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Lynk&Co Will Unveil Its First Model In Shanghai, Sales Start In China In Q4 2017

Geely Holding Group has scheduled the public unveiling of the Lynk & Co brand’s first model for the Shanghai Auto Show.
LYNK & CO 01 1 photo
Photo: LYNK & CO
The event is held in April, which means that the Chinese marque will skip the Geneva Motor Show this year. Sales of the first Lynk model will begin in the fourth quarter of this year in China.

Geely has already decided to launch this model in Europe in 2018, while the USA will have to wait until the first quarter of 2019 to be able to buy products from the Lynk&Co brand.

Initially, both the European and American debuts of the carmaker were supposed to take place next year, but some factors have made the Chinese postpone the U.S. launch.

It is believed that the leaders of Geely and Lynk&Co fear Donald Trump’s announced import restrictions, which could make their cars more expensive on American soil.

The first model of the Lynk&Co is called 01, and it is a compact crossover that has a hybrid drivetrain. Its internal combustion powered comes from a 1.5-liter three-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine, while its electric motor remains undisclosed for the moment.

Set to compete with models like the Nissan Qashqai, Lynk & Co’s 01 comes with an innovative feature in the segment. This vehicle has been designed from the start to support car sharing, which means an integration of a feature that allows owners to “rent” their vehicles to others.

Automotive News
notes that the connectivity services offered by this brand, essential for ride sharing, are provided by Ericsson, Microsoft, and the Alibaba Group Holding.

We expect this system to be developed in the future to allow ridesharing without buying a vehicle, which would make the Chinese brand match its Western rivals at the game of mobility solutions.

The latter is something that other automakers are struggling to offer without cannibalizing their business models, but a newly-started brand has no issues of this kind.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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