Volvo seeks 20% of premier car market

Source: Shanghai Daily
[08:40 January 26 2011]
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Volvo Cars Corp, owned by China's Geely Holdings Group Co, Monday set up its China headquarters in Shanghai and revealed its ambitions to grab a 20 percent share of the country's premier car market by 2015.

The China headquarters marks the Swedish car maker's plan to accelerate its localization efforts in China, the world's largest auto market, which it sees as crucial to boost its global sales.

Freeman Shen, president of Volvo Cars China, said the auto maker has mapped out an overall strategy to tap the growth opportunities in China.

"We aim to lift our share of China's luxury car market to 20 percent with sales of 200,000 Volvo cars by 2015," Shen said.

Last year, Volvo sold more than 30,000 units in China, an increase of about 36 percent from a year earlier. By contrast, Mercedes-Benz sold 147,670 units, BMW 168,998 units, , and Audi 225,600 units.

Analysts said Volvo's sales target seems quite aggressive and it needs attractive new models and locally-produced cars priced reasonably to lure Chinese consumers.

"Our portfolio would lay a solid foundation for our rapid development in China over the next five years," said Stefan Jacoby, president and chief executive officer of Volvo Cars Corp.

Volvo also announced Monday that it will set up its Chinese technical center in Jiading District, the auto base of Shanghai.

Earlier media reports said Geely has contacted governments in Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing and Shanxi about producing Volvo cars locally. Volvo now makes S40 and S80L luxury sedans for the Chinese market at a factory co-owned by Ford and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co.

Privately-owned Geely completed its $1.8 billion buyout of Ford Motor Co's Volvo unit in August.