In the fierce competition to boost sales in the automobile market, Zeekr Auto was caught up in a storm of creating false prosperity by using "0-kilometer used cars".
According to an investigation by China Securities Journal, Zeekr, a smart electric vehicle brand under Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, has been accused of selling a large number of insured and transferred inventory vehicles as new cars through its direct store system, using "limited-time discounts" and other rhetoric to uninformed consumers, triggering a large number of complaints since May this year. It is worth mentioning that this operation method is intertwined with the abnormal sales volume of Zeekr's company households in Shenzhen and Xiamen in December 2024. It is not only suspected of defrauding consumers, but also pushing the secret method of "0-kilometer used cars" to the forefront, acting as an illegal tool to inflate sales.
According to information obtained by reporters from multiple complaint platforms and consumers, Zeekr's operation has been staged in many places across the country: when consumers in Guizhou, Chongqing, Guangzhou and other places paid deposits and prepared to pick up their cars, they found that the "new cars" they bought had already purchased compulsory traffic insurance and even completed the transfer registration, becoming a veritable "second-hand car." When they demanded compensation for their rights, they were often evaded or refused.
Stores in many places are suspected of illegal sales
In order to clear inventory and recover funds, and to improve the company's production and sales reports, some manufacturers choose to insure and license new cars with long inventory in a certain place, and then disperse them to other cities for sale to avoid the risk of concentrated exposure. This includes Zeekr.
China Securities Journal reporter found that since May this year, market supervision and management departments and automobile quality complaint platforms in many places have received disputes and refunds about Zeekr, including Guizhou car owner Cai Jian (pseudonym).
"The salesperson showed me a car produced in February 2025, and a screenshot of the current car information was also displayed on site, but the car delivered to me was produced in December 2024." Cai Jian revealed in an interview with a reporter from China Securities Journal that he placed an order for a 2025 Zeekr 001 WE version 95kWh four-wheel drive model on May 2, and paid a deposit of 5,000 yuan and another 46,200 yuan in fees to Zeekr Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. on the same day. After he learned from the VIN (vehicle identification number) information that the delivered vehicle was a stock car, he immediately asked to replace it with a new one. Zeekr initially refused to replace it on the grounds of Cai Jian's negligence, and after more than 10 days of shirking, it replaced the car due to pressure from complaints.
Coincidentally, Cheng Cheng (pseudonym) paid 5,000 yuan to reserve a 2025 Zeekr 007 model at the Zeekr Direct Store in Southwest Auto Trade City, Yubei District, Chongqing in June 2025. "From the beginning to the end, Zeekr has been deliberately concealing and distorting vehicle information." Cheng Cheng told reporters that the salesperson first said that the car was a new car that had failed to be exported and had not been insured, and then changed his words to give away compulsory motor vehicle traffic accident liability insurance for free to conceal the fact that it was insured.
"I clearly bought the car and applied for a loan through official channels at Zeekr's offline direct store, but the contracting party was Xiamen Aohan Automobile Co., Ltd. and the lending bank was CITIC Bank Wuhan Branch. It was not until I found similar cases online that I realized Zeekr was selling me a second-hand car with zero kilometers of unknown origin." Cheng Cheng said that she had asked for a refund of the deposit many times since then, but was rejected every time.
Li Xing (pseudonym) from Guangzhou said in an interview with a reporter from China Securities Journal that he purchased the Zeekr 001 model in May 2025. During the payment transaction, he found that the merchant had forged a page that was very similar to the Zeekr App, called "Limited Time Car Purchase Platform", and the remittance account was clearly written as "Xiamen Ouxing Automobile Co., Ltd.", which was also not official to Zeekr.
Later, when applying for insurance, Li Xing learned that the vehicle had paid compulsory traffic insurance in December 2024, and the insurance policy showed that the compulsory traffic insurance had been transferred. Li Xing said that the salesperson never told him the truth from beginning to end, but used the rhetoric of "limited quantity, fixed price discount" to cover up the fact that the vehicle had become a used car after being insured.
