Shadowy Car Brand Launches Next Week, Aims (Eventually) for America

Forget Chevrolet’s cringe-inducing launch of the first-generation Spark — this could be the biggest hipster Millennial marketing/branding effort to date.

Naturally, it’s for an affordable car brand, but with a difference: this brand is completely new and its products have yet to be revealed. Lynk & Co, a new subsidiary of Volvo parent company Geely, launches on October 20, Reuters reports, and it’s clear it wants to be every free-spirited young adult’s first car.

For starters, Lynk & Co sounds like the Millennialest of all Millennial businesses. It’s easy to imagine that brand name emblazoned on a black shirt, perhaps above a pair of crossed oars. It sounds like an artisan coffee company. It sounds like an artisan marketing studio. It sounds like a telecommunications provider (artisan, perhaps). It sounds like … anything but a car company.

However, Lynk & Co aims to be a mass-market automaker for its Chinese parent company, flinging mid-range vehicles across the globe. The hot Chinese market comes first, as Geely wants to repel American inroads by the likes of General Motors. Asia and Europe come next.

The first model reportedly rides atop a Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform developed by Geely and Volvo.

The brand’s hipsterish website, lynkco.com, features a clock countdown and contains no images or videos of its products. As young people on bikes pedal past us and do spontaneous things, we’re left guessing as to what kind of vehicle to expect. A subcompact, youth-oriented crossover or compact hatchback seem likely possibilities.

Reuters notes that the website shares an internet license and other registration details with Geely and its subsidiary, China Euro Vehicle Technology, which coordinates R&D efforts with Volvo. When contacted, CEVT spokesman Stefan Lundin confirmed to the wire service that the company behind the website is also developing the vehicle’s platform.

Lynk & Co will launch in Berlin on October 20, Lundin claims. We’re not sure if there’ll be a deejay or if it’s an acoustic event. Bring your toque.

[Image capture: www.lynkco.com]