Dealer blames kicked-away power bank for Lynk & Co 900 fire in Hangzhou

A Lynk & Co 900 plug-in hybrid caught fire while parked on a commercial street in Hangzhou on the afternoon of September 9, 2026. Onlooker video shows smoke and localized flames coming from beneath the SUV, which passersby initially attacked with a portable extinguisher before firefighters finished the job. The footage does not settle whether the traction battery was involved.

The following day, the Hangzhou Lingyue Lynk & Co Centre said in a statement that, per the owner, a passerby had dropped a portable power bank that was then kicked under the vehicle and ignited. The dealership rejected any suggestion of a high-voltage battery fire, while noting the final verdict must await the official fire accident certificate. With no battery telemetry, thermal data, or forensic findings released, the power-bank account remains a one-sided claim.

The 900 is Lynk & Co's three-row flagship PHEV, introduced in 2025 on Geely's SPA Evo platform, with a five-seat two-row version added in April. It comes with either a 44.9 kWh pack supplied by CALB or a 52.4 kWh unit using CATL's Freevoy hybrid cells. The battery sits in its own protective housing beneath the floor alongside non-metallic aerodynamic covers and splash shields, so an external flame could in principle burn surrounding materials without triggering thermal runaway inside the pack — though nothing yet confirms that scenario.

For perspective, an ordinary 10,000 mAh power bank holds roughly 0.037 kWh, a small fraction of the SUV's 40-plus kWh traction battery, and capacity alone does not decide whether an external lithium-ion device can start or sustain a fire. China's updated GB 38031-2025 mandatory battery safety standard took effect on July 1, 2026, but passing type approval does not identify an ignition source in a specific case. Municipal investigators must still determine whether the battery, an external object, underbody components, or something else set the vehicle alight.