I had the pleasure to visit the West Coast of Sweden—Gothenburg, Northern Europe’s automotive hub. I was visiting Lynk & Co Design as a sort of distant cousin (Volvo Cars employee when I was working in Gothenburg).
Lynk & Co is a mobility provider committed to flexibility as a core principle. With a diverse range of car ownership options—subscription, lease, or purchase—Lynk & Co is actively driving the car-sharing movement. The brand combines vibrant, innovative design with pioneering connectivity solutions. Established in 2016 and headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, Lynk & Co uses its owned-and-operated business model to serve seven European markets: Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, and they’re working to extend their presence to 22 European markets by the end of 2024. Lynk & Co champions progressive practices and tirelessly pushes boundaries for a better future for the automotive industry and for people in general.
In 2023, Lynk delivered 220,250 vehicles globally, a 22-per-cent year on year increase; the brand is growing fast—in China. It is not yet well known in Europe, so this blue Lynk & Co 01 I have in front of my house is an unusual sight in this part of the world:
Stefan Rosen, Head of Lynk & Co Design, introduced the company and their new office in a facility called Uni3, opened in 2022, at the Lindholmen campus in Gothenburg. This building is shared with Zeekr; about 500 people work there.
I had the pleasure to meet part of his team, including Creative Design Head Ivo Groen; PR Head Annica Andersson; Exterior Design Head Olivier Denamur; HMI and UX Chief Designer Louise Kivi; Expert Component Designer Thomas Hardman; Chief Component Designer Alsed Briscoe, and Senior Exterior Conceptualist Joel Hake.
Lynk & Co has ‘Scandinavian DNA’, which extends to their lighting systems, but with a reinterpretation for China. In Europe, and especially in Northern Europe, ambient lighting varies from infinite day during summer to whole darkness during winter; in China, darkness does not exist in megacities with a lot of artificial light everywhere.
Lynk & Co customers are also mainly aged between 20 and 30, much younger compared to the traditional European customer who is over 50. So naturally, the needs of these two buyer groups differ.
The brand has launched one car model in Europe as yet, but 11 models in China, including PHEVs and BEVs, on different Geely Group platforms. For example, the CMA shared with the Volvo XC40; SPA1 shared with the Volvo XC90, and SEA shared with Smart and Volvo EX30.
Lynk & Co Design language is in its second generation.
Front
Evolution from 01, 02, 03, 05, 06, 09 to a new expression on 08
Rear
Similar evolution from segmentation to slim lines on 08
Flat-light position lamp has been introduced on the 09 vehicle, with a floating ice block cluster.
Their Z10 was launched in Gothenburg in July 2024 and is part of this second generation. The front and rear signature is in accord with the 08 signature and with the ‘Next Day’ concept cars presented in 2022.
The Z10 is a realistic evolution of the concept car; the front and rear signatures include a mix of thin and thick lines.
Challenges for the team included:
- Slimmest-ever Lynk & Co headlamp
The Valeo thinBiLite projector module is 15H ×120W mm.
There is a slim DRL/position light lit bridge to fulfil the 75-mm rule.
The total headlamp aperture is 44 mm.
- Top-level lighting performance: 7.95 CNAP score (out of a possible 10). Low beam gets 5.54 and high beam gets 2.41 points.
- Inspiring emotion with RGB lamps: the car has 414 RGB LEDs (out of a total led count of 864), in front and rear lamps. Communication with the vehicle’s central ECU is done by CAN without any OTA updates; RGB scenarios are programmed in the local lamp ECU.
The second design language generation includes the early hours in the morning when lights are turning in different colours from blue to red; RGB LEDs enable this.
Lynk & Co customers are digital natives. They want tech to support their daily like and make it less complicated. The first RGB exterior lighting demonstrated a strong interest on social media after the Z10 reveal.
Through exterior lighting, the Lynk & Co UX design team can convey emotions to people outside the car, including pedestrians, other drivers, and the Lynk drivers themselves. These emotions soften the car as a metal machine and give it more of a human touch. This creates a more harmonious connection for the car, to build a stronger relationship. It is not ‘just a car’ anymore.
To define welcome / farewell scenario, Louise Kivi is supported by five people. The main difficulty for the UX team is to translate the design wishes into the lamp’s software, including possible effects of PWM—such as flickering and refresh rate due to LED activation, and LED IC and ECU management.
This problem, well known to all those who work on welcome / farewell scenarios at any automaker’s lighting team, is much more complex to address when you have to manage RGB LEDs with the mixing of the three colours. Lynk & Co Design team are using Adobe AfterEffects for this purpose, along with an in-house converter called Aurora2 to design, simulate, test, and include the scenarios in the lamp software.
According to a Lynk & Co marketing study, 42 per cent of Chinese customers are ready to pay more money for RGB exterior lighting features.
