Lynk & Co 08 PHEV completes 3,200-km Quest Dakar desert run

The Lynk & Co 08, a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) SUV from Geely Automobile Group, has completed a long-distance run of more than 3,200 kilometers across the African desert.

Lynk & Co announced Friday that the midsize SUV participated as an official partner vehicle in the Quest Dakar 2026 and finished the entire route from Morocco to Senegal.

The Quest Dakar is a hybrid-vehicle driving event that ran from July 15 to Aug. 2. The route began in Casablanca, Morocco, passed through Mauritania and ended in Dakar, Senegal — more than 3,200 kilometers of desert terrain and unpaved roads, including areas once traversed by the historic Paris-Dakar Rally.

During the event, a professional rally driver piloted the Lynk & Co 08 to assess its durability, driving performance and ride comfort under long-distance and off-road conditions.

The 08 is built on Geely Automobile Group's CMA Evo architecture, combined with Lynk & Co's EM-P PHEV system. The powertrain consists of a 1.5-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine, a three-speed automatic transmission, a front-axle electric motor and a 39.6-kWh lithium-ion battery.

Under WLTC certification standards, the vehicle can travel up to 200 kilometers on electric power alone, while the combined range using both the engine and battery exceeds 1,000 kilometers. The system is designed to run like an electric vehicle in everyday urban driving while drawing on the engine for longer trips.

The 08 also comes equipped with long-distance comfort features, including a 23-speaker Harman Kardon sound system, a panoramic sunroof and ventilated and massaging front seats. An energy management system adjusts the power source and energy use according to driving conditions.

The Lynk & Co 08 has previously set two Guinness World Records for long-distance driving. In April 2024, it covered 1,813 kilometers in a single run in Hami, China, setting the record for the longest single-trip distance by a PHEV. This year, it drove 293 kilometers in electric mode in Mexico City, setting a new electric-mode range record for a production PHEV SUV.

A Geely Automobile Group official said the Lynk & Co 08 demonstrated technology, comfort and durability in a single journey through the Quest Dakar 2026. "This expedition was a unique expression of premium electrification mobility, and at the same time a testament to the technological capabilities of Geely Automobile Group and Lynk & Co across diverse mobility environments," the official said.

Lynk & Co is a Geely Automobile Group brand launched in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2016. It currently operates more than 860 sales outlets across 50 countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Meanwhile, Lynk & Co will make its first-ever appearance at the Paris Motor Show in October, where it plans to display its European sales lineup and unveil a new product for the first time in Europe.