Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd purchased Volvo from Ford for US$1.8 billion in 2010. The sale was a mutually beneficial one, as the Chinese at Geely gained from Volvo’s technologies, while the Swedes at Volvo gained much needed funds to continue R&D during challenging economic conditions.
The fruits of the labour are now appearing to show as Geely has announced that it will produce a series of new cars, which will be the result of joint development with Volvo. According to Bloomberg, Geely CEO Gui Sheng Yue said the manufacturer has moved into the research and development stage of the partnership. “I believe we can see the new product in the year after next,” Gui said.
The Geely CEO had few technical tidbits, but as a result of the developmental partnership agreement that was signed between the two manufacturers in Mach 2012, it is already known that a new modular architecture will provide the platform for C-segment vehicles from both automakers. It will be smaller than Volvo’s Scalable Platform Architecture (SPA) and deliver “considerable cost savings in terms of development, testing and sourcing.”
Geely is on target to sell 560 000 vehicles in 2013, but with the new brand on the way in 2015, the company is planning to increase this number to 800 000 per annum.
