Its unlikely that you’ll have head of Lynk & Co or their new compact SUV, imaginatively called the 01. The company is an all new car maker from Geely, the Chinese mother company that owns Volvo, and the 01 is claimed to be the most connected vehicle in the world.
The vehicle itself is a Qashqai sized crossover vehicle that looks like a cross between a Porsche Cayenne and a Kia Sportage. All in all, it’s not a bad looking vehicle from the outside. The inside, however, is more futuristic than you can imagine, having a large, 10.1 inch central touchscreen interface, with ‘always on’ internet connectivity.
Sharing
The connectivity of this vehicle allows owners to ‘share’ the vehicle, when they are not using it. On the vehicle’s Infotainment stack, a Share button allows the owners to remotely grant others, with a shareable digital key, access to the vehicle.
App
Along with the touchscreen interface, the 01 is app controlled, allowing the owners to monitor and control shareability of their vehicle using their mobile phone. Lynks also has its own digital cloud, which therefore allows anyone with a shareable key access to the locations of an entire fleet of ‘shared’ cars that are available for use.
Purchase
Lynk only allows the purchase of the vehicle online or through a select Lynk store. Vehicle prices will be fixed, so no haggling is required, and the car will be delivered direct to the purchaser’s door. Leasing options are also available, and with the car being available in Europe from 2018, it is hoped that UK leasing companies, including https://leasing.totalmotion.co.uk/ will be able to offer the vehicle to their customers, thereby revolutionising car leasing in Leciester.
Interface
The open-application programming interface allows third party developers to design new in-car apps, therefore allowing the car to be personalised to the owner’s requirements. The touchscreen interface is able to run MirrorLink, Android Auto or Apple CarPlay and the platform, online services and cloud are likely to be linked to notable partners such as Alibaba, Ericsson and Microsoft .
Future
The 01 will be initially available with 2.0 litre and 3 cylinder 1.5 litre engines, with hybrid and EV models following on soon and 02, 03 and 04 models all being in the pipeline.