According to relevant policies, China's new energy vehicle purchase tax policy underwent a major adjustment starting January 1, 2026, shifting from a full exemption to a halved levy (at a 5% tax rate).
In the second half of last year, ZEEKR launched a "Cross-Year Purchase Tax Subsidy" promotion, stating that for orders locked before 24:00 on December 31, 2025, if the vehicle invoice was issued and delivery occurred in 2026 due to reasons attributable to ZEEKR, the company would provide a purchase tax subsidy to be deducted from the final vehicle payment.
This promise gave many potential owners a sense of security, leading them to place orders during the policy window. However, as time moved into 2026, ZEEKR went back on its word. Multiple owners reported that despite having paid deposits and locked their orders within the stipulated period, ZEEKR officially stated after the new year that it "could not directly cover the purchase tax and would only offer compensation in points."
Hundreds of owners from across the country find themselves in this situation, self-deprecatingly calling themselves "ZEEKR's leeks." Regarding the above situation, ZEEKR has yet to issue a new official response.
From an industry expert's perspective, ZEEKR's reason for reneging might be production issues. Now facing a wave of user complaints, ZEEKR is confronted with a dilemma: either absorb significant financial losses or break its promise. Regardless of the outcome, this incident is likely to negatively impact its brand.
For owners, the adjustment of the purchase tax policy means a direct increase in car purchasing costs of approximately 5% of the vehicle's price. Based on the pricing of ZEEKR's main models, which are often over 200,000 yuan, owners would need to pay around 10,000 yuan more in purchase tax—a substantial amount for many families.
Consequently, in the fiercely competitive domestic automotive market, ZEEKR successively rolled out at least two rounds of "purchase tax guarantee" plans, both clearly stating that completing the order lock would entitle buyers to a deduction of over 10,000 yuan from the final payment.
However, starting in late December 2025, the situation suddenly reversed. Multiple owners reported that ZEEKR salespeople began contacting them intensively, requesting payment of the final balance before the end of 2025 to facilitate early invoicing, even without vehicle inspection or confirmation of delivery readiness, otherwise they would lose the purchase tax guarantee benefit.
"Pay the final balance without even seeing the new car? Are they afraid of having to subsidize the tax in 2026? What was the point of the original guarantee plan then?", owners expressed their inability to accept the sales proposal.
Owner Li Fei (a pseudonym) stated plainly that after seeing ZEEKR's official promise of the tax guarantee, he paid the deposit and locked his order on December 30, 2025. On December 31, the salesperson informed him the vehicle had rolled off the production line, but he saw no production or transport status updates on the ZEEKR App. The salesperson promised that payment that day would allow for invoicing in 2026 and eligibility for the tax guarantee. However, after payment, by the afternoon of January 2, the ZEEKR salesperson stated the tax could not be covered, offering only 30,000 ZEEKR App points (roughly equivalent to 3,000 RMB, whereas the vehicle purchase tax was approximately 11,000 RMB).
Many owners faced similar situations. The models they purchased covered multiple popular ZEEKR models from the 001 to the X7, with vehicle prices generally above 200,000 yuan. Due to this incident, owners formed a "Leek Group" hoping to pressure the company to honor its original commitment.
When approached for verification on the above matters, ZEEKR had not responded by the time of publication. Subsequently, the dealership where Li Fei purchased the car was contacted; they indicated his issue had been resolved but did not disclose the specific solution.
According to other owners, the official response currently offered is to increase the point compensation to an amount equivalent to the vehicle purchase tax. However, this proposal has not gained universal acceptance among all affected owners. "App points can only be used on official channels, with too many restrictions. We want the purchase tax guarantee that was originally promised, not this kind of substitute 'voucher'."
Nevertheless, an informed source suggested that ZEEKR might not be solely responsible for this situation. Some owners, during communications with sales staff, reportedly hoped to delay vehicle pickup until January 2026, aiming to benefit from both ZEEKR's subsidy and potential local government subsidies. The change in ZEEKR's guarantee policy reportedly thwarted these plans.
Beyond the purchase tax guarantee controversy, numerous ZEEKR 009 owners have recently filed collective complaints on the Hei Mao投诉 platform regarding a "backstabbing" incident with the new car.
Owner Zhao Xin (a pseudonym) stated that he purchased a ZEEKR 009 in July 2024 for 430,000 yuan (final price). In August of that year, at Geely Auto's 2024 interim results presentation, then Geely Holding Group President and ZEEKR Intelligent Technology CEO An Conghui stated that the new ZEEKR 009, along with the 2025 ZEEKR 001 and ZEEKR 007, would have no annual model iteration plans for the following year after their respective launch dates.
