Geely sub-brand Lynk & Co has chosen Amsterdam as the location for its European market launch at the end of 2020 partly due to the city’s reputation of being anti-car, Autocar reports.
“Amsterdam is a trendsetting city with a reputation for not liking cars. We think if we start there, we can demonstrate our cars’ convenience and suitability in modern situations. When we move to other cities, we’ll have some great marketing experience to draw on,” said Lynk & Co CEO Alain Visser.
The brand will focus on its 01 SUV for Europe, Visser said, and the company wants to attract both outright purchasers as well as those who prefer subscription plans. For subscriptions, customers can ‘own’ cars for as little as one month without being penalised. The CEO isn’t sure what proportion of customers will choose the subscription method, though he is convinced of its uniqueness; the company has business models for proportions of 90% and 10%, Visser said.
Other automakers also offer what are called subscriptions, though those are more like conventional lease deals by another name, said Visser. The business model used by Lynk & Co is “like Spotify, but we’ll still sell CDs,” the CEO said. In order to control costs and manage delivery times, Lynk & Co plans to offer the 01 SUV in no more than six version, the report added.
Purchases and subscriptions will be conducted online; there will be no conventional dealerships, and no more than two permanent display bases in each country the brand is in. Its physical presence will instead use a system of temporary pop-up displays, carried in containers on trucks to be positioned in locations of proven demand, says the report.
Very little customisation will be offered on the cars, likely also to control costs, however personal services will be offered through aspects such as servicing and customers will be offered access to Lynk & Co-sponsored activities such as concerts and sporting events, the report said.
“We won’t use servicing as a profit centre the way others do. It’ll be a cost, so it’s definitely in our interest to build cars to the highest possible quality standards,” said Visser, who insisted that the build quality of Lynk & Co vehicles will be ‘top class’, with Volkswagen named as a minimum benchmark.
Closer to home, the trio of Lynk & Co models – including the 02 crossover and the 03 sedan – have been sighted road-testing in Malaysia, which adds weight to earlier thought that the company has been looking to produce right-hand-drive versions of its cars at the Tanjung Malim plant.
GALLERY: Lynk & Co 01, 02, 03 spied in Malaysia
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GALLERY: Lynk & Co 01
GALLERY: Lynk & Co 02
GALLERY: Lynk & Co 03
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