As a high-end brand of Geely Automobile, Lynk & Co has a lot of technology from Volvo, and also has its own unique brand culture and personalized design. In terms of market performance, Lynk & Co's sales are also good. If you continue to grow, you also need some improvement. We would love to know what the future holds for Lynk & Co, and today am Car Mirror will analyze it.
The emergence of the Lynk & Co brand
In 2017, the Lynk & Co brand was born, which is 50% owned by Geely Automobile, 30% owned by Volvo Cars and 20% owned by Geely Holdings. It can be seen that the Lynk & Co brand is essentially a joint venture company, of course, Volvo is also included in Geely's pocket, but in 2017, the Lynk & Co brand is a domestic high-end independent brand that can take the lead in carrying Volvo technology.
In 2017, independent high-end brands such as Great Wall WEY and Geely Lynk & Co have just appeared in the mainland's independent brands, which is also a brand strategy similar to Toyota Lexus, Honda Acura and Nissan Infiniti. In order to launch more high-end models, the existing brand is not enough to support its high-end image, and can only set up another portal, so the Lynk & Co brand was born in this context.
Early product performance of Lynk & Co
As the first person to eat crabs, Lynk & Co launched the compact SUV Lynk & Co 01, the crossover compact SUV Lynk & Co 02, and the compact sedan Lynk & Co 03. At that time, the three vehicles adopted the CMA structure jointly developed with Volvo, and even many of the material procurement channels in the car used the same supply chain as Volvo, and the three models of 01, 02 and 03 gave people a high-end brand, high quality and high configuration image at that time.
According to the annual sales data of 2018, the cumulative sales of Lynk & Co reached 120,000 vehicles, of which Lynk & Co sold 89,000 vehicles in 01, 21,000 units in Lynk & Co 02, and 9,258 units in Lynk & Co 03. It's really good to get that kind of results at the beginning.
Lynk & Co is losing its competitive edge
Obviously, the early publicity of Lynk & Co was successful, and people also recognized the distinctiveness of this brand, which mainly focuses on the young consumer market, and the materials used for workmanship are superior, with rich configuration and strong sense of luxury. However, after 2018, domestic independent brands have played a high-end brand strategy.
In addition, in the same period, the domestic independent brand model configuration is also gradually enriched, the workmanship materials have gradually caught up, even if their brother Geely has begun to hype the CMA architecture, Lynk & Co at this time in people's minds there is more "expensive" this word, the so-called contrast has harm, consumers hope to get more.
Branding strategy changes
Since the early stage has established a high-end brand image in everyone's mind, then at this time should render patriotic feelings, and promote Chinese car culture, so Lynk & Co 03+ was born, and Lynk & Co also participated in the WTCR World Touring Car Championship, and won the double championship in one fell swoop, the moment when the five-star red flag was waved, let everyone see the good record created by the Chinese brand again.
Such a publicity effect soon acted on Lynk & Co cars, more and more people know the Lynk & Co brand, brand positioning for young people is just and everyone's enthusiasm for integration, and the image of Lynk & Co 03+ Chinese performance car has also been established, at this time Lynk & Co also played a single grab, so that Lynk & Co 03 + became a large toy for a niche group.
The embarrassing situation of Lynk & Co 05
The Lynk & Co brand has been launched, and it is well known that this is a high-end brand from Geely, and the brand image is based on providing high-quality and highly designed models. But soon the problem was exposed, and the listing of Lynk & Co 05 and Lynk & Co 06 exposed a serious lack of product strength.
Lynk & Co 05 positioned as a coupe SUV, this model is not very popular in the Chinese car consumer market, the fatal problem is that almost at the same time Geely Xingyue also made an appearance, also from the CMA platform, is also a coupe SUV.
Lynk & Co 05 is only a little larger in size, a little stronger in power, but the price directly rose to 17.58-235,800 yuan, Lynk & Co 05 in 2021 sales of only 22,538 units, occupying 10.16% of the Gram brand sales share, only occupying 0.42% of the compact SUV market share, less than 1% of the same level of market share in the few products of Lynk & Co, can not be considered successful.
Lynk & Co 06 is still playing the idea of a three-cylinder machine
Lynk & Co 06 is also not good fate, positioning a small SUV, once listed on the entire series of 1.5T three-cylinder turbocharged engine, to know that 2020 is the cusp of the three-cylinder engine, we do not say whether this engine is good or bad, just by virtue of this article in the minds of some consumers who do not recognize the three-cylinder engine has been greatly discounted.
At the end of 2021, Lynk & Co 06 launched a pink special edition, relying on the advantages of color to barely harvest some female consumer orders that do not pay attention to technology. Of course, with the advantages of the Lynk & Co brand and the price advantage of 118,600-139,800 yuan, Lynk & Co 06 sold a total of 47,837 units in 2021, which performed quite well, accounting for 2.88% of the market share of small SUV models.
Lynk & Co 09 pricing is awkward
In 2021, Lynk & Co listed the 09 series models, as the flagship of the Lynk & Co model, the price also broke the ceiling, the fuel series was priced at 26.59-32.09 million yuan, and the 09 PHEV series was priced at 31.59-37.09 million yuan. If you look at it from the same level of competitors, Lynk & Co 09 has some price advantages, and the configuration performance is also very good.
But such a price range has overlapped a lot of joint venture brand models, and even the main sales model of the joint venture brand, people who really need such a high-end configuration and such a wide space will choose Lynk & Co as a means of transportation? This is the choice that many people face.
