Not long ago, the sharing economy and large-scale car-sharing schemes were widely seen by automakers as a product of a misguided, bright-eyed utopian haze, perhaps with the same level of viability as the communal shoe pile at the college co-op. But sharing today is big business—big business we’re rapidly adopting as the norm, with Uber and Lyft for rides, or any number of car-sharing solutions for those of us who would still prefer to drive ourselves.
One company that sees the sharing economy as core to its business is Lynk & Co, a new vehicle brand and subsidiary of Volvo’s Chinese parent company, Geely. Lynk & Co was launched this past week in Berlin as “a global collaboration of experts in design, engineering, software, and connectivity from industry leaders like Volvo, Microsoft, Ericsson, and Alibaba.”
A pseudo anti-consumer hook permeates the marketing from this spin-off from multinational corporations: “We’re a car company that isn’t trying to make you buy a car. Imagine that.” Lynk’s site also promises: “No more garages, no more paperwork, no more insurance worries. Because why should this be your problem?”
A video recently released from the brand provides a glimpse of how its car-sharing scheme may work. An owner, Maria, arrives to work in her Lynk & Co 01 (the brand’s first model, to be closely related to the upcoming Volvo XC40) and, via a simple input on the touchscreen, opts to share her car until 7 p.m. that evening. Soon thereafter, a potential borrower, Andreas, emerges from a nearby building and opens his Lynk & Co app to a map page that displays available vehicles. He selects a red dot corresponding to the closest vehicle and sees the owner’s name and an info page about the vehicle—in this case, there’s a request that it be returned to the pickup location. And perhaps to hint a future electrified bicycle line from the brand, the owner’s message says: “Feel free to use the e-bike in the boot. Happy driving!”
The borrower can then scroll for Airbnb-style reviews of the owner. (We assume owners also can leave reviews of borrowers.) Meanwhile, the car flashes “available” on its screen, then “booked by Andreas” the moment it’s been reserved. Maria then gets a message that her car has been booked by Andreas and that he will return it to the requested location by 7.
The brand confesses it’s learning from Tesla, as it also plans to open nontraditional retail stores and offer other, electrified (though not entirely tailpipe-free) models. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced such a vision of on-the-fly vehicle sharing earlier this summer with his Master Plan, Part Deux.
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