Its official, Geely is ready to introduce Lynk & Co as its new brand that will bring a new model to the world. Geely is the Chinese automaker that also owns Volvo and in partnership with Volvo the development of Lynk & Co to produce what will be a new electric to be offered on the market will happen in the near future. Because it seems every EV automaker is trying to take on Tesla, this isn’t that exciting to think about until you get down to some of the details of what this new company and its vehicles should offer for us to enjoy.
As Lynk & Co prepares to open its API sharing services and will have a dedicated app store for its cars, this company will start with a compact SUV called the 01 which will be built on the Compact Modular Architecture that was developed between Geely and Volvo. This new architecture is expected to offer the build that could spurn a large number of vehicles for the future of the company, making it a formidable choice in the Chinese market, but that’s still not the interesting part.
The interesting part of this equation is the relationship that Geely has with Ericsson which is a major tech company in China. Officially this relationship is listed as being between Lynk & Co and Ericsson, but with Geely at the head I guess it really doesn’t matter how you look at it. What this partnership will do is allow the 01 to be offered not only with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as MirrorLink, but also offer the onboard telematics that will give owners a permanent connections to the internet via the Lynk & Co could services.
This isn’t even where they stop though. Everything on this vehicle will be able to be managed through a smartphone app; giving you access to whatever you need and adding the control features that advance you to a more modern time. This means you’ll have your keys as part of your smartphone, giving you digital keys that you can give access to for your friends and family and set specific time frames for this access. Along with added use of your smartphone the entire interface in the SUV will be customizable to whatever you want to use.
This means you will be able to configure icons and displays the way you want. Doing this will mean the 01 will be offered with large screens that look similar to what we see in current Tesla and Volvo models to allow us to have a completely programmable and customizable set of gauges and information. Using the cloud service will also alow vehicles to communicate with each other to give information regarding parking spaces and the speed needed to avoid hitting red lights in certain areas. This SUV is expected to use gorgeous materials that make it appear to be a Volvo model, which makes perfect sense as well.
Right now we don’t have any details regarding the powertrain that will be offered, but once the 01 is offered on the Chinese market the next areas will be the US and Europe. The expected time frame for the US market is 2018, which we will look forward to and keep a watchful eye for.
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