In the era of electric vehicles, do young people still need a fuel steel cannon?

Three days ago, I test-drove a recently popular internet celebrity electric car. The sales guy was excited to stress to me repeatedly that this pure electric car had a 3-second acceleration and a lot of title chassis tuning endorsements. Admittedly, while this product is defined as an executive-class sedan, its acceleration capability definitely ranks in the top ten of the models I've driven. Even so, it still has no strong correlation with sport and performance.

Motion and performance should have been filled with the roar of the engine, not the sound of the electric current generated by the electric motor.

But it is undeniable that the electric motor on a 200,000 yuan tram can easily achieve the acceleration of a million-level sports car, and acceleration is precisely the key indicator for many ordinary people to measure movement and performance. Coupled with the environment of electrification and new energy, Mercedes-Benz AMG, Porsche and other brands known for their sport and performance have begun to electrify their new products.

The high-performance internal combustion engines, which represent the best of human industry over the past hundred years, are gradually becoming a plaything. Just as after the Industrial Revolution, horseback riding changed from a mode of transportation to an aristocratic movement. I can't help but ask, can the young people of the future really only experience stiff acceleration and not enjoy the rapid heartbeat brought about by the roar of the engine?

Fortunately, there are still several brands in China that insist on creating performance products, and at a fairly close price, they convey the pleasure brought by gasoline combustion to Chinese users, especially young users.

Lynk & Co is undoubtedly one of the best.

There is no +Lynk & Co, which is also a performance steel cannon

When Zhou Guanyu won the first F1 points on behalf of Chinese, my circle of friends was swept away by this message. Looking back now, after the F1 Shanghai Grand Prix was stopped, the car race was able to get such a high degree of attention, and Lynk & Co was instrumental.

To this day, China's highest achievement in global auto racing should be the few championships won by Lynk & Co in WTCR events. All along, Lynk & Co has also been committed to cultivating China's own racing and automobile culture. In addition to continuing to invest in WTCR events, Lynk & Co has also launched Lynk & Co 03+ and 05+ models, allowing a considerable number of Chinese users to enjoy the thrill of adrenaline rush on their own.

In addition to Lynk & Co with the + sign, the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback is also an important member of the Lynk & Co Sports Product Matrix.

In order to reflect the characteristics of the steel cannon, Lynk & Co lowered the attitude of the 02 Hatchback very low. In the field of modification, it is said that "a low cover is ugly", the original 02 model is very beautiful, and it will be more flavorful after lowering the body. Coupled with a large number of fur materials in the car, coupled with the embellishment of orange elements, it can really make people's visual nerves excited. From the appearance point of view, the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback spends no less energy on the sports elements than the 03+ and 05+, so that people can perceive at a glance that this is a very powerful steel gun model.

Of course, it is undeniable that the current Chinese auto market does not lack the appearance of sports, but the inside is completely the product of buying vegetable cars. The Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback obviously does not belong to this category, and the Halo model also uses the same T5 engine of the Lynk & Co 03+ and the ejection mode, all of which tell the outside world that he is a steel cannon that is "consistent in appearance".

The Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback Halo model is equipped with a Drive-E 2.0TD T5 engine with 254 Ps and a torque of 350 Nm, which can be increased to 380 Nm in overclocking mode. In terms of parameters, the power level of the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback has surpassed the larger BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

Big power + small body, the most direct impact is acceleration. The Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback 0-100km/h accelerates at 6.2 seconds, surpassing the Golf GTI's 6.9 seconds and beating the 9-second Audi A3 and Honda Civic. Objectively speaking, for many car owners, acceleration and movement are directly linked. In the price range of 150,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan, the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback Halo is almost an accelerated ceiling. Yes, even if you count electric vehicles, electric vehicles in the same price range are still mainly used for home use, such as the best-selling Xiaopeng P5, whose 0-100km/h acceleration time also takes 7.5 seconds, and Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback Halo is not at all in the same order of magnitude.

On the other hand, the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback is not a product that simply pursues "silly fast". The origin of the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback and the Lynk & Co 03 TCR race car that won the WTCR championship are the same, they are all automotive products built based on the CMA architecture, and "Root Red Miao" gives the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback a very high ceiling possibility in handling.

According to the official introduction, the chassis of the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback is tuned by the European supercar team to improve the stability of handling and accurately respond to driving intentions, and is equipped with Michelin Pilot Sport 4 sports tires, which have stable high-speed performance and provide excellent grip and lateral support in a variety of road conditions.

The Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback also has targeted tuning and matching of shock springs, subframes, front and rear lateral stabilizer bars, which can further play the steering characteristics of front-wheel drive vehicles with high steering sensitivity and dynamic response. The Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback Halo uses Italian ITT high-performance brake pads with a braking distance of only 34 meters at 100km/h-0. The extremely high hardware redundancy and excellent tuning make the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback worthy of the name of "steel cannon" in terms of acceleration and handling, and the elk test has reached a maximum pass speed of 78km/h.

In addition, the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback Halo 19-inch forged wheels, compared to the cast wheels used in traditional models, has the advantages of high strength and light weight, the disadvantage is high cost, but it is still the standard for performance cars and modification enthusiasts.

