Lynk&Co: our competition is Uber, not car firms

The boss of new car brand Lynk&Co says the company’s main competition are ride-sharing firms such as Uber rather than other car makers.

Lynk&Co, which is owned by China's Geely, will launch in Europe in 2019 targeting a young urban audience. It will do so by offering electrified cars through a subscription-based service and by combining online sales with city-based stores and pop-up shops as opposed to traditional dealerships.

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Speaking at an event in Amsterdam to launch its European sales push and unveil the new 02 crossover, company boss Alain Visser said Lynk&Co’s target audience was “people who don’t want to own cars”, adding: “Plenty of people love cars, but don’t want to own one.”

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Asked about meeting the challenge of selling cars to that audience, Visser told Autocar: “We’ve done so much research to see that this will work and that people will go for this model. All the information is that it’s a pretty resounding yes.

“We don’t see our competitors as Toyota, Volkswagen and Audi; we see them as the likes of Uber. We are going to be competitive for a millennial that takes an Uber every day to go into the city to work.

“Of course, if you ask our engineers they’ll say our competitors are Lexus and Audi, from a technology point of view. But from a brand point of view, it’s beyond the car industry.”

In a similar manner to Volvo’s electrified sub-brand Polestar, Lynk&Co will offer subscriptions ranging from one to 36 months at fixed costs. The subscriptions will run in cycles, with cars refettled and then offered again at a lower cost.

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Subscribers will also be able to utilise an app-based sharing service. A button in their car will enable it to be ‘shared’ by other Lynk&Co subscribers (who will pay the main subscriber). Lynk&Co keys will feature technology that enables drivers to unlock shared cars.

Visser explained that, for instance, a subscriber could share their car when they're travelling, lowering their cost of ownership, and can also find Lynk&Co cars to drive while they're away.