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Business/Finance See other Business/Finance Articles Title: Volvo's new XC90 SUV marks milestone for Chinese owner Geely Want... The all-new Volvo XC90 seven-seat SUV, the first vehicle built with Volvo's SPA (scalable product architecture) chassis designed and built in-house, will make its debut in China in two weeks, marking a milestone for the Swedish carmaker's owner, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Guangzhou's 21st Century Business Herald erports. Following a one-year warmup for the XC90, Volvo's Chinese management team is stepping up preparations for a unique presentation of the new model set for late June. "Starting with the XC90, Volvo will build cars on its in-house designed SPA technology platform and will have no relations at all with Ford Motor," Fu Qiang, president of Volvo China's marketing company, said at a recent press conference. Since Geely completed the total buyout of Volvo from Ford for US$1.3 billion in August 2010, Volvo hasn't totally cut its ties with the American automaker, as many of the former's models have still incorporated parts provided by the latter after the acquisition. This is an undesirable situation for Geely's chairman Li Shufu, the paper wrote. After the acquisition, Li decided to allow Volvo to develop a brand-new technical platform fully on its own. "The new SPA platform has been completed and the XC90 is the first vehicle built using the platform. So the success of the new model will be of great significance to Volvo and Geely," Fu said. Fu said the XC90 marks a new beginning for Volvo, as all new cars will be designed by the company and built on its new SPA platform with purchases of auto parts to be handled by Volvo itself. "From now on, Volvo will be a pure Nordic car brand, without any shadow of Ford," he stressed. To this end, Volvo has since 2011 invested US$11 billion in developing and expanding the SPA platform and the VEA (Volvo engine architecture) family of new all-aluminum and all turbocharged engines. All the Volvo's 60-series models and above will be developed and built on the SPA platform within four years, which will serve to significantly cut design and production costs, industry insiders said. Li Shufu told the paper that his management team is also trying to inject a "smart gene" into the Volvo brand. He said that the "XC90 will be an IoV (Internet of Vehicles) car model that people have long dreamed of, as it's the world's first vehicle boasting a highly automated driving function, not to mention its large tablet-style center touchscreen." Li says he is most concerned now with whether the reborn Volvo brand can find favor with the market. He is determined that the XC90 must prove a success as it is time for him to honor promises made to institutional investors that aided the acquisition deal five years ago, which include Bank of China, the Export-Import Bank of China, banks in the European Union and Goldman Sachs Group among others. Over the past four years, Volvo has steadily moved forward on the road to recovery. The company turned profitable in 2013 when its global sales hit a high of 465,866 vehicles, showing an annual growth of 8.9%. Poster Comment: Looks great but will Swedes buy a made in China Volvo? Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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