Volvo aims for annual China sales of 200,000 vehicles by 2015, report says
Volvo Car Corp. aims to sell at least 200,000 vehicles a year in China within a five-year period, Volvo China chief Freeman Shen told reporters at the Guangzhou auto show in late December.
The target will be six times Volvo's sales in China in 2010. The Swedish automaker was sold by Ford Motor Co. last year to private Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Volvo sold 27,800 vehicles in China in the first 11 months of 2010, up 41 percent from the year-earlier period, according to J.D. Power.
Only two Volvo models -- the S40 and the long wheelbase S80 -- are built in China by Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co., Ford's joint venture with Chinese automaker Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. and Mazda Motor Corp.
Although Ford completed the sale of Volvo Car to Geely in August 2010, Changan Ford Mazda will continue to build the two Volvo models over the next few years, according to an agreement reached by Ford and Geely previously.
Geely plans to build new plants in China to increase Volvo's production in China. But Shen said Volvo's management, including Geely's president Li Shufu, has yet to decide where to build the plants, Chinese media have reported.
In addition to new plants, Volvo will build a research and development center, as well as a design center, in China to develop new Volvo models that cater to the tastes of Chinese customers, Shen has said.
Some Volvo engineers have already been dispatched to China, he told reporters at the auto show.
