On a recent trip to Paris, we wanted to get from the City of Light to the Pop Culture Museum about half-hour away. Scrolling the transportation options, we discovered a Budget rental automobile location in the town offering a Lynk & Co Co 01 plug-in hybrid crossover. We do not write much about Lynk & Co anymore, I’d forgotten about them until I kept seeing the shapely, full-figured Co 1 driving around Paris.
The backstory: Geely accomplished its purchase of Volvo in 2010, then created Lynk & Co in 2017 to fill the MSRP gap in China between Volvos and Geely-branded cars. Lynk & Co adopted names just like Polestar, with the Co 01, Co 02, shareable Co 03 concept that became a special and record-breaking Co 03 concept, and Co 05 getting press, then disappearing from the auto news cycle. The automaker only offers the Co 01 in Europe in the mean time. In the house market, there are the 01, 02, 03, 05, 06, 07, 08 and 09. In one other similarity to Polestar, the lineup didn’t launch in numerical order, so it’s not clear what kind or size of car each number represents without clicking all around the website. We hope Polestar doesn’t do that.
We have been hearing about Chinese automakers launching operations in Western markets for greater than a decade. That is surge has begun to take off with electric cars in Europe, the Financial Times reporting earlier this yr — before the tariff situation escalated — that Chinese brands could account for 25% of Europe’s EV market in 2024. Recent tariff questions haven’t been answered yet, though, and admittedly, neither has the near-term EV query, so be ready for surprises from all directions.
The Lynk & Co Co1 PHEV could skirt the political hubbub by being a hybrid. It skirts every other hubbub by being as innocuous because it is nice to make use of for the metropolis commute. We’d call it the automotive equivalent of a brown leather belt; almost nobody goes to note it — not even the wearer — but in the event that they do, the belt is high-quality enough, it suits its surroundings, and it does its job effortlessly. Lynk & Co’s former European chief, Alain Visser, put it more succinctly when he told a reviewer, within the reviewer’s words, “the corporate’s products are aimed toward the roughly 15 to twenty percent of European motorists who usually are not in any respect concerned with superfluities like performance, horsepower, and handling. They simply desire a vehicle that may comfortably and safely get them from place to put.” Mission completed.
The Co 01 sits on the identical platform because the XC40 and Polestar 2. Dimensions of 178.8 inches long, 73.1 inches wide and 66.7 inches tall on a 107.6-inch wheelbase make it 4 inches longer than our XC40 Hybrid but two inches narrower, its roof 1.5 inches higher, its wheelbase an inch longer.
A sufficient amount of power comes from a turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder making 178 horses and 195 pound-feet of torque, helped by an electrical motor that may prove 81 hp and 118 lb-ft. Lynk gives total output at 257 horses and 313 lb-ft, all of it sent to the front axle through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. With the assistance of a 17.6-kWh lithium-ion battery (14.1 kWh usable), the Co 01 can go an estimated 54 miles on the WLTP cycle on pure electric power. When the 11-gallon fuel tank is filled, driving range can reach the far side of 500 kilometers (310 miles).
The Co 01 never feels as potent because the numbers suggest, taking eight seconds to achieve 62 miles per hour. The Hyundai Tucson PHEV is inside inches of the Lynk’s dimensions and a couple of kilos of the Lynk’s 4,142-pound curb weight. The Hyundai makes 261 hp and 258 lb-ft, various reviewers getting it to 60 mph in anywhere from 7.1 to 7.6 seconds. That’s not far off the Lynk, but we suspect the Co 01’s power delivery is more nuanced than the spec sheet suggests. Still, the result is affordable, innocuous acceleration, exactly on brand.
Let’s get the rough edges out of the best way. The strangest of those is the rearview camera image, which looks just like the view through a paper towel tube. On top of the incomprehensible limitation, the camera’s steep downward angle prevents the type of wider picture you wish when assessing what’s behind you. That is nothing that turning one’s ahead and being attentive can’t fix, the best way you are alleged to reverse even with a camera. It’s just bizarre to see this type of garbled implementation on a contemporary back-up camera, especially when the surround-view image is precisely what you’ll want.
The motive force assistance systems could use refinement. The lane-keeping system tugs on the steering wheel while you’re holding the wheel, then wanders a bit within the lane if you happen to chill out your grip. The powertrain switch from the combustion engine to the electrical motor is smooth enough, the soft brake pedal and the switch from regen to mechanical braking beg for polish. And when the Co 01’s sensor suite detected an invisible object it decided to panic brake for, the powertrain needed a few seconds to revive full power.
Other than those nuances, the Lynk & Co Co 01 is a decent tool with an enigmatic barcode name. The plastics are fitting, the textile arrangements on the cozy seats and a couple of other design features show intention. The panoramic roof got here with a sunshade, and the front roof panel opens. The digital gauge display is usually monochrome with a couple of color accents, all its presented information crisp and vibrant. In-car navigation was easy to determine, Android Auto integration was seamless. The engine burble under regular effort won’t offend anyone, nor will tire noise from the Bridgestone Turanza 235/45 rubber on 20-inch wheels. The back seats were the type of cozy I expect for my 5’11 frame, still roomy enough for my head and legs for me to haven’t any qualms taking the second row on a visit.
Lynk’s unique propositions are a subscription service and automobile sharing. In 2022, the corporate pushed subscriptions over sales, someone in a position to get right into a Co 01 for €550 ($608 U.S.) per thirty days with insurance and maintenance covered. The worth is now €600 ($664 U.S.) per thirty days, 11 months the utmost tenure before needing to enroll again. Subscribers and owners also can share their vehicles, establishing a single-car Turo operation through the Lynk & Co app. Lynk even covers the insurance for the borrower if the arrangement is ready up through the automaker’s app.
Buyers in our market haven’t taken to those opportunities. If Lynk sanded out a few of the Co 01’s burrs and glued that rearview camera, there’s no reason the crossover couldn’t find buyers here. It will just must be priced like a hungry newcomer, undercutting models just like the $40,775 Hyundai Tucson PHEV, $42,145 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and $45,085 Toyota RAV4 Prime by enough hundreds to make it definitely worth the risk. That’s not exactly Lynk’s model in Europe, though. The Co 01 starts at €44,500 in France ($49,267 U.S.), the Tucson PHEV at €47,200 ($52,256 U.S.), the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross PHEV at €42,990 ($47,595 U.S.), the Toyota RAV4 PHEV at €50,450 ($55,854 U.S.). More importantly, home-market competitors just like the Renault Symbioz E-Tech start at €34,900 ($38,638 U.S.), the Peugeot 3008 PHEV at €40,390 ($44,717 U.S.).
So we do not see a Lynk & Co Co 01 in our domestic future. But we had a high-quality time in it, and once we’re in Europe again, we’ll be looking out to get into one again.
This Article First Appeared At www.autoblog.com
