A Geely-owned plug-in hybrid just crossed the Sahara to prove it can go 1,000 km
The surest way to prove your hybrid has real range is to point it at a desert and start driving
Carmakers love a big number, and few numbers are bigger right now than range. So to show off the 1,000-plus kilometres its 08 SUV can cover, Lynk & Co did the theatrical thing: it drove one 3,200 kilometres across the Sahara, from Morocco to Senegal. It is a marketing stunt, of course, but it lands on a genuinely interesting point about where electrified cars are heading.
3,200 kilometres from Casablanca to Dakar
The trip, badged QUEST DAKAR 2026, ran from 15 July to 2 August and traced a classic rally-raid route: Casablanca, then Dakhla, Nouakchott and Saint-Louis, finishing in Dakar, crossing Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal. With professional rally drivers at the wheel, the 08 tackled everything from city traffic to long desert highways, the idea being to show its range, comfort and technology holding up across wildly different real-world conditions rather than on a test bench.
What the Lynk & Co 08 actually is
For anyone still hazy on the brand, Lynk & Co is part of the giant Geely group, the same empire that owns Volvo and Polestar. The 08 is a premium plug-in hybrid SUV on Geely's CMA Evo platform, using an EM-P Super Hybrid system that offers up to 200 kilometres of pure-electric range on the WLTC cycle and more than 1,000 kilometres in total. It already holds two Guinness World Records for range, and inside it is properly plush, with a 23-speaker Harman Kardon stereo, a panoramic roof and ventilated, massaging front seats.
Marketing, yes, but it makes a point
It is worth being clear-eyed here. A press-fleet SUV shepherded across the desert by professional drivers is a controlled demonstration, not an independent test, and expeditions like this are pure public relations. But the capability underneath is real and topical, because a big electric-only range paired with an even bigger combined figure is fast becoming the industry's favourite answer to charging worries, from Hyundai's 1,000 km EREV plans to a wave of PHEV rivals like the BYD Ti7. And unlike many Chinese-owned newcomers, Geely-backed Lynk & Co is already established here, selling across 25 European markets.
AutoNext Take
Strip away the drone shots and the desert scenery, and the message underneath is one European buyers should take seriously. A comfortable, well-equipped SUV that can do 200 kilometres on electricity around town, then cross a continent without a hint of range anxiety, is almost exactly what hesitant drivers keep saying they want before they commit to going electric. The plug-in hybrid was written off a couple of years ago; cars like the 08 are quietly making it make sense again.
Lynk & Co remains a brand many people here still cannot quite place, sitting somewhere between Volvo respectability and Chinese-tech ambition. But it has the Geely group's engineering behind it, a genuinely long-legged product and a foothold in two dozen European markets. A staged crossing of the Sahara will not change the world, yet on the evidence of the 08, the unfamiliarity is the only thing about this brand that feels temporary.
