Geely and Volvo Cars
Cooperate in New R&D Centre in Gothenburg, Sweden
GOTHENBURG, Sweden -
Geely Holding, majority owner of Volvo Car Corporation (Volvo Cars) and
Geely Auto, will establish a Research and Development Centre in
Gothenburg, Sweden. The Centre will develop a new modular architecture
and set of components for future C-segment cars, addressing the needs of
both Volvo Cars and Geely. The Centre will be run by Mats Fagerhag,
currently Vice President at Product Strategy within Volvo Cars, and
leverage on the Volvo technology leadership within Geely Holding. The
new R&D Centre will employ approximately 200 full-time employees from
Sweden and China.
"Our group has
ambitious goals to increase the competitiveness of our brands," states
Li Shufu, Chairman of Geely Holding Group. "Geely will continue to
improve its product quality in the years to come and can learn from
Volvo Cars. However, the sharing of knowledge and technology has to be
done without jeopardizing brand integrity and individual product
development. We believe a stand-alone, yet joint R&D Centre with a
focused approach is the best way to achieve this," says Li Shufu.
The R&D Centre will be
located in Gothenburg (Lindholmen Science Park), building on the
extensive automotive competence established in the region. Recruitments
of engineers are ongoing and the centre will be fully operational
towards the end of 2013. The modular architecture and set of components
will not only deliver world-class product technologies and attributes,
but also considerable cost savings in terms of development, testing and
sourcing, leading to the realisation of significant economies of scale.
