- Geely Holding, majority owner of Volvo Car Corporation (Volvo Cars) and Geely, 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 new R&D Centre will employ approximately 200 full-time employees, Swedish and Chinese. It will be operational in late 2013. The Centre will leverage on the Volvo technology leadership within Geely Holding.

- “The modular design allows several different vehicle platforms to be developed from one single architecture, thereby ensuring tailor-made solutions for both brands. This will be a showcase for cooperation between a Western world premium car manufacturer and a thriving Chinese automotive company.” stated Mats Fägerhag, C.E.O. of the new R&D centre.

- 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 rachievements of significant economies of scale.

- In parallel, Volvo continues to develop internally a flexible and scalable architecture for future models of the upper segments. The first car born of this architecture, new generation XC90 will be launched in 2014.

Data source : File #10 - Start of Production (SOP) of new and modified vehicles in Europe