Volvo s Geely Launches Fresh Auto Brand – News – Car and Driver, Car and Driver Blog

Volvo’s Geely Launches Fresh Auto Brand, Lynk & Co, and It’s Headed to the U.S.

Dozens of fresh cars launch every year, but the launch of a entire fresh auto brand is a far rarer event. Geely, the Chinese automaker that also possesses Volvo, is rolling out a fresh one: Lynk & Co—yes, that’s the name—and it’s set to launch globally with a raft of fresh models and ambitious sales targets. How ambitious? Half a million cars a year by 2021.

The brand will kick off with the production-ready compact SUV that you see here, unveiled yesterday in Sweden alongside a considerably more zany coupe-sedan concept that drops broad hints that something lower and sleeker will go after. The SUV will be known simply as the 01—what we presume is a deliberate contrast to the screwball name of the brand. The company claims the cars will be sold in all major markets including the United States, where sales are promised to commence in 2018, a year behind the introduction in other markets.

These are grandiose ambitions, but the carmaking potential certainly exists. All of its models are to use the same Volvo-developed Compact Modular Architecture that will underpin the Swedish brand’s next generation of puny cars. Lynk & Co models will be built by Geely in China, but the emphasis is on the fact they’ve been designed and engineered in Europe (as evidently even the Chinese choose to buy non-Chinese brands).

The one sets out much of the visual language for the fresh brand. Geely’s design director, Peter Horbury, who was formerly in charge of styling for both Volvo and Ford, said we can expect the upcoming family of “four or five” models to include slew of the same themes, including those fender-mounted headlights and the shark’s-fin detail at the rear of the car. The design identity is based around the themes of “private,” “respectful,” “fresh technology,” and one you very likely didn’t see coming: “dark.”

At least there are no visible similarities to the concept that presaged the closely related Volvo XC40. According to Horbury, the cars have been designed without reference to each other. “There are two ways to do a collaboration. Either we showcase everything and then we each know what the other is doing, or we do it separately,” he said at the unveiling in Gothenburg. “We did the second—the chance of coincidence is pretty slender; we know what Volvo’s fresh design language is, so steering clear of that meant we’d be okay.”

The Lynk & Co one will be fatter than its XC40 sibling, with platform technical boss Mats Fägerhag telling us the one will be 175.1 inches long and 72.7 inches broad and will sit on a 106.6-inch wheelbase. Power will come from both three- and four-cylinder gasoline engines, with a four-cylinder diesel being considered for some non-U.S. markets. There also will be a three-cylinder hybrid featuring the same powertrain that we detailed at the launch of the XC40 concept. We don’t have any powertrain output figures, but Fägerhag did state that the base three-cylinder version will weigh three thousand two hundred fifty two pounds based on the usually optimistic EU-DIN methodology, the Two.0-liter four-cylinder with all-wheel drive and the dual-clutch automatic transmission (DCT) will weigh three thousand five hundred six pounds, and the three-cylinder hybrid will be three thousand seven hundred forty nine pounds.

Lynk & Co so far is refusing to share any photos of the 2nd car and wouldn’t let us snap it at the event. But we can tell you it’s a lower and leaner-looking four-door coupe with a similarly upright front end but without the 01’s towering radiator grille. It keeps the SUV’s high-mounted headlights, however, and—since it’s a concept—was sporting four gullwing doors.

We’ve also been told that the Lynk & Co brand is aimed at the millennial market (surprise!) and that the company will be selling mobility as much as actual cars. We’ll tell you more about its plans, including how the company aims to cuts costs—and prices—with a dealer-free sales and distribution network in a separate post.

Volvo s Geely Launches Fresh Auto Brand – News – Car and Driver, Car and Driver Blog

Volvo’s Geely Launches Fresh Auto Brand, Lynk & Co, and It’s Headed to the U.S.

Dozens of fresh cars launch every year, but the launch of a entire fresh auto brand is a far rarer event. Geely, the Chinese automaker that also possesses Volvo, is rolling out a fresh one: Lynk & Co—yes, that’s the name—and it’s set to launch globally with a raft of fresh models and ambitious sales targets. How ambitious? Half a million cars a year by 2021.

The brand will kick off with the production-ready compact SUV that you see here, unveiled yesterday in Sweden alongside a considerably more zany coupe-sedan concept that drops broad hints that something lower and sleeker will go after. The SUV will be known simply as the 01—what we presume is a deliberate contrast to the screwball name of the brand. The company claims the cars will be sold in all major markets including the United States, where sales are promised to begin in 2018, a year behind the introduction in other markets.

These are grandiose ambitions, but the carmaking potential certainly exists. All of its models are to use the same Volvo-developed Compact Modular Architecture that will underpin the Swedish brand’s next generation of puny cars. Lynk & Co models will be built by Geely in China, but the emphasis is on the fact they’ve been designed and engineered in Europe (as evidently even the Chinese choose to buy non-Chinese brands).

The one sets out much of the visual language for the fresh brand. Geely’s design director, Peter Horbury, who was formerly in charge of styling for both Volvo and Ford, said we can expect the upcoming family of “four or five” models to include slew of the same themes, including those fender-mounted headlights and the shark’s-fin detail at the rear of the car. The design identity is based around the themes of “private,” “respectful,” “fresh technology,” and one you most likely didn’t see coming: “dark.”

At least there are no evident similarities to the concept that presaged the closely related Volvo XC40. According to Horbury, the cars have been designed without reference to each other. “There are two ways to do a collaboration. Either we demonstrate everything and then we each know what the other is doing, or we do it separately,” he said at the unveiling in Gothenburg. “We did the second—the chance of coincidence is pretty slender; we know what Volvo’s fresh design language is, so steering clear of that meant we’d be okay.”

The Lynk & Co one will be fatter than its XC40 sibling, with platform technical boss Mats Fägerhag telling us the one will be 175.1 inches long and 72.7 inches broad and will sit on a 106.6-inch wheelbase. Power will come from both three- and four-cylinder gasoline engines, with a four-cylinder diesel being considered for some non-U.S. markets. There also will be a three-cylinder hybrid featuring the same powertrain that we detailed at the launch of the XC40 concept. We don’t have any powertrain output figures, but Fägerhag did state that the base three-cylinder version will weigh three thousand two hundred fifty two pounds based on the usually optimistic EU-DIN methodology, the Two.0-liter four-cylinder with all-wheel drive and the dual-clutch automatic transmission (DCT) will weigh three thousand five hundred six pounds, and the three-cylinder hybrid will be three thousand seven hundred forty nine pounds.

Lynk & Co so far is refusing to share any pics of the 2nd car and wouldn’t let us snap it at the event. But we can tell you it’s a lower and leaner-looking four-door coupe with a similarly upright front end but without the 01’s towering radiator grille. It keeps the SUV’s high-mounted headlights, tho’, and—since it’s a concept—was sporting four gullwing doors.

We’ve also been told that the Lynk & Co brand is aimed at the millennial market (surprise!) and that the company will be selling mobility as much as actual cars. We’ll tell you more about its plans, including how the company aims to cuts costs—and prices—with a dealer-free sales and distribution network in a separate post.

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