Chinese carmaker Geeley recently announced a new car company called Lynk & Co that promises to revolutionise the car buying and owning process. Its first vehicle, the 01 compact SUV, will be sold online and via Lynk & Co stores, and will even allow used to share their car i.e. rent them out to others by pressing a handy tab on the central touchscreen, which will allow others to unlock the car with a ‘digital key’.

And despite being greeted with a healthy dose of skepticism, the company has plunged head on with the development of the vehicle.

As our latest spy shots show, the SUV, which is stylistically rather faithful to the concept revealed late last year. The Juke-esque quad headlights are clear and present, while the taillights have more than passing resemblance to the Corvette Stingray’s. All good news.

The car, although slated for production in the People’s Republic, is being developed in Europe with the help of Geeley’s other brand, Volvo.

The 01 SUV will share the upcoming Volvo XC40’s CMA (Common Modular Architecture) platform, while powertrain options are also expected to be derived from Volvo. So, we’re essentially looking at 1.5-litre three-cylinder and 2.0-litre four-pot engines, and a plug-in hybrid version with two- or four-wheel drive.

The newcomer will also gain many of Volvo’s active and passive safety systems.

While previously, the first prototypes were spotted over six months ago in the Alps, the excessively heavy camouflage made the final shape almost indiscernible. This one however, looks near production ready and it doesn’t look bad at all.

The company promises industry-leading connectivity and hopes to revitalise the image of Chinese cars the world over.

The 01 is expected to go on sale this year in China, with European sales starting in 2018.