"More than 80 people in my group have suffered similar frauds from all over the country," Li Xing told reporters. He called the Dianke Automobile Hangzhou headquarters to protect his rights, but the customer service replied: There is nothing wrong with the limited-time discount vehicles. "They knew they were in the wrong, so much so that the salesperson who contacted me offered to pay 2,000 yuan in cash compensation out of his own pocket."
The company's sales volume is different from usual
According to the data from the China Passenger Car Association, Zeekr's production and sales in 2024 will be 225,000 and 222,000 respectively. Based on this, it can be inferred that Zeekr's production in 2024 will be greater than its sales, and there is an objective need to absorb the overflow of production.
The reporter sorted out the monthly compulsory traffic insurance sales data of Zeekr in various cities in 2024 (ownership categories are divided into individuals and companies, and company households purchase on behalf of the company) and found that Zeekr sold 29,200 vehicles in December of that year (the official delivery data was 27,200 vehicles), setting a record high for the year. Among them, sales in Shenzhen and Xiamen surged to 4,321 and 2,767 vehicles, up 377.5% and 647.8% month-on-month, respectively, and took a steep growth curve. Among them, the sales of company households in the two cities reached 3,724 and 2,508 vehicles, respectively, accounting for more than 86% and 90%.
"In December 2024, Zeekr's new car deliveries in some cities were abnormal, and its sales volume increased by an extremely high month-on-month, which is relatively rare in the field of automobile sales." Li Yanwei, an expert member of the Expert Committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, told China Securities Journal reporters that the two cities with the highest sales were Xiamen and Shenzhen, which overlapped with Xiamen, the "hardest hit area" for recent car owners' insurance complaints.
Another sales manager of a joint venture automaker who did not want to be named told reporters: "After completing the formalities in Xiamen and Shenzhen, the above-mentioned 7,000 vehicles may be exported, sold to leasing or online car-hailing companies, or sold to auto trade companies as '0-kilometer used cars' to achieve sales results. Judging from the data alone, Zeekr's corporate sales in December last year were significantly different from usual."
When talking about the motivation behind this, Li Yanwei said that the number of compulsory traffic insurance policies will be counted by a third party, and this data will be regarded by the industry, media, and capital markets as a "barometer" of a car company's sales performance.
In fact, it is not an isolated case that car companies use "beautifying" regional sales data to push up valuations or seek listing. In July 2020, Nezha Auto started the application for listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. After the failure, in February 2023, June 2023 and September of the same year, IPO plans were reported again. According to a survey by a reporter from China Securities Journal, the domestic compulsory traffic insurance sales data of Nezha Auto in 2022 showed that the proportion of company households throughout the year was 8%; in 2023, the proportion of Nezha company households jumped to 63%, which was much higher than the proportion of domestic passenger car compulsory traffic insurance company households in 2023 (11.3%).
The reporter further investigated and found that among the top 20 cities for Nezha Auto sales, 17 cities had corporate households accounting for more than 40%, and 11 cities had corporate households accounting for more than 90%. A senior automotive channel analyst told the reporter that some cities would do online car-hailing, rental car, and corporate car procurement projects, so it is normal for auto companies to have occasional anomalies in corporate household data. However, such a large number of data anomalies in cities where Nezha has direct stores make it difficult not to question the authenticity of its sales.
As a cross-verification, the reporter obtained a set of sales data of Nezha Auto in Xingtai in 2023 from the expert committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association: among them, the unit sales were 14,448 vehicles, the individual sales were only 785 vehicles, and the proportion of corporate households reached an astonishing 95.3%. "Nezha Auto is fortunate that the IPO was not successful, otherwise, with the current evidence, it would be difficult to escape sanctions even if it was lucky enough to go public." The above analyst said.
A senior automobile sales person told a reporter from China Securities Journal that under the pressure of market competition, some car companies have used "0-kilometer used cars" as a tool to create false prosperity in order to boost sales data and embellish financial statements. By confirming sales and revenue in advance, they have caused the capital market to misjudge the real supply and demand.
Privatization and delisting cannot hide the pain of the channel
The recent frequent complaints from car owners and the previous changes in insurance data in the Xiamen area have all pointed the finger at Zeekr's important partner, Xiamen Jianfa Automobile Co., Ltd.
