On February 28th, the brand-new Lynk & Co PHEV midsize SUV was officially named Lynk & Co 08. Taking this opportunity, let’s dig into this car model.
Lynk & Co 08 is built on the CMA architecture, which is the same platform as the Swedish “Big Brother” XC60, and positioned as a midsize SUV with five seats.
From the spy shots, it seems that the split headlights that have always been used by the Lynk & Co family have been removed.
Looking at the side, Lynk & Co 08 has a longer C-D pillar length, giving it a sleek look. At the same time, the door handles are hidden, similar to those of the big brother 09.
As for the power, Lynk & Co has not yet announced the specific parameters of the 08, but there is news that the 08 may be equipped with the Lynk E-Motive hybrid system, which is a plug-in hybrid system composed of a 1.5T engine and a motor.
At the rear, you can see the stereoscopic through-type taillights, and of course, the eye-catching “Unbounded Car” logo.
Initially, everyone thought that this logo was a symbol of Meizu’s independent car-making, but Yang Xueliang, Senior Vice President of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, clarified on Weibo:
Meizu will not participate in car-making.
The logic behind this is very simple. In July of last year, Geely formally signed a contract to acquire 79.09% of the shares of Zhuhai Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. through its subsidiary Hubei Xingji Shidai Technology Co., Ltd., obtaining sole control of Meizu Technology.And Shen Ziyu, the deputy chairman of Star Era, became the chairman of Meizu Technology, while Huang Zhang, the founder of Meizu Technology, holds 9.79% of the shares. As the product strategy development adviser of Meizu Technology, Star Era will continue to be chaired by Li Shufu.
After experiencing the fierce competition in the Chinese smartphone market, this small and beautiful “Zhuhai factory” has finally entered the automotive racetrack like its former rival Xiaomi.
Shen Ziyu is also the CEO of Yika Tong, which is best known for providing a complete set of in-car systems. At present, the Geely Star Series and the latest Smart #1 all use Yika Tong’s in-car systems.
Therefore, Yika Tong’s acquisition of Meizu is more about absorbing Meizu’s experience in system operation logic and functional layout on mobile devices.
On February 23, Meizu officially announced the UI details of FlymeAuto. We saw the in-car products of the second mobile phone brand outside the Huawei ecosystem.
The first FlymeAuto model
Figure 1: Flyme Link negative screen, specially customized for the smartphone-car interconnection, synchronizes the smartphone ecosystem on the in-car system for usage. Meizu has prioritized frequently used functions for display. We speculate that Flyme Link will also support application circulation, similar to HarmonyOS cockpit.
We can see that Meizu has retained the classic small circle “Smart Bar” in the lower left corner. However, on the in-car system, this is the entrance for quick switching and real-time application display.
Figure 2: The customized version of Meizu and QQ Music in cooperation has optimized the display and interaction for the in-car interface. Compared with the third-party involvement, such as “Aiquting”, the native system has faster search speed and better music library performance.
Figure 3: The split-screen mode of music and map navigation simultaneously opens two applications. Similar to smartphones, the split-screen ratio can be freely adjusted. The application layout will also adjust according to the ratio. Based on the previously exposed videos, the overall delay seems to be very low.
The fourth video is very interesting: in the “nap mode,” the fireflies on the screen of the car’s entertainment system interact with the ambient lights by “flickering” rhythmically. When the door is opened or closed, the fireflies also create a “dispersed” texture, while providing sound effects. It’s a bit like what we experience in “4D/5D movies” at tourist attractions.
Meizu’s car team told us about the “Alive Design” concept created by FlymeAuto, will bring a sense of life to the design. Ignoring these Easter eggs, from the current UI design, feature settings, and previous videos shown, the FlymeAuto team has demonstrated strong skills.
From the official announcement to now, after two years of hard work, its products are becoming increasingly mature. We are also happy to see that the car team has not rigidly adopted the logic of mobile phones. They are also thinking about and making changes for the unique characteristics of car entertainment systems.
Overall, the system retains the “fresh” ideas that Meizu has in mobile phones, and the design of the fireflies and other details are very innovative.
Looking forward to experiencing FlymeAuto in practice.
Closing Remarks
Geely Auto sold over 1.43 million cars last year. Geely brand sales grew by 2%, while Geometry and Geometry Kelper experienced explosive growth in sales. Only Lynk & Co suffered a decline in sales, with only 180,127 vehicles sold, a YoY drop of 18%.
After Lynk & Co broke away from Geely, it caused some confusion regarding the electrification of Lynk & Co. Looking at the brand’s positioning, Lynk & Co is now facing tough competition from Geometry Kepler above, and the hybrid systems shared with Geely below. After years of operation, there have been various internal friction and inconsistencies between these different levels.
Outside of Geely, BYD, with its independently produced blade batteries and DM-i system, has increasingly lowered its costs and upgraded its models, which poses a threat to Lynk & Co’s hybrid systems while slaughtering joint ventures. It’s difficult to avoid BYD’s excellent value while standing out from the crowd.
There are two unique things about Lynk & Co 08. First, it shares the same CMA framework as the Volvo XC60 and can continue to tell a story of luxury. Second, as the first car model on FlymeAuto, the 08 can tell a story of intelligence.但这主要的两个特色之下，考验领克 08市场销量的依然是定价，参考领克 09 EM-P 的售价起步为31.99万，我猜领克 08 EM-P版本的起售价会在24万左右。
这个价格下，你觉得领克 08会成为爆款吗？
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.