Car brands of the future
In the past few days we had talked a lot about the future in Trollhättan. Another new brand celebrated its debut in Gothenburg on October 19th. Lynk & Co is the newest brand from the Geely Group. Exciting, because at both Lynk and NEVS the course is set by previous Saab developers.
The career of Mats Fägerhag as development chief at Saab ended in December 2011. A short time later, he signed with Volvo as a development partnership manager. Only a brief interlude, some time later Fägerhag was called as CEO to CEVT. The Geely-funded company in Gothenburg's Lindholmen district quickly became an engineering company with more than 1.900 employees.
The career of Mats Fägerhag
Now Fägerhag's career has reached another impressive climax. He develops production-ready vehicles for Geely, provides the basis for new, compact Volvos and in the future will steer his own make with Lynk & C0. Because Lynk also has its headquarters in Lindholmen and is part of CEVT.
The new brand is digital, it addresses a young audience. Development takes place in Gothenburg, with Peter Horbury, a former Volvo design director, who is responsible for the design. Production takes place in China, the Lynk & C0 01 will hit the market in the 4th quarter of 2017 and will also be available in Sweden in 2018.
Forward-looking is the brand, because all vehicles are constantly online with Ericsson technology. The upcoming App Store is open to all developers, Lynk Co provides external programming the developer environment. Sales in Göteborg are consistently breaking new ground. In the short term, there was speculation that the new brand would use the Volvo distribution network. It is not so.
Sales via own stores
This saves an estimated 20 - 30% on distribution costs, passes on the price advantage to the customer, and sells via the Internet and in-house stores. Additional external service points could possibly be added. There will be a fixed, transparent price for the products. Greetings from Tesla and Apple, unrealistic list prices and discount battles are a thing of the past, at least here. The manufacturer delivers directly to the customer.
The Lynk 01, another vehicle of a genre without which our world apparently can not live, is based on the new CMA platform. It serves as the basis for Volvo's new 40 series, Geely vehicles, and a whole generation of the new provider from Lindholmen. Lynk will show a hatchback and MPV in addition to the SUV, and plug-in hybrids will be launched in Europe for launch.
Shared economy & flat rates
Of course, the strategists at Lynk & Co also rely on shared economy and flat rates. If you want, you can share your vehicle with other users and earn money during the idle time. Lynk & Co provides a foretaste of a changing industry. The target group is a metropolitan audience between the ages of 25 and 35 - people who grew up with smartphones and flat rates.
Lynk does a lot of what NEVS will do - with an estimated lead of 1 to 2 years. At NEVS, that's my assessment, you will be a bit more progressive and courageous, also in vehicle design. Lynk received a lot of recognition in the press for his pioneering concept, in some boardrooms you will now watch the reaction of the market and the customer group very closely.
Car brands of the future
Sweden has two future mobility providers at the start. In Gothenburg's Lindholmen and in Trollhättan. That suggests interesting times, at the latest when both car brands of the future will be on the market. And the question arises as to whether Fägerhag's progressive Lynk & Co brand will cannibalize the good old Volvo brand one day not so distant.
I think the Geely Group structure will work. This will probably be the same with other corporations like VW, Renault or GM. NEVS will show if this new mobility is accepted by the users. But I think it will take a very long time until the analog freaks, like me, are extinct. I think every manufacturer will be well advised with the strategy of doing one thing and not leaving the other one. You can also build cars with electric drive, without being networked and allowed to drive. In any case, I would like to own a car, take care of myself and wash it and stand ready to be outside the front door and not be constantly under the care of Big Brother. As long as there are manufacturers that can offer this in new condition, I will be there customer. Is already almost sausage anyway who this manufacturer is, as long as he can deliver decent quality, if `s no new Saabs more.
A dramatic change in the car industry and very exciting because at 2 Startups Ex SAAB employees are on the train. I'm fully in the target group, but do I really feel like it? The answer comes from NEVS and LYNK are on the road
I do not think Lynk Volvo will cannibalize in the near future. But the target group is different and there are still many people who want to own a vehicle and not just rent it. Volvo is too established for that.
Personally, I do not care for the shared economy and flatrates, as well as additional connectivity issues, even though I tend to be a Lynk target by age.
Especially in the premium area is a vehicle for me a certain luxury, I do not want to sublet gullible.
When I'm in the car, I concentrate on the ride and maybe listen to music. Rather than driving pleasure and good design, a car does not need me.
Exactly! I sign to 100%!
Moin Tom.
Interesting report!
In this context, I am also curious to see how it will look like the normal / normal car dealerships that are still common today in 10-20 years ... whether they see the development in a similar way or are they secretly afraid of their continued existence?
The manufacturers seem to be (partly?) Moving away from it (see Tesla)….