Communiqués

Volvo Cars and Geely Holdings Invest 5 billion RMB to Develop Polestar

 

SHANGHAI, CN. (October 17th, 2017.) Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, and its owner Geely Holding today announce they will jointly invest RMB 5 billion (EUR 640 million) to support the initial phase of Polestar’s product, brand and industrial development.

 

The investment highlights the financial muscle and industrial and manufacturing expertise Polestar will have access to, and establishes the fully consolidated Volvo Cars subsidiary as a stand-alone electrified performance car company as it reveals its first production model in Shanghai today.

 

The investment will be used, among other things, to establish a state-of-the-art Polestar manufacturing facility in Chengdu, China, marking a new chapter in the development of China as a manufacturing hub for Volvo Cars.

 

This set-up will radically shorten the time Polestar needs to commercially launch its cars, giving it a strategic advantage compared to competitors. Volvo Cars and Polestar will also benefit from synergies in the development of next generation technologies such as shared procurement costs, joint development and economies of scale.

 

With China as a driving force behind the electrification of the global car industry, Polestar will spearhead the development of new technologies and enhance Volvo Cars’ leadership within electrification and connectivity.

 

Polestar’s first production car, the Polestar 1, is a 600hp two-door, four-seater hybrid coupé. It has a pure electric range of 150km - the longest full electric range of any hybrid car on the market. The electrified performance car will go in production in Chengdu in mid-2019, and will be closely followed later in 2019 by a smaller vehicle named Polestar 2.

 

The Polestar 1 exemplifies the inherent synergies between the Volvo and Polestar brands. Around half of the technology under the skin of the Polestar 1 is based on Volvo’s in-house developed SPA modular vehicle architecture, while the remaining half is entirely new and bespoke technology created by Polestar engineers working within Volvo’s R&D department.

 

Polestar will also benefit from having privileged access to Volvo’s global and well-established manufacturing standards and expertise as it establishes its own manufacturing operations in Chengdu.

 

The Polestar 2 will be the first fully-electric car launched by Volvo Car Group, and the first of a total of five fully electric Polestar- or Volvo-branded vehicles to be launched between 2019 and 2021. The Polestar models announced today are thus clear proof points of Volvo Cars’ electrification strategy that was revealed in July of this year.

 

Volvo Cars announced this summer that from 2019 every new Volvo-branded car launched will have an electric motor, making it the first established car company to fully embrace electrification and place it at the core of its future business.

 

About Volvo Car Canada

Volvo Car Canada Ltd. is a subsidiary of Volvo Car Group of Gothenburg, Sweden. VCCL provides marketing, sales, parts, service, technology and training support to the 36 Volvo automobile retailers across Canada. For more information please refer to the Volvo Car Canada media website at: https://www.media.volvocars.com/ca/en-ca

 

About Volvo Car Group

Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 503,127 in 2015 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding.

 

As of December 2014, Volvo Cars had over 25,000 employees worldwide. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium) and Chengdu (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofström (Sweden).

 

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