Lynk & CO outlines European launch plan

Zhejiang Geely Holding will soon have four brands in Europe, with Volvo, Polestar, Lotus and the Chinese/Scandinavian Lynk & CO based in Goteborg, Sweden.

Expect to see the Lynk & CO 01 on European Streets in 2020….but not in traditional car dealerships.

Instead of creating a traditional dealer network, Lynk & CO will offer subscriptions to customers, market its cars online, and sell through branded flagship stores and so-called "pop-up" stores. The company began sales in China last year and plans to enter the European market in 2020 with the 01 compact crossover, which shares its architecture with the Volvo XC40. 

The plan is still to start producing the vehicles for Europe in the second quarter of 2020. Not in Ghent [Volvo's Belgium factory], but in China. That is the only thing that has changed. They decided to produce in China for the simple reason that the Volvo XC40 was doing so well that we couldn't get the allocation in the [Belgian] factory that we think we need for Europe. They would have had the prospect of having two production plants, Ghent and China, which is a major confusion and cost complication. They will open a store and launch in Amsterdam next year, then we will go step by step to other major cities.

By 2021, they are planning for a total volume of 500,000 vehicles annually. In China the majority of that will be sales. In Europe the percentage of subscriptions is to be determined. The price of a subscription has yet to be announced but around €500.00 per month may be a possibility.

They will offer them to subscribers again, but on a sliding scale. If you subscribe to a car for five months and say, "I really don't need it anymore," they will take back the car. The next customer could then have a choice of taking a new car for 500 euros a month, or a six-month-old car for 400 euros.

Alain Visser, a veteran executive with experience working at Ford, General Motors and Volvo, has been CEO of Zhejiang Geely Holding startup Lynk & CO since 2015. He recently said ‘It's always a bit provocative when I say this, but there is something not very ethical about the car industry. We have traditionally made money on servicing cars, not selling them. So, we make money on making customers do what they hate most, which is going back to dealers. But for us, that's where we lose money, because in a subscription the service is part of the cost. So the more our cars need repair, the less we profit.” (VroomBuzz thinks this is VERY refreshing, to hear these thoughts directly from an EV CEO.)

[Source: ANE & Lynk]