Volvo’s Parent Company Reveals a Really Posh Electric Minivan

• Zeekr 009 revealed as brand' s second electric model, promising a luxury interior and a long range.

• The electric minivan will be offered with a choice of 116- and 140-kWh batteries, giving the latter a range of 511 miles.

• The Zeekr 009 is slated to start at just over $68,000 in China, where it will be produced and offered.

The minivan is one of those segments that hasn't seen many EV entries, despite the body style being well suited to an electric drivetrain, typically featuring a long wheelbase and a short nose. Still, we had a feeling we'd see some of the earliest luxury minivan debuts in China.

Volvo parent company Geely, which also owns the Zeekr brand, recently revealed just such an electric minivan, badged the Zeekr 009.

The box-shaped minivan is powered by a choice of two batteries, both of them massive. The base version uses a 116-kWh battery, good for 436 miles of range in the very optimistic CLTC cycle, while the beefier 140-kWh Qilin by CATL promises an even more optimistic 511-mile range.

While the metallic grille with waterfall inlets is the first thing one will notice about the Zeekr 009, the vertical LED headlights are an innovative design touch that is sure to be this model's calling card. Here it works remarkably well, especially if you're into modern architecture.

Despite the blunt nose and plenty of flat surfaces, Agent 009 still manages to offer a 0.27 drag coefficient.

Perhaps even more impressive than a promised 511-mile range will be the performance numbers: 536 hp and 505 lb-ft of torque, which Zeekr says will propel the cinder block-shaped minivan from a standstill to 62 mph in 4.5 seconds.

As heady as these performance numbers seem—made manageable with a dual-motor all-wheel-drive layout—the real point of such models in the Chinese market is the interior. This is where the Zeekr 009 shows off its sculpted leather seats and a 15.4-inch infotainment touchscreen for front passengers. The middle-row passengers, meanwhile, get massage seats and yet another screen, this time a 15.6-inch unit attached to the ceiling.

Maybe it's more accurate to call the Zeekr 009 a luxury yacht masquerading as a minivan.

Quite a bit of tech will be under the skin as well, including seven 8-megapixel HD cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, four 2-megapixel surround-view cameras, and one long-range millimeter wave radar, all meant to keep the driver-assist systems fed with information.

While all of this tech certainly sounds expensive, the Zeekr 009 will actually start at a surprisingly reasonable $68,400 for the 116-kWh version, while the 140-kWh version will require at least $80,600. Given the battery sizes alone this seems like a rare bargain—and perhaps nicer than many studio apartments.

There's no immediate danger of the Zeekr 009 making it stateside, at least not under the Zeekr brand, but we have to wonder just which automaker will be the first to field a battery-electric minivan on these shores, or whether it will even happen in this decade. For now, automakers seem sure that most EV buyers would rather have a medium or large crossover with a luxury badge.