NUERTINGEN, Germany — Geely and Volvo Car’s joint Lynk & CO brand, which both sells and rents cars to customers on monthly subscriptions, could be profitable within one or two years, CEO Alain Visser said.
“We could be profitable in a surprisingly short time, one to two years,” Visser said said Thursday at a car conference in Nuertingen, near Stuttgart.
Visser worked for General Motors, Ford, and Volvo before taking over at Lynk & CO.
The brand, which currently offers just one China-made 01 compact crossover in hybrid and plug-in hybrid form for between 35,000 euros and 42,000 euros ($40,635-$48,795), saw 29 percent sales growth in the first half of 2021 to 17,077 units, Geely reported in July.
However, its main measure of success is monthly memberships, which numbered 25,000 in September of this year.
“There is a conflict of interest between sharing cars and selling cars,” Visser said. “Lynk & CO does not need to sell cars.”
The brand’s next model will be a full-electric vehicle, Visser said, without specifying when it would be released. “The next model will certainly be all electric… charging infrastructure is not yet ready,” he said.
