Brand overview: Lynk and Co

The latest in a series detailing brands you may not be familiar with focuses on those with weird names. Lynk & Co – Based in Sweden, Chinese-owned and self-described as a troublemaker.

By the way, don’t call Lynk & Co a ‘car manufacturer’.

The ‘rude rebel of the auto industry’ (its wording) calls itself a ‘mobile brand’, offering its cars through a monthly subscription. Customers are not ‘owners’, they are ‘users’ in a ‘community’.

What is it and when did it start?

Lynk & Co launched in 2016 as a joint venture between Volvo Car Group and parent company Geely Auto Group. It started operations in China, where Geely is headquartered.

It has announced a push into Europe in 2020 and currently operates in seven markets there: the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium.

The brand started with its vehicles by developing them on Volvo-Geely’s Compact Modular Architecture, emblazoned with the company’s own design language.

But instead of focusing on this hardware each joinLynk & Co differentiates itself from the industry (and its stable partners Geely) by providing core software and services.

Who owns it and where is it based?

The Geely Group has formed Lynk & Co with its subsidiary Volvo Car, which one suspects is a vehicle for testing new retail models. Other Geely Group brands include Polestar, Lotus, Proton, Zeekr and Smart (joint venture with Mercedes-Benz).

The first effort outside of Hangzhou was to set up a headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, which really leveraged Volvo engineering. The company calls its headquarters “brutal,” citing “raw concrete floors, sofas dotted in the center, giant smiley faces through the walls…”

“Lynk & Co is here to disrupt the auto industry, not to match it. Having a boring office is not necessary. It needs to be great!” said company CEO (and former Volvo sales and marketing director) Alain Visser.

What is its market?

In addition to China and mainland Europe, it also expanded to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, and announced a broad “Asia-Pacific strategy” larger will be presented in a little more detail.

In January, the company announced that it was increasing its user base in Europe from 60,000 to over 170,000 members across seven markets by 2022.

What is its means?

The company offers a wide range of vehicles in China including Lynk & Co 02 small hatchback, Lynk & Co 03 sedan, Lynk & Co 05 crossover, Lynk & Co 06 compact SUV and Lynk & Co 09 full-size SUV.

It also ran race cars based on Lynk & Co 03 in the FIA ​​World Touring Car Cup.

But the only ‘global’ vehicle it currently sells in China and Europe is the Lynk & Co 01 compact SUV, which uses a plug-in hybrid powertrain (PHEV) with an electric range of 69 km. As you’d expect of a Volvo derivative, it has a five-star NCAP crash rating.

What is its difference?

Lynk & Co Maybe sell you one of its cars if you want to settle down, through a Tesla and Polestar-style direct-to-consumer model, skipping the franchise to the brand showrooms.

But for commitment-phobes there is also a monthly subscription that includes maintenance, insurance and taxes. Visser said subscriptions account for “90 to 95%” of Lynk & CO’s retail sales in Europe. European Automotive News at the MOVE 22 mobile event in London.

The company boldly claims that cars are just as susceptible to cancellations as celebrities.

For 550 euros per month (about AU$900) you get a Lynk & Co 01 PHEV; including maintenance, insurance and road tax, and 15,000km travel allowance.

What is next?

The ‘Geely Smart Strategy 2025’ disclosed that Lynk & Co will “expand its global presence by entering Russia, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand among others,” during this period.

On the product front, it’s clearly going to be heavily electrified and continue to tap into Volvo and Polestar engineering.

It has shown before a four-door GT concept called ‘Next Day’ with a deadly appearance and four butterfly doors. Also, this week it showed early images of its newest vehicle (a plug-in hybrid SUV) ahead of its March 30 launch in China, called Lynk & Co 08.

08 will also be built on the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform, the foundation of Lynk & Co 01, 02, 03 and 05, as well as the Volvo XC40, C40 and Polestar 2.

So what do you think? Is there a future for a service that offers hassle-free car ownership that bundles all fuel/electricity bar costs into a monthly bill that you can cancel at any time? It will certainly change the traditional notion of residual value and what it means to own a car.

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