Meeting the Yacht of Cars in Monaco
For a few days each September, Monaco becomes an even more concentrated version of itself. Port Hercule fills with yachts, the surrounding streets fill with cars made to be noticed, and nearly every terrace becomes an unofficial meeting room.
Visitors arrive from around the world, moving between the harbour, hospitality lounges, and packed stands in a flow of different languages and extremely considered outfits. Guests of all ages stop to photograph details, compare designs, and ask questions. There is a genuine appreciation for how things are made, whether the object in question is a superyacht, a watch, or a car with a refrigerator built for champagne.
Into that environment came the Zeekr 9X.
The six-seat Super Hybrid SUV made its first appearance before a European audience at the show, where Zeekr sponsored the Upper Deck Lounge and closing party. Positioned on a sleek podium against the backdrop of Port Hercule’s forest of docked masts, it rarely struggled for attention.
At more than five metres long, the 9X had the proportions to compete with its surroundings. Its wide stance, upright front, and imposing “palace grille” created an immediate presence. The smaller details kept people circling it.
Zeekr frames the 9X as the yacht of cars. In Monaco, that comparison did not require much imagination. A satin-chrome D-pillar connects the body and roof in a line inspired by European motor yachts, while the interior feels closer to a private lounge than a conventional car cabin.
To understand how a brand founded in 2021 begins building its own luxury language, we spoke to Stefan Sielaff, who leads Zeekr’s global design operations from Gothenburg, Sweden.Sielaff has worked with some of Europe’s most established automotive companies, including six years as Bentley’s Design Director. Those brands came with history, recognition, and established codes. They also came with the narrow rules of tradition. At Zeekr there was nothing but modern opportunity.
“At the end of my career, I got this opportunity to start with a white canvas,” he explained. “I could begin with something completely new. This was the main attraction I had with Zeekr.”
“It’s much more global, much more open-minded,” he continues, noting that Zeekr’s design operation brings together European and Chinese teams, with designers moving between its Gothenburg and Shanghai studios.
That combination is evident in the 9X, pairing a controlled European design philosophy with the speed and technological confidence of China’s automotive industry.“I prefer, with my team, to do things a bit more quietly,” Sielaff said. “Not too loud, not too over-decorated.”
Quiet may sound like an interesting description for a 2.9-ton SUV with a monumental grille. Still, the 9X lets its scale create the first impression. Its details reveal themselves afterwards.The palace grille is Sielaff’s favorite exterior feature because it “expresses some brand power.” Instead of repeating it unchanged across every future Zeekr, his team plans to adapt its proportions and treatment for different models.
The yacht influence appears most clearly along the car’s profile. Sielaff sees a shared language between the 9X and the more contemporary vessels in Monaco: “modern, very bold, very clean.”
Those parallels were easy to spot around the show. The most compelling yachts balanced enormous scale with surprisingly clean interiors, using open space, controlled lighting, and carefully chosen materials instead of decoration for decoration’s sake.
The 9X follows a similar logic.Its six-seat cabin combines Nordic wood, Nappa leather, crystal controls, and a panoramic roof. Each section of wooden trim is selected for the depth of its grain and polished by hand for up to 20 hours. A precision-cut crystal rotary controller sits in the centre console, bringing something closer to jewellery into the driver’s reach.
A 32-speaker Naim audio system provides the soundtrack. An onboard refrigerator can chill the champagne. Passengers can even control their surroundings using a removable screen, saving them the indignity of leaning forward.For Sielaff, the interior’s appeal comes from “this combination of size, space, and little lovely details.”
Zeekr has also started speaking with specialist yacht-interior suppliers about possible future collaborations. The connection is practical as well as visual. Materials used at sea must resist sunlight, water, and heavy use while continuing to look immaculate.
“The car is somewhere in between,” Sielaff said, placing it on a luxury spectrum that stretches from handbags to yachts.
Underneath the lounge-like interior sits some serious hardware. The 9X’s Super Hybrid system produces up to 897 horsepower, with Zeekr targeting zero to 100 km/h in 4.1 seconds and up to 737 kilometres of combined range.
That should be enough numbers.
The Monaco Yacht Show was less about studying specifications than watching how the car behaved in its intended environment. Here, the 9X was surrounded by people accustomed to judging luxury across categories rather than following one established idea of prestige.
Sielaff noticed the difference.
“At the Monaco Yacht Show, you find people who are quite open-minded, who are not following traditional patterns,” he said. “They are searching for innovation as well, technical innovation but also aesthetic innovation.”
That curiosity could be felt throughout the harbour. People did not simply photograph the 9X and move on. They looked inside, examined the materials, tested the seats, and discussed the details.
For a young automotive brand entering a category dominated by familiar names, that attention matters. Zeekr cannot manufacture a century of heritage. It can use that absence to reconsider what the next century might look like.
Among a harbour full of objects designed to make travel feel like the destination, the 9X made sense. The yacht of cars had found its marina.
