Geely’s Lynk & Co has made its entry into Southeast Asia with the launch of its flagship store in Hanoi, Vietnam. As announced back in August this year, GreenLynk Automotives, a subsidiary of Tasco Group, […] The post Lynk...
Geely’s Lynk & Co has made its entry into Southeast Asia with the launch of its flagship store in Hanoi, Vietnam. As announced back in August this year, GreenLynk Automotives, a subsidiary of Tasco Group, is the official distributor of Lynk & Co vehicles in Vietnam, and the first three models that have been confirmed for the market are the 01, 05 and 09.
According to Vietnamese media, only the 09 gets a price tag of VND2.199 billion (RM420,175) inclusive of VAT, and buyers can place a booking with a deposit now to receive their car in the first quarter of 2024. As for the 01 and 05, official pricing will be announced later on.
The 09 is Lynk & Co’s largest SUV and is built on the same Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) as the second-generation Volvo XC90. For Vietnam, the 09 features a 2.0 litre turbocharged inline-four petrol engine with a 48-volt mild hybrid system that serves up 254 PS (251 hp or 187 kW) and 350 Nm of torque.
All-wheel drive is standard, and the engine is paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission – the top speed is 215 km/h. In terms of dimensions, the 09 measures 5,042 mm long, 1,977 mm wide, 1,780 mm tall and has a wheelbase of 2,984 mm.
The 01 and 05 are smaller SUVs, with the former being the first model introduced by Lynk & Co six years ago. The 01 is 4,512 mm long, 1,857 mm wide, 1,673 mm tall and has a wheelbase of 2,734 mm. Meanwhile, the 05 is essentially the coupe version of the 01, sharing the same wheelbase but with its sleeker body, it is longer overall by 80 mm, wider by 22 mm and it sits lower by 45 mm.
The 01’s powertrain is made up of a 2.0 litre turbocharged inline-four that is rated at 218 PS (215 hp or 160 kW) and 325 Nm, paired with an eight-speed auto driving the front wheels – top speed is 210 km/h. Its fancy-roofed sibling has a similar setup, albeit with higher outputs of 254 PS (251 hp or 187 kW) and 349 Nm for a top speed of 230 km/h.
Lynk & Co’s choice of Vietnam as its first Southeast Asian market makes sense given the company’s cars are currently left-hand drive. In fact, the company said in a release that its expansion into the region will see it enter the Philippines (another LHD country) next, with another dealership planned for Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City.
Back in 2019, LHD units of the 01, 02 and 03 were spotted being tested on Malaysian roads, fuelling speculation that Lynk & Co would make an entry here. Two years after that, Geely confirmed this when it said that Lynk & Co would expand its global presence by entering Malaysia, Russia, Australia and New Zealand, among other markets.
Geely had said in the past that it expressed interest in using Proton’s Tanjung Malim plant as a production hub to build Lynk & Co models for right-hand drive markets. With its formal entry into our region, first with Vietnam, will we soon see Lynk & Co make its formal debut here in the near future?
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