A change of direction
David Green doesn’t look like your typical computer nerd. When we first met in the late 2010s, he seemed shy and spoke softly. But it soon became clear: this man has a vision. Or as he put it himself: “Creating something bigger than just a car”. At the time, Green was Chief Technology Officer at a brand that nobody in Europe had heard of yet: Lynk & Co. Founded in 2016, it was one of Geely’s many subsidiaries.
The brand’s first model, the 01, arrived in Europe in 2020 as a technical twin of the Volvo XC40 (with a slightly longer wheelbase), it was available as a hybrid (180 hp) or a plug-in hybrid (262 hp system output). It came only in black or blue; you could still choose the wheel rims, but otherwise it came fully equipped. Because there were fewer options to choose from, the logistics were significantly simpler. That is why Lynk & Co. was able to offer the vehicle at a lower price than its sister brand. But the thing is, the Chinese don’t actually want to sell cars; they just want to make the world a bit better along the way. Green saw the problem this way: most cars are idle vehicles; they sit unused for at least 95 per cent of the time. Lynk & Co. set out to change that: the 01 should be available for other people to use when the owner or renter didn’t need it. To do this, there was a very easy-to-use app on your smartphone. You logged in, checked if a vehicle was available, rented it for a set price, and returned it. At the time, you could buy the 01 for around 35,000 euros – or rent it for 500 euros a month, all-inclusive (except for fuel). And anyone who diligently made their vehicle available to others could even earn money.
It worked. In some countries, demand exceeded supply. However, just as Lynk & Co. was entering the market, the Covid pandemic broke out – hardly a stroke of luck for a car-sharing business model. And so things quickly quietened down again in Europe before they could even really take off. In China, however, things continued unabated: in 2021, Lynk & Co. sold well over 200,000 vehicles there. Then the market collapsed – and the Geely subsidiary had to reinvent itself. It underwent a complete change of direction, becoming a traditional car manufacturer, and set a new sales record in 2025: 350,495 units were sold in a challenging market environment, almost 23 per cent more than the previous year. For the Chinese market, however, Lynk & Co. now also offers an almost complete range of 10 different models.
In Switzerland, Lynk & Co. is launching with three models. First up is the 01, a 4.51-metre-long plug-in hybrid based on the Volvo XC40, which, as already mentioned, has been on the market since 2016 but recently received a major facelift. Next comes the 02, known as the Z20 in China, a sleek all-electric model with a range of 445 kilometres, built on the same platform as the Volvo EX30. And then there is the 08, a rather imposing SUV at 4.82 metres in length, another plug-in hybrid, but with a large battery that is said to enable a pure electric range of up to 200 kilometres; it is built on the same platform as the Volvo XC60, but thanks to its large battery, it probably has the greatest range of any current PHEV (at least outside China).
Lynk & Co. has been in Switzerland since the end of 2025. The organisation is currently being set up – under the same umbrella as Volvo, and with the same managing director. It is reasonable to assume that some established Volvo dealers will also take on the sales and servicing of Lynk & Co., even though online sales will certainly be promoted more heavily than with its Swedish sister brand. Whether the model involving all-inclusive leasing and the ‘rental’ of vehicles will also be applied is not yet entirely clear; there are a few legal issues in Switzerland, and insurance and servicing are significantly more expensive than in other European countries. And then there is another problem: with Polestar, there is another Swedish/Chinese Geely subsidiary that will also be aligning itself more closely with Volvo in Switzerland in future. We will write about Zeekr, another Geely subsidiary, later.
Incidentally, David Green is still on board at Lynk & Co., now right at the top of the management team. There, he continues to tinker with new strategies; AI is certainly a great help to him in this regard. Whether he can still realise his vision of ‘creating something bigger than just a car’ – who knows?
This is a story from our print edition radical#6. We have more great stories in the archive.
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