Our group has ambitious goals to increase the competitiveness of our brands. 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 Center with a focused approach is the best way to achieve this.

An international team has been given the task of taking cross-brand modular strategy to a new level. It should deliver on all the premium aspects a brand like Volvo requires in order to grow in the global premium segment. Geely shall meet the demands of the high volume segment in China and selected international markets, which requires a new level of technology.

—Chairman Li Shufu

The modular architecture and set of components is intended not only to deliver world-class product technologies and attributes, but also considerable cost savings in terms of development, testing and sourcing, leading to the realization of significant economies of scale.

With Geely as a partner, we secure that Volvo Cars will be in full control of the development of our next generation C-segment cars. We will not have to compromise in a way that is inevitable when partnering with an external OEM.

—Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President Research & Development at Volvo Cars

In parallel, the development of the Volvo Cars architecture for larger segments (SPA) continues within Volvo Cars’ own R&D organization. The first SPA vehicle will be launched in 2014.