Chinese automaker Geely Holding Group (吉利控股集團), the owner of Volvo Cars Corp, was scheduled to unveil the first model of its new Lynk & Co brand in Germany yesterday, a compact sport utility vehicle (SUV) aimed at taking on the likes of BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz across the world.
The Lynk, made in China, will go on sale at home next year, followed by Europe and the US in 2018, and marks one of the first attempts by a Chinese automaker to create a global brand that makes use of European design and technology know-how.
Chinese companies have been snapping up cutting-edge German technology to push upmarket and gain a global footprint. This year alone, Chinese home appliances maker Midea Group Co (美的集團) has agreed to buy German robotics firm Kuka AG and Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund LP (福建芯片投資基金) is taking over semiconductor equipment maker Aixtron SE.
Long seen as a cheap, no frills brand in China and unheard of in Europe, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group purchased struggling Swedish carmaker Volvo from Ford Motor Co in 2010 to help it leapfrog a decade of research and development.
While Volvo will continue to focus on premium vehicles, Lynk is an attempt to grab a slice of the mid-market. It will initially take on foreign automakers’ joint ventures in China, but — as shown by the global launch in Berlin — it also aims to challenge the world’s biggest automakers in their own markets.
The SUV, called ‘01’, will target tech-savvy drivers. It will come with a high level of Internet connectivity and owners will be able to rent out their vehicles to others by using the Lynk app and a shareable digital key.
The car will be a hybrid powered by a 1.5L three cylinder petrol engine combined with a lithium-ion battery and electric motor, and will be the first based on the Complex Modular Architecture platform developed by Geely and Volvo.
Mercedes-owner Daimler AG and BMW AG are also investing heavily in hybrid vehicles and will be watching closely to see how the 01 fares with European consumers.
Geely said the car would be priced competitively, but gave no details.
Geely’s design has been refined by British designer Peter Horbury, who headed up design at Volvo in the 1990s and oversaw it for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Automotive PLC, Aston Martin Lagonda Limited and Ford’s other brands from 2002.
In doing so, Geely is upping the competitive pressure on established global automakers, which have long accused Chinese rivals of merely ripping off their designs.
JLR, for example, has sued China’s Jiangling Motor Co (江鈴汽車) after it released the Landwind X7 SUV in 2014, a car that JLR says copies its Land Rover Evoque while costing about a third of the price.
Geely said it had teamed up with Sweden’s Ericsson AB for 01’s connected features, as well as Microsoft Corp and Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴).
“The new 01 car will be the most connected car in the world, designed for a modern, urban audience who are used to collaborative consumption and all the benefits that this brings,” Lynk & Co senior vice president Alain Visser said.
Alarmed by the threat posed by Apple Inc and Google, automakers are cooperating with telecoms equipment makers and technology firms to develop their own digital services.
Geely plans to unveil the 01 at STATION in Berlin, a former railway station that was the final stop for trains connecting West Germany with West Berlin during the Cold War, and now frequently hosts start-up conventions.
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