Young people can't afford to buy what they can afford not to need
Obviously, the Lynk & Co brand strives to create a high-end image in the domestic brand, wants to create a distinctive brand culture through design and configuration, and often flaunts Volvo's technology. However, from the main sales models of Lynk & Co, we can see that the price of a brand main sales model that targets young people is mainly concentrated in about 110,000-160,000 yuan, and about 250,000 yuan is already quite high, and most young people's pockets have not supported to buy higher configuration Lynk & Co models. The people who really need high-end products like Lynk & Co 09 have a large number of joint venture models, second-tier luxury brand models and even some BBA models to choose.
Sales figures are real market reactions
As one of the main sales models of Lynk & Co, Lynk & Co 01 sold 89,177 units in 2018, fell to 49,313 units in 2019, 30,836 units in 2020, and rose to 45,868 units after product replacement in 2021.
The Lynk & Co 02 fell from 21,751 units sold in 2018 to 13,650 units in 2021.
Lynk & Co 03 is currently the most sold model in Lynk & Co models, but also the highest sales model of Lynk & Co, in 2021 sales of 76461 units, accounting for 34.46% of the sales share of the Lynk & Co brand, the same level of compact sedan market share of 1.43%.
Since its launch in October last year, only 2,153 units have been sold, and Lynk & Co 09 sales continue to decline every month.
Although in 2021, Lynk & Co's global annual sales reached 220,500 units, an increase of 25.68% year-on-year, and exceeded the sales record of 200,000 for the first time. But this is based on more products, such as Lynk & Co 06 is launched in September 2020, if you subtract 47,837 units of 2021 Lynk & Co 06 sales, and the few sales of Lynk & Co 02HB and Lynk & Co 09, it is actually completely lower than the sales of 175,400 units in 2020. In other words, sales of some of Lynk & Co's single models have declined. This is still based on the replacement of some models, as well as the listing of new models, it can be seen that even if Lynk & Co launches new models, it is difficult to make sales rise significantly.
Lynk & Co should take precautions and continue to enhance product innovation and luxury, in addition to opening up the gap with Geely in culture, it is also necessary to have higher goals in product quality.
There is no way to support a high-end image without innovation
The above data truly reflects the current situation faced by Lynk & Co, which has been insufficient in product competitiveness and less innovative design. At first, Lynk & Co focused on Volvo technology, and then promoted brand culture, and after four years have passed, the embarrassing situation in front of us is that its own Geely is getting more and more cost-effective, and competitors such as Great Wall WEY in the same period have developed DHT hybrid technology; although Changan UNI has not yet independently produced Changan's product sequence, However, its sporty design and the power feeling brought by the 2.0T engine belong to the middle and upper level in the same level; although Chery's Xingtu does not have too prominent core technology, it is better than the cost performance, the price of basically all models is between 120,000-240,000 yuan, and the most expensive moon is not much worse than the Lynk & Co 09 in terms of configuration and space.
The Lynk & Co three-cylinder engine model has to be sold to about 150,000 yuan, the cost performance has long been eroded by the new model, coupled with the lack of innovative configuration and the latest intelligent technology configuration, Lynk & Co's models have been far from the first echelon, and the brand culture is still far from enough to support sales. The high-end brand image created and the purchasing ability of young consumers cannot be well matched, resulting in the gradual emergence of signs of applause and not applause.
The future of Lynk & Co is uncertain
The above has analyzed several products of Lynk & Co, and the current product strength in China's automobile consumer market, how will Lynk & Co develop in the future? At present, 01, 02, 03, 05, 06, 09 has been launched, according to the previous rumors that Lynk & Co will also launch an MPV model, but the results can be imagined, Volkswagen Weiran has not been able to shake the market position of Buick GL8, GAC Trumpchi M8 has also been working hard to open up the market, Lynk & Co brand positioning may be more difficult to occupy the market position. Therefore, we expect this car to have different product performance, do not come to the market to "touch the fish".
If the Lynk & Co brand still does not have some innovative technologies, and the price is still not competitive, it will gradually be forgotten by everyone, although the strength of Geely will not let Lynk & Co withdraw from the market, but in the end Lynk & Co will really only become a niche brand, or it can be said to become an experimental brand of Geely Automobile, like Lynk & Co 03+, 05 + performance cars, Geely can not be placed in its own product line for sales, then put it in the Lynk & Co brand, with the brand culture to promote its own strength.
In fact, today's Lynk & Co has begun to show such a situation, Geely has not made special technical research and development for Lynk & Co's products, and Lynk & Co's models are more like upgraded "hardcover cars" under the Geely CMA architecture. Production was also so low that there was a rush to cover up the lack of production, as Geely did not focus on Lynk & Co. Even including some marketing means, market strategies, etc. are also borrowed in the name of Lynk & Co as an experiment, I don't know if you have found that more and more product selling points that were once used on Lynk & Co were taken away by Geely to promote their own models, so Lynk & Co is now, and will be a brand that can only be supported by brand culture.
AM Mirror Summary:
Finally, we return to the current reality, although the total sales of Lynk & Co in 2021 have increased compared with 2020, the sales of some of its models have decreased month by month, which is an intuitive market performance. Earlier, the advantages of the Lynk & Co brand were CMA architecture and Volvo technology, but these highlights are now reflected in geely's many models, and Lynk & Co does not have much selling point advantage at this time.
The output of Lynk & Co itself, and the energy that Geely gives it, can only continue to play the card of niche brands and try to maintain its own product image. This is also the reason why Lynk & Co has entered the overseas market, because Lynk & Co has long been aware of the embarrassment that will be faced in the domestic market, and at this time, the price reduction or launch of low-priced products has long been unrealistic and there is no way to turn back. Niche is not an excuse for poor sales, brand culture can not be a reason not to innovate, want to applaud or have core strength, higher than Geely in line with the current domestic market high-end brand image, rather than hardcover Geely rely on Volvo technology to sell high prices.