Avatr reveals Zeekr 9X rival

Avatr, the Chinese luxury brand heading to Australia under the Changan umbrella, has previewed its biggest and most opulent SUV yet – a five-metre-plus plug-in hybrid flagship called the Avatr T09, revealed through Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology certification filings.

You'd be forgiven for thinking the T09's designers spent a long weekend staring at a Zeekr 9X and a Rolls-Royce Cullinan. The big, ultra-luxury land yacht has a rectangular metallic grille with a patterned insert, boxy fenders, chrome slathered along the door bases and D-pillar, plus a Maybach-style two-tone paint option.

The full-width light bar gets a crystal-look treatment, because of course it does.

Avatr will launch in Australia either late 2026 or early 2027 and its parent company Changan is already putting the infrastructure in place.

Local recruitment now explicitly references an "Avatr/Changan sales and service network", and a right-hand drive Avatr 07 was photographed testing in Melbourne earlier this year.

The Avatr 07 and 11 are already built in right-hand-drive (RHD) for Hong Kong and Singapore, and a right-hand drive Avatr 06T wagon has been spied. Whether the T09 joins them in RHD is not yet known.

Underneath the Avatr T09 sits a choice of two plug-in hybrid set-ups. The first pairs a 105kW turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with 180kW front and 310kW rear e-motors.

The second steps up to a 150kW 2.0-litre turbo, with a trio of more potent e-motors - 180kW front and twin 225kW rear motors.

Both models use a CATL ternary lithium battery pack, with capacity yet to be listed.

The name Avatr, incidentally, is not a nod to the smash hit movie franchise. Blue-skinned aliens in harmony with nature have not been used in the Chinese promotional materials.

The T09 is a three-tonne six-seater luxury SUV with 22-inch ambitions, which suggests the Pandora connection is thematic rather than literal. Unobtanium, though, feels about right for the pricing conversation.

So where does Avatr fit slot into the market? The ownership chart is, admittedly, clear as mud. Changan is Avatr's largest shareholder on 40.99 per cent, CATL holds 14.1 per cent and Huawei supplies the driver assistance and cockpit tech.

Changan also owns Deepal, sold here through Inchcape, and has run a joint venture with Mazda for roughly 20 years that now builds the Mazda6e and CX-6e – both China-built, both landing in Australia.

The target is obvious enough. Avatr is Changan's answer to Zeekr and Denza, and in local terms that means going after Volvo, Audi and Lexus.

Matching Zeekr's run will be the trick. Zeekr passed 10,000 Australian sales in under two years, delivered 2115 vehicles in July 2026 – up 2837.5 per cent year-on-year – and put the 7X into the national top 10 with 1892 deliveries for the month.

Its own Cullinan look-alike, the Zeekr 9X, is locked in for Australia with a wild 1030kW powertrain and 50,000 Chinese orders banked.

The broader picture is the one that counts – China is firing on all cylinders and electrons in many export markets and especially Australia.

China has overtaken Japan as Australia's biggest source of new vehicles, and Volvo Australia boss Stephen Connor recently commented that consumers and dealers alike are finding their vehicle hard to ignore.

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