Geely Automotive

China’s Geely Auto - perhaps best known in the west as parent of Volvo Cars, Lotus and the London EV Company - has launched a proprietary, contactless online ordering platform that enables customers to buy and take delivery. It is also offering home test drives, booked by a potential buyer who is visited by their closest local dealer in a demo car.

Volvo is set to reveal an electric variant of its XC40 SUV later this year, the company has confirmed. Speaking with industry journal Automotive News Europe, at a safety event in Gothenburg, Sweden, Volvo officials indicated the EV will debut before the end of 2019, before hitting showrooms in global markets from 2020. The spokespeople declined to comment further, however.

The London EV Company, the maker of London's iconic black taxi cabs, expects to begin fleet trials of its new range-extended electric van in the second half of 2019. The company is currently in discussions with a number of public-sector organisations, including the London Fire Brigade and Metropolitan Police Service, about adding prototypes of its new van to their fleets.

Lynk & Co has confirmed it will manufacture its new 01 SUV in Belgium for the European market. Speaking with industry journal Automotive News Europe, the Chinese start-up which is owned by Geely – which also owns Volvo – the company's boss, Alan Visser, said the 01 will be produced in Europe, for Europe, from 2019 at a factory in Ghent, Belgium. From launch the 01 will be offered in Europe with exclusively plug-in hybrid powertrain options, intially at least.

Geely’s new Lynk & Co sub-brand is set for an aggressive launch schedule, meaning there will be at least three different models when exports, including to Australia, begin. The 01 SUV (pictured) has just gone on sale in China, and will be followed in short order by a lower-roofed crossover branded the 02, along with a more conventional three box saloon. No prizes for guessing what that will be called.