Volvo plans up to three Chinese car plants, CEO says
Volvo Cars, the Swedish carmaker owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., may build vehicles in as many as three plants in the country, Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby said.
Volvo is committed to increasing production in China, and its board will decide on sites once it receives approvals from the country's regulators, Jacoby said in an interview on last week at an automotive conference in Stockholm.
"It depends on how strong we're selling in the future" in China, Jacoby said. The southwestern city of Chengdu, a production hub for carmaker Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., is a possible location, he said.
Zhejiang Geely bought Volvo from Ford Motor Co. in August for about $1.5 billion. Expanding in China is key to Volvo's goal of doubling sales to 800,000 cars in 10 years.
Volvo, which is working to develop its dealer network, hasn't decided yet on how and when to expand production capacity in China, Jacoby said.
Volvo now builds the S40 and S80L cars for the Chinese market at a factory co-owned by Ford and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. Volvo will be able to use the plant for another couple years, the Swedish company's officials have said.
Jacoby arrived in Sweden on Wednesday from the U.S., where he got "the first insight on the U.S. market from the Volvo perspective," the executive said. Jacoby joined Volvo in August after running the U.S. operations of Volkswagen AG.
