Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, is launching one of the largest engineering recruitment drives in its 89-year history as it boosts the development of next generation safety, autonomous driving and electrification technologies.
The company plans to recruit around 400 engineers in the next twelve months, primarily in the area of software development. The majority of these new recruits will be based at the company’s R&D headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Furthermore, the company is opening a research & development centre in the university town of Lund in southern Sweden, where the first 35 employees will already start as of September. Lund is the site of a renowned international university and located close to Sweden’s third-largest city Malmö and the Danish capital Copenhagen.
With the recruitment drive, Volvo further strengthens the automotive cluster in Western Sweden and establishes it as an emerging hub for automotive software engineering. Volvo is investing heavily in new technologies in the areas of autonomous driving, active safety and electrification, underlining the need for the constant recruitment of top-notch software engineering talent.
Earlier this month, Volvo announced a new partnership with ride-sharing company Uber, to jointly develop the next generation of autonomous driving cars. Volvo also announced earlier this year that it would launch autonomous driving pilot projects in London and China, following on the launch of the Drive Me pilot project that will start in Gothenburg next year.
The company continues to develop new, industry-leading safety systems in which software engineering and development plays an increasing role. Already, Volvo’s new top-of-the-line range of 90 Series premium cars are among the safest on the road.
The XC90 SUV, S90 sedan and V90 estate are equipped with the most extensive standard safety package in their segment and world-first safety technologies such as Large Animal Detection and Run Off Road Protection.
In terms of electrification, Volvo is one of the leading makers of plug-in hybrid cars and will offer a plug-in hybrid variant on every new model as it replaces its entire product portfolio in the coming years. It will also introduce the first of several fully electric vehicles by 2019.
“Volvo is an industry leader in the area of autonomous drive technology and electrification, as well as the undisputed leader in automotive safety,” said Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President for Research & Development at Volvo Cars. “We have the strong ambition to retain and extend that leadership, so we need to ensure that we capture the best engineering talent out there. This new recruitment drive is a reflection of that ambition.”
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Volvo Car Group in 2015
For the 2015 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 6,620 MSEK (2,128 MSEK in 2014). Revenue over the period amounted to 164,043 MSEK (137,590 MSEK). For the full year 2015, global sales reached a record 503,127 cars, an increase of 8 per cent versus 2014. The record sales and operating profit cleared the way for Volvo Car Group to continue investing in its global transformation plan.
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 the 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 2015, Volvo Cars had almost 29,000 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), Chengdu and Daqing (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofström (Sweden).
