This Hot New Plug-In Hybrid Acts Like An EV—Complete With DC Fast-Charging

If any vehicle has ever deserved to be called a “fuel-sipper,” it’s the Lynk & Co 08 plug-in hybrid.

This new crossover from the hot-selling Chinese-European cousin of Volvo and Polestar has a combustion engine that can power the wheels, but you’d barely know it. Its huge battery provides an impressive range, meaning the engine is off most of the time.

When you finally run out of EV range, this PHEV supports DC fast charging, too, so you can get back on the road quickly without burning gas.

Driving it last week proved that a (really) big-battery PHEV can work. It behaves like an EV most of the time, but still gives you peace of mind that you won’t be stranded with a dead battery. I am not usually the biggest fan of plug-in hybrids—most PHEVs in Europe don’t get plugged in as often as they should. But the 08 is different.

It’s more than just a science experiment. It’s a great car, with ties to Volvos and Polestars that shine through. It feels solid and grown-up when you drive it, and its exterior design draws looks like few cars I’ve ever been in, even ones that cost many times more.

2025 Lynk & Co 08 Specs

EV Range 124 miles WLTP

As-Tested Price €57,600

Base Price €49,900 (with incentives)

Battery 39.6 kWh

Drive Type FWD

Output 345 hp

Speed 0-62 MPH 6.8 seconds

Maximum speed 115 mph

Charge Time 10-80% in 33 min

Charge Type CCS @ 85 kW

Swedish Design That Doesn’t Feel Swedish

Photo by: Andrei Nedelea

Photo by: Andrei Nedelea

Photos by: Andrei Nedelea

Designed in Sweden, it eschews the typical minimalism associated with Scandinavian design. Its front fascia has a typical two-tier design, with smoked headlight projectors hidden in a wrap-around line, and daytime running lights above.

I shouldn’t be talking about DRLs this much, but the 08 basically forces the issue. From the front, the car appears to have two LED strips running lengthwise, horizontally joined by a third strip. A fourth LED strip runs so far back it almost reaches the B-pillar. It’s absurd, but judging by the stares, people absolutely eat it up.

As you continue to drive past them, their eyes will surely be drawn by the side mirrors, which seem to cut their way into the door. They’re mounted low, on a gloss-black blade that hides the side repeaters for the turn signals and a subtle Lynk & Co script. The mirrors themselves are frameless, like they were pulled off a Volvo or Polestar.

Photo by: Andrei Nedelea

The roofline starts to fall toward the rear and blends into the slanted rear windshield, giving the 08 a fastback-like rear. Black trim on the C-pillar creates a floating roof effect that works really well with the rest of the design. It has a high-set full-width rear light bar comprising vertical LED bars, including two more prominent ones that flank the Lynk & Co lettering on the hatch.

The 21-inch wheels fitted to my high-trim vehicle also helped finish off the look. They suit the vehicle far better than the standard 19-inch wheels. Even with their aero design with most of the face closed off, they still look sporty and elegant. Overall, it’s a cohesive and successful design and the Sunset Copper paint finish that my tester had is probably the best choice for it.

Nappa? No. Fancy? Yes.

Photo by: Andrei Nedelea

Photo by: Andrei Nedelea

Photos by: Andrei Nedelea

Lynk & Co’s premium aspirations become clear as soon as you climb inside. It’s not quite as plush-feeling as the 7X from Geely’s top brand Zeekr, but it’s close, and its more daring design gives it more personality than the Zeekr and suits its flamboyant exterior.

No animals gave their hides to cover the 08’s interior—it’s all synthetic, yet it still feels surprisingly upmarket. It has mood lighting embedded in the speaker grilles on the doors, which, by the way, are made of metal and feel great to the touch. There’s full-width ambient lighting across the dash, which mimics the vertical line motif of the rear lights.

The seats feel great and have excellent adjustability. In my top “More” trim tester (the base model is called “Core”), they are heated, cooled and massaging, and they really give your back a good knead. It’s better than in other cars I’ve tried, where you just feel some inflation happening behind you, but it’s not an actual massage. In the 08, it almost feels real.

Space in the second row is very good. A six-footer like myself will have plenty of knee room behind a six-foot driver. You can adjust the rake of the rear backrest (although not electrically, like you can in the Zeekr 7X), and you get heated seats and an exceedingly comfortable armrest. One gripe: for a car that feels this posh inside, not having separate physical climate control for the rear feels like a miss.

The Engine Mostly Watches

Photo by: Andrei Nedelea

The headline-grabbing figure here is the 08’s 39.6-kilowatt-hour battery pack. That’s larger than the pack in some fully electric cars. It gives up to 200 km (124 miles) of electric-only driving on the WLTP test cycle. You probably can come close to achieving that, but if you drive like a normal person who isn’t trying to eke out the maximum efficiency, you’re looking at closer to 160 km (99 miles) of real-world driving.

That is outstanding by PHEV standards, and it should cover most people’s daily needs with ease. When you go on holiday and need to drive long stretches, the 08 has a 15.8-gallon (60-liter) fuel tank that extends the range to over 620 miles (1,000 km), according to the manufacturer.

If you keep the battery charged, the car prefers to keep the combustion engine off. The single, front-mounted electric motor makes about 200 horsepower and it is perfectly apt at lugging the near 4,700-pound (2,100 kg) 08 around. Push the right pedal all the way down, and the 1.5-liter turbocharged engine wakes up to deliver the full 345 hp output, which pushes the vehicle from zero to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 6.8 seconds.