The cooperation model between C&D Auto and Zeekr is regional operation + financial cooperation. According to the data, in August 2024, the Zeekr Home store jointly built by Zeekr and C&D Auto on Changle Road in Xiamen officially opened; in November 2024, C&D Auto obtained the authorization of Zeekr's Brilliance Division to carry out sales, user operations and after-sales services in Xiamen.
Consumer complaints show that Jianfa Auto intervened in Zeekr's sales process as a major customer financial partner. Vehicles were insured and transferred through Jianfa Auto's channels, realizing the transfer of ownership from "new to second-hand". Some car owners reported that the contracting parties when purchasing cars were mostly Jianfa Auto or its affiliated companies, such as Xiamen Aohan and Xiamen Ouxing.
Under this "financial bridge" model, third-party financial and channel companies become "firewalls" for throughput of production and sales data and regulation of terminal prices. A reporter from China Securities Journal learned from a Zeekr salesperson that vehicles from third-party companies or major customers can be more favorable than ordinary vehicles. Moreover, even if the consumer's car purchase contract is signed with a third party and the purchase price is paid to a third-party account, the salesperson still promises that the purchased "second-hand car" can obtain the rights of the first owner through a supplementary agreement - this operation of separating legal ownership from user rights also lays hidden dangers for subsequent disputes.
An auto analyst who declined to be named told the reporter that auto brands authorize first-level networks to sell cars in 4S stores, supermarkets and city showrooms, and the contract sales entity and the property rights of the commercial vehicles are either direct sales or agents, or store dealers. In addition, if it is another entity or a financial company, it means that the property rights of the commercial vehicles have been transferred.
"If consumers complete transactions under the condition of being concealed or misled, this undoubtedly infringes on their right to know and fair trade." Yang Zhaoquan, director of Beijing Weinuo Law Firm, told reporters that consumers pay the market price of a new vehicle, but actually receive a vehicle that has been registered and transferred and is legally a "second-hand car." When consumers trade again in the future, the vehicle will be legally recognized as a "third-hand car" due to the second transfer, which will lead to a depreciation of the residual value of the vehicle, constituting consumer fraud in the legal sense.
There are some details about Zeekr that convey something unusual. On May 4, 2025, Zeekr Technology Group issued an internal notice announcing a plan to adjust the division of labor among management. Lin Jie, vice president of Zeekr Technology Group and general manager of Lynk & Co. Sales Company, will replace Lin Jinwen, vice president of Zeekr Technology Group, in charge of sales. Lin Jinwen will assist Lin Jie in managing the domestic "marketing service" of the Zeekr brand and report to Lin Jie. Three days later, Geely Auto announced plans to privatize and delist Zeekr, and the timing is intriguing.
A reporter from China Securities Journal sought confirmation from Zeekr regarding the reasons for the transfer of the above-mentioned personnel, whether the above-mentioned illegal sales behavior has been included in the financial statements, and whether it will affect the company's privatization and delisting of US stocks. However, as of press time, Zeekr has not responded.
After Zeekr released its privatization announcement, Geely's Hong Kong stocks rose; after Zeekr and Geely officially announced their merger, many institutions rushed to give recommendation ratings.
However, when the company's finance and analysts were busy calculating the cost savings after the integration, few people asked about the "0-kilometer used cars" scattered across the country; when Lin Jie promoted the "direct sales + partner" channel transformation and planned to add 200 new stores in fourth- and fifth-tier cities, the relevant channel supervision details also needed to be paid attention to and supplemented.
Industry insiders said that "0-kilometer used cars" are like a prism, reflecting the gray area of new car sales data, the heavy burden of dealer authorization system, and the potential damage to consumers' right to know and fair trade under the halo of rapid development of the automobile industry. Industry associations interviewed suggested that the sales fraud of automobile companies, the chaos of "0-kilometer used cars" circulation and the problem of inflated orders should be thoroughly investigated to prevent similar operations from becoming "unexploded bombs" buried in the financial system of enterprises.
(Original title: "0 km second-hand cars" create false prosperity, and the abnormal sales volume of Zeekr Company is still a mystery)