The 08 midsize crossover has become the seventh model of the young but not yet very successful Chinese brand Lynk & Co, based on Volvo's CMA (Compact Modular Architecture) platform.
Lynk & Co was launched in 2016 as a youth premium brand focused on China and Europe, its main feature was new forms of distribution and contact with the consumer, including a subscription that allows you to drive cool cars for relatively modest money. The firstborn of the brand was the compact crossover Lynk & Co 01, built on Volvo's CMA platform, the same platform underpinning the Lynk & Co 02, 03 and 05. Subcompact crossover Lynk & Co 06 received a BMA “cart” from Geely Coolray, well known in Russia, the flagship Lynk & Co 09, Volvo's older SPA platform, and the mid-size crossover Lynk & Co 08 is another and currently the largest offspring of the CMA platform.
Lynk & Co 08 — 4820 mm, width — 1915 mm, height — 1685 mm, wheelbase — 2848 mm. Looks «zero eighth» is quite interesting: frameless glass doors, strongly elongated racks of side mirrors, complex plastic sidewalls and wheel arches. The problem is that the style of Lynk & Co is very similar in style to Zeekr — it is an even fresher and even more premium brand of the Geely holding.
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Zeekr literally took its first model from Lynk & Co in 2021, and so far, intra-company rivalry continues, and not in favor of Lynk & Co. If the sales of Zeekr last year, according to the Geely holding itself, grew by more than 1000% to 71,941 units, then Lynk & Co sank by 18% to 180,127 units. Multidirectional dynamics remained in January-February of the current year: Lynk & Co sold 23,156 cars (20% less than in January-February 2022), Zeekr — 8571 cars (+33%). Let's add that the expansion of Lynk & Co in Europe has stalled, with nothing on offer other than the first 01, and Zeekr will hit the old-world market at the end of the year.
1/7 2/7 3/7 4/7 5/7 6/7 7/7It is not yet clear whether the 08 crossover will be able to improve the affairs of Lynk & Co, and it seems that they made it mainly for China: «zero eighth» the first of the Lynk & Co received the Flyme Auto operating system from Meizu (a well-known Chinese manufacturer of smartphones and other gadgets, drifting towards the auto industry in recent years), it “spins” on a 15.4-inch central multimedia screen. The instrument screen, covered by a floating canopy with a built-in Harman Kardon speaker, has a diagonal of 12.3 inches, while all operational information is displayed on a giant 92-inch projection screen. Other Harman Kardon speakers are gracefully installed in the doors, driver's seat headrest and roof, totaling 23. A facial recognition camera is built into the left A-pillar. The inner door handles are hidden in the latest fashion, it is proposed to unlock the locks with the help of buttons.
Co was not told anything during the premiere — it is only known that it will have a plug-in hybrid power plant based on a 1.5-liter gasoline turbo engine. The CMA platform, meanwhile, allows the production of fully electric models — for example, the Swedish cross-liftback Polestar 2 does not have «hydrocarbon» versions on it at all.