Geely Automobile’s Lynk & CO brand looks like it will be a serious contender when it debuts in Europe in two years because of the design and engineering help it is getting from sister brand Volvo.
Lynk & CO still picked Germany’s capital, Berlin, for the unveiling of the brand and its first model, the 01, on Oct. 20. Lynk & CO Senior Vice President Alain Visser said Berlin was chose for a reason. “We clearly want to look our German competitors in the eye, showing them that we have the technology and the quality of a German-engineered product,” Visser said. “Germany will be one of our first markets and a priority market.”
The Geely subsidiary plans to start European sales of the 01 in late 2018. That’s the same time it plans to launch in the U.S. Both debuts are scheduled to come a year after Lynk & CO’s launch in China. Lynk & CO plans at least five models, including a compact sedan, but the range could expand even further, Visser said. The company’s hybrids will be fitted with either a 1.5-liter, three-cylinder or a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder gasoline engine that it will build in China under license from Volvo.
While Lynk & CO aims for annual global sales of 500,000 by 2022, the company would not specify sales targets for Europe or the U.S. IHS Markit estimates Zhejiang Geely’s global production in 2020 will be 1.8 million units, with Lynk & CO accounting for 256,000 units, Volvo for 802,000 and the Geely brand for the rest.
