region have exceeded 700 units.

02 Starting at 800,000, Chinese cars start selling at "High Prices" Overseas

Currently, Zeekr 9X sells for over 800,000 RMB in the UAE; the European market price is approximately 1,000,000 RMB. In the domestic market, Zeekr 9X has already entered the large SUV market over 500,000 RMB and achieved high market performance.

According to materials, from January to August this year, Zeekr 9X ranked first in sales of SUVs over 500,000 RMB, and ranked first in three-year value retention rate for large SUVs between 500,000 and 1,000,000 RMB; The Jiaranlu Report shows, its NPS value is close to 85, ranking first among all models over 500,000 RMB. And when it comes to the overseas market, the price of 9X is further increased.

The 9X customized version launched by the top modification brand Mansory sells for over 2.7 million overseas, becoming one of the Chinese cars with the highest overseas selling prices. More notably, this "high price" is not an isolated phenomenon. Zeekr 009 landed in the Singapore market for over 2,000,000 RMB; Zeekr 007GT was launched in Europe, with a starting price of approximately 355,000 RMB, which is 1.7 times the selling price in the Chinese market.

This is not about selling domestic products at a lower price overseas, but allowing high-value products made in China to obtain corresponding prices overseas.

03 From "Oil Transport Vehicles" to "500,000 Level Luxury SUV": Ports Witness Changes in Chinese Cars Going Global

This change is even more intuitive in the eyes of frontline port workers. Zhang Jian, general manager of Ningbo Sanshi International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd., has been engaged in automobile export transportation for a long time. In his opinion, this export of Zeekr 9X has a very obvious change:

In the past, "cars" were exported; now high-value Chinese cars are exported.

Zhang Jian introduced that before 2021, the vehicles transported by the company were mainly gasoline cars; with the rapid development of China's new energy vehicles, new energy vehicles started going overseas in large numbers. And the price of exported models in the past was mostly around 8,000 USD.

The mass-exported Zeekr 9X this time belongs to the high-end luxury SUV of the 500,000 RMB level, which is one of the few high-value models to go global on a large scale before. He believes that with the continuous improvement of technology, handling, chassis, workmanship, and intelligence levels, overseas consumers are beginning to pay more attention to the product power of Chinese cars themselves.

This batch of Zeekr 9X has already obtained UAE market orders before shipment, overseas consumers pay high attention to the vehicles, and even under the situation of shortage of cars in the overseas market before, some customers were willing to pay a premium to buy.

04 Why Zeekr 9X?

A Chinese luxury SUV able to enter the Middle East and sell at a price exceeding 800,000 RMB relies not merely on export channels.

Zhao Chunlin believes that the underlying advantages of Zeekr going global mainly come from technical product power, and the globalization system accumulated by Geely Group for a long time.

Currently Zeekr has applied for over 7,000 patents in total, among which overseas layout exceeds 1,500 items, covering three-electric systems, intelligent driving, body safety, intelligent cockpit, and intelligent manufacturing and other fields. And at the product level, Zeekr 9X is equipped with SEP Ocean Super Electric Hybrid, and adopts full-stack 900V high-voltage architecture, 2.0T hybrid dedicated engine, and 6C ultra-fast charging large battery technology. Its core logic is trying to balance the performance and low energy consumption of pure electric vehicles, as well as the long-range capability of traditional fuel vehicles simultaneously.

05 When Chinese Luxury Cars Begin to Enter the Global High-End Circle

Chinese brand cars are entering some consumption scenarios that previously belonged to traditional luxury brands. According to materials and UAE local media reports, Qatar Prime Minister and UAE royal members once took Zeekr 9X in official travel. In the Southeast Asian market, Zeekr 009 also became the car for some political figures' official travel.

At the same time, even facing nearly 130% tariffs in the US market, Waymo under Google still imports Zeekr models on a large scale. What is reflected behind these phenomena is that the role of Chinese car brands in the global market is changing.

In the past, overseas consumers' cognition of Chinese cars was more concentrated on "Price" "Cost-performance". But today it is technology, luxury, intelligence, and brand value, this is also the core of Chinese cars' "High-quality going global".

06 From "Going Out" to "Selling Well": Chinese Cars Enter a High-Quality Going Global Stage

From January to August this year, Zeekr firmly maintained the first place in exports of Chinese high-end brands.

As of now, Zeekr has entered more than 60 countries and regions, with nearly 800 stores globally, and achieved delivery in five continents, and Zeekr 9X's overseas territory will continue to expand, it will further enter key markets such as Middle East, Central Asia, Europe, Latin America, etc.

Zeekr 9X sailing from Fuzhou Port to the UAE, what they carry is a change in the logic of Chinese car exports:

From quantity to value, from product export to brand export, from "selling out" to "selling well".Chinese cars are starting to try to use technology, products, brands, and globalization systems to gain their own position in the global luxury car market. The large-scale export of Zeekr 9X may just be a node on this road.

When a Chinese flagship SUV priced over 800,000 RMB heads to the Middle East, when Chinese luxury new energy models begin to enter the global high-end consumption market, the story of Chinese cars "going out" is also entering the next stage.

From Made in China, to Intelligent Made in China, to Chinese Brands.

This time, the destination is the world.