Lynk & Co Super Sedan is Part Dodge, Part Lamborghini, Probably Mostly Vaporware

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Lynk & Co, if you hadn’t already guessed by the name, isn’t a normal car company. The upstart brand that sounds more like a hipster clothing depot than an automaker was revealed late last year following a promotional video that failed to show any products consumers could actually buy.

Now, months after the reveal of its 01 SUV, the Geely-owned company has another product to show off. This one’s a concept, sporting a design that previews a second planned model named — you guessed it — the 02. Sexy and artistic promotional shots of the arresting sedan have cropped up on the Adamsky Management website.

While Lynk & Co is as weird as it gets, this concept looks like something we’d all aspire to own.

Scissor-style clamshell doors and frameless window glass is something we’ve all come to expect from slinky concepts, and this one doesn’t disappoint. The disappointment comes when the actual product bears none of those features.

From the front, the concept seems to draw design inspiration from both Lamborghini and Porsche’s utility vehicles, while there’s some Dodge Charger visible in the rear flanks. Hell, there’s even a little Kia in the rear roof/C-pillar junction. A “floating” console seems to intrude into backseat space, no doubt to answer the incessant demands of Millennial passengers.

There’s not much to go on besides this, as Lynk & Co isn’t in the habit of divulging much actual product information.

Given that Geely also owns Volvo, a fair bit of Swedish DNA will find its way into the brand’s vehicles. Lynk & Co plans to build a 1.5-liter and 2.0-liter engine in China using technology loaned by Volvo, and its 01 SUV rides atop the CMA platform developed for the upcoming XC40. The 02 sedan could borrow a version of that architecture. Hybrid technology seems a must, especially given the brand’s urban, youthful marketing pitch.

How the brand could ever sell either of these vehicles in the U.S. remains a mystery, as it plans a direct-sales model coupled with online retailing. America’s domestic automakers do not take kindly to such things. Just ask Tesla about that.

“Our aim is to enrich and simplify car ownership by re-defining how cars are bought, owned, connected, serviced and used,” Alain Visser, Lynk’s senior vice president, said last October.

Lynk & Co’s first model goes on sale in China this year. Europe and the U.S. are next on the conquest list, with America targeted for 2018..

[Image: Adamsky Management]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Redapple2 Love the wheels
  • Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
  • Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Off-road fluff on vehicles that should not be off road needs to die.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Saw this posted on social media; “Just bought a 2023 Tundra with the 14" screen. Let my son borrow it for the afternoon, he connected his phone to listen to his iTunes.The next day my insurance company raised my rates and added my son to my policy. The email said that a private company showed that my son drove the vehicle. He already had his own vehicle that he was insuring.My insurance company demanded he give all his insurance info and some private info for proof. He declined for privacy reasons and my insurance cancelled my policy.These new vehicles with their tech are on condition that we give up our privacy to enter their world. It's not worth it people.”
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