Volvo builds new car plant in China

Filed under:Volvo, Hatchbacks, Technology,
Recently, Chinese-owned Volvo Cars announced their intentions of building a new plant in the city of Chengdu with the second factory to be built in Daqing, located in north-eastern China. According to some information released at a press conference in Beijing, Volvo is still waiting for the approval from the Chinese government. Furthermore, Stefan Jacoby, President and CEO of Volvo Car Corporation stated that the Chinese market represented the second home market for Volvo and played an important role in building a secure and successful future for the company and the decision did not affect employment and operations in Europe. He also announced that the production in China was not going to have any impact on decisions which concern capacity utilization of their plants in Belgium and Sweden. Acquired from Ford by China's Geely in 2010, the Swedish automaker is planning to use Shanghai as Volvo Car China's headquarters and centre for product development, design and sourcing. Another main priority from Volvo is to bring a considerable support to Volvo Corporation R&D in Sweden considering the development of hybrids and electric vehicles, while the Volvo Car China Technology Centre in Shanghai is developing into a complete product development organization on an international level, according to Freeman Shen, who is the Volvo Car Corporation SVP&China Operations Chairman. Thus, Volvo's aims are 200,000 units sold a year in China by 2015, while the company's global retail sales reached 373,525, with 30,000 of these sold in China, which represents an increase by 11.2 per cent as compared to 2009.