However, it is worth noting that unlike many performance models in the past that simply pursue control and speed, the performance family of Lynk & Co takes more into account the user's more demands in addition to performance. Earlier, a joint venture car company R & D manager told me that the needs of Chinese users are the most complex in the world, and they want the products to have the control of European cars, the comfort of American cars, and the low fuel consumption comparable to Japanese cars.

Take the Golf GTI as an example, this guidance price of about 230,000 yuan of steel cannon, no panoramic sunroof, no panoramic image, the co-pilot does not support electric adjustment, the driver's seat has no ventilation function, people who like it will say that it is more pure, but for most of the people who really hold the currency to buy, the positioning that is too pure is not a good thing.

Instead, the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback is not just focused on hardcore performance, but also takes into account a luxurious temperament that most consumers will not reject. Lynk & Co's designers have created an atmosphere of luxury and sportiness by applying a large area of fur and unique orange elements, and even the gear levers, which are usually the most overlooked materials, have adopted Alcantara fur wrapping imported from Italy. At the same time, the Internet of Vehicles, high-end driver assistance systems and so on on the Lynk & Co 02 car series are readily available.

In this way, the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback has two completely different faces. When the driver holds the steering wheel tightly and presses the accelerator deeply, it is a small steel cannon that means where to hit; when the rear seat is put on the seat and the trunk is full of food, it becomes a family car that combines luxury and comfort. The "double-sided" Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback gives more performance powders a reason to choose a steel cannon.

China's automotive culture needs more Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback

But it is undeniable that in the Chinese auto market, steel cannons have always been a minority among the minority.

In China, it is difficult for car companies to achieve profitability with extremely small sales, and more companies introduce and build steel cannon models, just "lose money and make money", adding a halo to their own brands with sports models. So for a long time in the past, such as Civic Si, Suzuki Speedwing, carnival ST in the Chinese market like a short-lived, a glimpse and then quickly disappeared into the market. Even if it is as strong as Volkswagen, it only insists on producing a "castrated version" of the Golf GTI, such as the Lingdu GTS and Sagittarius GLI, which earlier intended to expand the performance car market, which ushered in a production stop in just a few years.

More Chinese car companies prefer to focus on the surface, to create an extremely exaggerated, sporty, aggressive product, coupled with the most affordable grocery car powertrain, the sport stays on the surface.

Among Chinese car companies, Lynk & Co is undoubtedly an "outlier". Lynk & Co not only has specially created a sports product family consisting of Lynk & Co 03+, Lynk & Co 05+, Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback, but also continues to invest in various domestic and foreign events, and organizes and establishes platforms to give domestic enthusiasts the opportunity to receive professional training and show their hands and feet.

It is true that WTCR's triple crown, cool 03+, 02 Hatchback let more people know Lynk & Co, but from the input-output ratio, in order to popularize sports culture, Lynk & Co invested hundreds of millions of research and development costs, event participation costs, with the popularity brought by this huge investment, "cost-effective" is not so high.

What drives Lynk & Co's continued commitment may be a more ambitious goal.

Compared with the automobile markets of developed countries such as Europe, the United States and Japan, although the chinese automobile market is huge, the automobile culture is not sound. In the top races that integrate automotive technology and culture, Chinese and elements are still few and far between. The event is not only an honor, but also a testing ground for cutting-edge technology, and the power recovery that has been widely popularized in fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles in recent years has been applied to F1 racing cars in the early days.

More importantly, the perfect car culture can make more people understand the car better, more willing to devote themselves to the automotive industry, and more professional users will also help the growth of car companies themselves.

But for young Chinese consumers today, although they are full of interest in competitions and performance, the actual economic and family situation makes them have to compromise and choose more moderate or large and complete products. The Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback combines practicality and performance, allowing more people to put aside the shackles and take a step towards sports cars, which will help accelerate the formation of China's own car culture.

Recently, the Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback model also launched a Plus/Pro model equipped with A4 engine, compared with the surging T5 model, Plus/Pro has decreased in power and torque, but this engine that can output 190Ps is still at the top of the same price range, coupled with a dual-clutch transmission with a transmission efficiency of 97%, Lynk & Co 02 Hatchback Plus/ The Pro model not only has a zero-hundred-speed acceleration capacity of 7.8 seconds, but also has a low fuel consumption of 6.4L/100km.

Coupled with the chassis structure and tuning of the same model, the Plus/Pro basically completely replicates the handling level of the Halo model, and its shortest braking distance of 100 kilometers is 36 meters. The introduction of the Slightly Weaker But Mechanically Undiminished Plus/Pro model broadened the lineup of Lynk & Co's 02 Hatchback models and lowered the entry threshold for steel gun models, allowing more users to appreciate the charm of steel guns.

China's auto market has become the world's largest market through rapid development in the past 20 years, and automotive culture is gradually taking shape. If China's automotive culture wants to be further improved, its own "GTI" and "AMG" are indispensable, and Lynk & Co is undoubtedly ahead of other manufacturers and has taken the lead in taking this step.

In recent years, the rapid progress of Chinese automobiles has greatly narrowed the gap with overseas automobile powers. Through the improvement of research and development level, cooperation with advanced enterprises and even mergers and acquisitions, Chinese car companies are also in a state of catching up. Culture and heritage are the biggest gap between Chinese car companies and "century-old stores" such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Toyota, and these gaps need more 02 Hatchback to make up.

AUTHOR 83 Ashkenazi Quality Control

"Rational, Objective, Rigorous"