Adds details, changes dateline

HANGZHOU, China, March 18 (Reuters) - China's Zeekr Group ZK.N said on Tuesday it would start selling an electric sports utility vehicle $(SUV.AU)$ equipped with technology that will allow drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel, a first for the industry as a smart driving tech war heats up.

The Zeekr 9X SUV will have so-called L3-ready autonomous driving capabilities, supported by the company's G-Pilot artificial intelligence-powered smart driving system, it said. The car will be officially unveiled at the Shanghai autoshow and Zeekr aims to start deliveries in the second half of 2025.

Whether drivers will be able to use the car's level three autonomous driving functions on Chinese roads, however, is still subject to regulatory approval.

The auto industry has defined five levels of autonomous driving, from cruise control at level one to fully self-driving cars at level five, and level three means cars can drive without a human driver's supervision. In reality, this means drivers can take their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel for extended periods, but are expected to be able to take over in seconds.

Level three technology has so far only been used on a trial basis worldwide. China granted approval in June to a first group of nine automakers including BYD 1211.HK002594.SZ and Nio 9866.HK, as well as major state-owned manufacturers such as Changan Automobile and GAC, to carry out tests on level three vehicles on public roads.

The tests are seen as a must for regulators to approve the cars for public sale and business operation in China.

According to Chinese laws, automakers will take legal responsibility for traffic accidents in the event of level three system failures, and drivers are still required to maintain constant attention and take control of cars with level two capabilities, such as Tesla's Full Self-Driving.

Zeekr is owned by Geely GEELY.UL, which partnered with Qianli Technology, a company controlled by AI company Megvii founder Yin Qi, to launch G-Pilot earlier this month.

(Reporting by Zhang Yan, Qiaoyi Li, Brenda Goh and Yukun Zhang, Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)

((yukun.zhang@thomsonreuters.com;))