But you don’t need the gas mill to step in, since the electric motor is fine for accelerating most of the time. When the engine does fire up, it’s remarkably hushed and vibration-free. That’s because it’s a special engine designed specifically for hybrid use. It’s called the DHE15 and it runs on the Miller cycle, which helps give it remarkable efficiency.

Photo by: Andrei Nedelea

With a fully depleted battery, Lynk & Co says the 08 will still get 36 mpg (6.5 l/100 km). Keep the battery charged, though, and the sky’s the limit.

Then there’s the three-speed transmission—a bizarre solution that seems to work fine. It allows the engine to power the wheels directly. In normal driving, it has imperceivable shifts. You only notice cogs are being swapped when doing an acceleration run, where there are two distinct slowdowns in the power delivery until it reaches its top speed of 115 mph (185 km/h).

To make the big battery make sense in this vehicle, it has standard DC fast charging, with a peak charging power of 85 kW. That’s good for a 10% to 80% charge in 33 minutes, which is much quicker than the 11 kW AC charger can muster, as that needs close to four hours for a flat-to-full charge. Vehicle-to-load (V2L) bidirectional charging, supplying up to 3.3 kW, also comes as standard.

Serene, Not Sporty

Photo by: Andrei Nedelea

The 08 is super silent—proper luxury-car quiet. Even at high speed on the highway, no audible unpleasantness makes its way into the car. Road and powertrain noise is kept to a minimum, there’s almost no wind noise to speak of, and the suspension strikes a good balance between tight body control and comfort. You do know it’s on 21-inch wheels, which are big and heavy and occasionally seem to crash into potholes, but even then, the suspension quietly deals with it and the jolt sent through the chassis is surprisingly well suppressed.

Putting the power down is where the 08’s chassis shows its limitations. The front tires lose grip quite easily when accelerating briskly from a standstill. If the road is wet, then the car really has trouble picking up speed when you floor it, and you can hear the front tires scrambling to find grip, as they juggle putting the power down and also steering the vehicle.

Floor it out of a slower corner and the car cuts most of the power looking for grip, and you’re always left wanting more, especially in the wet. What this car needs is all-wheel drive, which Lynk & Co does offer in China. Dual-motor 08s get a combined output of 584 hp, with 667 lb-ft (905 Nm) of torque and a much quicker 0-60 sprint time of 4.6 seconds.

This clearly isn’t a vehicle designed for sporty driving, and it feels way out of its comfort zone when you subject it to spirited cornering and aggressive acceleration. The steering wheel also sits a few centimeters off to the right, like the interior was engineered by someone with a twisted spine, making the driving position slightly awkward.

Swedish Safety, Always Alert

Photo by: Andrei Nedelea

Someone tried to step in front of the 08 while I was driving it on a side street with cars parked on either side. The car slammed on the brakes faster than I could react. I still would have stopped safely on my own, but it would have been a lot more tense. The car did an excellent job in a tricky situation and set the theme for its ADAS systems.

The autonomous emergency braking system clearly works, since I tried it, as do all of the other safety systems. This is confirmed by its five-star Euro NCAP safety rating, which gave it good marks for both its electronic nannies and its crash performance.

The sounds the various safety systems make when they intervene are some of the loudest and most annoying in any car I’ve reviewed recently. Even the turn signal sound is obnoxious. Indicating left feels like the car is shouting directly into your ear, since it uses the speakers on the corresponding part of the car.

Photo by: Andrei Nedelea

At least the infotainment technology is better. It’s defined by a central 15.4-inch screen, complemented by a 10.2-inch display in front of the driver. I really liked the logical menu structure and the quick Apple CarPlay connection every time I climbed aboard. It did randomly disconnect a couple of times, and the music sometimes stuttered or just stopped briefly before resuming, too, so the bugs weren’t fully worked out. 

The 360-degree surround-view system (which comes standard) is one of the best I’ve ever used, thanks to high-resolution cameras that work well even at night. The car will even try to show you what’s under the car by stitching together bits from the front-facing camera, sure to come in handy for the off-roading you will absolutely never do in the 08.

The More trim also gets matrix LED headlights, which can shut off just part of their beam if you encounter oncoming traffic. It’s not something I usually notice or feel like I have to mention, but it was impressive just as a visual spectacle on top of this feature’s genuine usefulness.

With 23 speakers, the higher trim level’s Harman Kardon sound system is also really good. You get speakers embedded in the headliner and in the headrests, giving front occupants a true surround-sound experience. There was a bit of crackling and distortion (it could have been the sound of plastic trim rattling or vibrating) coming from the front right side of the cabin, which you could really hear at higher volume.

The Real Reason This Thing Works

The Lynk & Co 08 competes with cars like the BMW X3 30e, the Mercedes-Benz GLC300e and the plug-in hybrid version of the Volvo XC60. However, in truth, it has no real direct rival, since no competitor can match its electric range or value proposition. Only the Mercedes offers fast charging, too, and in that case, it’s optional. It’s no contest compared to the 08’s equipment level, refinement or wow factor for the money.

Here in Romania, where I reviewed the car, it starts at €49,900, factoring in a €3,000 manufacturer discount and the €3,000 you get from the government when you scrap an old car to buy a PHEV. The More trim level, which is the one you want, is €53,900, with the same discounts applied, making all its rivals look expensive and lacking in standard equipment.

I see so many premium-badged plug-in hybrid crossovers around, and all of them are considerably more expensive, especially when specced similarly to the 08 More. If this thing catches on, Europe’s fancy PHEVs are in trouble—and they won’t see it coming.

Click here to see all articles with lists of the best EVs