Geely, Volvo Target World Market With China-Built Luxury Car, Business News, US News
Geely, Volvo Have Fresh Luxury Car
Nov. Two, 2016, at Five:54 a.m.
Li Shufu, Chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holdings, left, wiggles palms with Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of Volvo Cars, right, in front of a fresh S90 Volvo car in Shanghai, China, on Wednesday. The Associated Press
By FU TING and KELVIN CHAN, Associated Press
SHANGHAI (AP) — Volvo Cars and its Chinese possessor are gearing up to export more premium cars to world markets.
Outlining its latest strategy Wednesday, Volvo unveiled upgraded versions of its upscale S90 sedan range, which will be manufactured entirely in China for export, signaling growing confidence in its Chinese production base.
Design touches on some of the S90 models also highlighted Volvo’s concentrate on the vital Chinese auto market. Most notably, a “super luxury” version substitutes the front passenger seat with a touchscreen console, with space to store boots underneath, a feature clearly aimed at China’s chauffeur-driven executives.
Volvo and its parent company Geely also announced plans for a factory to make compact cars based on a fresh collective platform, including vehicles for Geely’s just-launched “connected car” brand, Lynk & Co.
It’s part of Volvo Cars’ efforts to contest with other luxury car brands both globally and within China, the world’s No. One market, after it was bought by Zhejiang Geely Holdings in 2010.
“We have a strong manufacturing structure in China and we are geared up for further growth on this key market,” Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson told reporters.
The fresh plant will produce Volvo’s fresh forty series based on its Compact Modular Architecture platform, which will also be used for Lynk & Co vehicles, a brand Geely launched last month.
The factory, presently under construction in Luqiao, three hundred fifty kilometers (220 miles) south of Shanghai, is possessed by Geely but will be operated by Volvo.
The platform is one of just two underpinning Volvo’s entire lineup. They give the company plasticity to build a broad range of vehicle sizes and assets styles, helping it rival with fatter rivals.
Volvo added a long wheelbase version of its top-of-the-line S90 sedan as well as the “super luxury” Excellence edition aimed at China’s chauffeured business class, who typically desire a more spacious backseat. The S90 Excellence’s “lounge console” with its touchscreen monitor on retractable arms takes all of the front passenger side. The car comes with a panoramic sunroof and handmade Swedish crystal glasses.
Samuelsson said the two fresh versions “will be the most luxurious cars ever produced in China” when Volvo’s two-year-old plant in Daqing, Heilongjiang province starts making the S90 range in the coming months.
“The fact that these cars will be exclusively built in China for the global market demonstrates the quality of our Chinese factories,” he said.
Another Volvo factory in Chengdu in central Sichuan province produces midsize S60 cars, which the company began exporting last year to the United States.
With only a few thousand vehicles dispatched annually from China, “the number of Volvos going to the U.S. is still puny. But the significant takeaway is that shipping to the U.S. means Volvo China operations have achieved world-class quality,” said Michael Dunne, president of Hong Kong-based investment advisory stiff Dunne Automotive .
Geely Chairman Li Shufu’s decision to give Volvo management ample independence has paid off, he added. Last year Volvo operating profits tripled and vehicle sales surpassed half a million units for the very first time.
“Now German luxury makers are taking a closer look at their coming challenger,” Dunne said.
Volvo’s factories in Gothenburg, Sweden and Ghent, Belgium will proceed to make sedans, hatchbacks and sport-utility vehicles in all three model ranges. It’s also building a plant in South Carolina to make midsized vehicles.
Business Writer Kelvin Chan reported from Hong Kong.
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