Yet, merely months after this statement, in January 2025, ZEEKR announced an upgraded version of the 009 with NVIDIA autonomous driving capabilities. Zhao Xin indicated that this new model not only had different functions and architecture but also featured capabilities like urban NZP, whereas such intelligent functions had still not been delivered for his older model, despite official promises that related functions would be upgraded for existing owners within 2025.
Judging from the complaints on the Hei Mao platform, many owners share Zhao Xin's experience. Multiple owners stated that during the launch of the 2024 ZEEKR 009, the event clearly announced the gradual rollout of core intelligent features like urban NZP assisted driving and memory parking—key factors in their purchasing decision. However, as of January 2026, over a year after purchase, these promised functions remain undelivered, resulting in a "watered-down" core intelligent experience.
What owners find even more unacceptable is ZEEKR's subsequent handling. Zhao Xin revealed that officials communicated that if over 1,500 existing owners requested a paid hardware upgrade, it could be arranged. However, the subsequent crowdfunding failed to reach the target number, and the upgrade plan was shelved.
"ZEEKR's crowdfunding wasn't even communicated to all owners. Furthermore, providing the upgrade is what ZEEKR should do to fulfill its promise; using crowdfunding is just敷衍ing us, completely unreasonable," Zhao Xin said. When contacted for verification regarding the ZEEKR 009 model update promises and undelivered autonomous driving functions, ZEEKR had also not responded by the time of publication.
Behind the successive user disputes lies ZEEKR's troubled year in 2025.
Public information shows that ZEEKR's full-year 2025 sales fell short of expectations, with cumulative deliveries reaching 224,133 units, representing a mere 1% year-on-year increase. Its annual sales target set at the beginning of the year was 300,000 units, resulting in a completion rate of less than 75%. Although December 2025 sales broke the 30,000-unit mark for the first time, hitting a record high, it was insufficient to salvage the overall underperformance.
Amid sales pressure, ZEEKR also underwent a significant group restructuring. In late December 2025, Geely Auto announced its formal merger with ZEEKR, making ZEEKR a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geely Auto and delisting it from the NYSE, less than 600 days after its US IPO. This merger was interpreted as a key step in Geely's "One Geely" strategy, aimed at reducing internal friction, concentrating resources for market competition, and achieving cost savings in R&D and procurement. However, frequent organizational adjustments have also raised questions about ZEEKR's operational stability.
More棘手ly, ZEEKR is embroiled in a supply chain lawsuit involving up to 2.3 billion yuan. In December 2025, a公告 from Sunwoda showed that Weirem (51% owned by ZEEKR Auto), a subsidiary of Geely Holding, formally sued Sunwoda Power, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sunwoda, claiming damages of 2.314 billion yuan. The core dispute involves alleged quality defects in the Sunwoda batteries used in the ZEEKR 001 WE86 model, which purportedly forced ZEEKR to undertake a large-scale battery replacement program. ZEEKR claims the battery cells delivered by Sunwoda had serious quality issues, leading to problems like slower charging speeds and battery capacity degradation. To salvage its brand image, ZEEKR initiated a "Winter Care Activity" at the end of 2024, offering free replacement of new battery packs for affected owners, and argues that Sunwoda should bear the related costs. Sunwoda, however, contends that battery performance is influenced by the vehicle's BMS strategy, leading to a significant disagreement over liability. This lawsuit not only threatens to consume nearly two years of Sunwoda's net profit but also subjects ZEEKR's supply chain management capabilities to market scrutiny.
Analyzing the ZEEKR purchase tax guarantee incident, Zhang Xiang, Secretary-General of the International Association of Intelligent Transport Technology and Guest Professor at Huanghe S&T College, suggested that ZEEKR's reneging was likely due to production issues. The company probably initially assumed most orders would not cross into the new year, hence offering the guarantee to attract orders, but unforeseen problems in production later caused widespread failure to deliver on time.
"Honoring the promise would require ZEEKR to pay over 10,000 yuan per vehicle in purchase tax subsidies. For ZEEKR, which has a high proportion of premium models, this would represent a significant financial loss. Furthermore, the original guarantee promise lacked contractual binding force, which sowed the seeds for the subsequent backtracking," Zhang Xiang noted. He added that for automakers in such situations, the choice often boils down to two unpalatable options: either absorb the financial loss to keep the promise or break the commitment and damage the brand image, with a perfect solution being hard to find.
Industry insiders generally believe that 2026 will be a challenging year for ZEEKR. On one hand, the continued phase-out of the NEV purchase tax exemption policy will affect market demand, making car-buying decisions more cautious. On the other hand, industry competition is intensifying, with many automakers focusing resources on enhancing product strength and service quality. The multiple challenges ZEEKR currently faces—brand trust crisis, sales pressure, supply chain disputes—will likely make its path in the 2026 market highly difficult. How it properly resolves the current user disputes and rebuilds owner trust will be crucial to whether ZEEKR can successfully navigate these challenges.
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