Photo: Volvo
The European automotive sector, and the financial situation generally speaking have definitely seen better days, and the major automakers have had to make production and staff cuts, in order to prevent excessive losses. It would have been completely understandable if Volvo decided to move all or part of its production to China, as its is now owned by Geely, and it definitely would not have been hard to do so.
However, Volvo have now confirmed their recommitment to Sweden and their production facilities in the country, through the announcement of $11-billion-worth in investments, in the next few years. They will be developing their SPA (Scalable Product Architecture), which is the platform they will use to underpin virtually all future models, while also focusing on the development of VEA (Volvo Engine Architecture), which is a family of highly-efficient four-pot engines, which will be included in their future hybrid powertrains.
Håkan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Car Group said: "Almost half of the approximately 11 billion USD investments covering the years 2011 to 2015 will be spent in Sweden in the form of infrastructure for the new vehicle architecture and engine family. This is a proof of Volvo Car Group's determination to strengthen the company's position as a Swedish car maker with a unique attractiveness on the global market."
He added that the “SPA and VEA sharpen our cars' attractiveness in all areas - design, driving pleasure and quality down to the smallest detail. And of course we are at the same time boosting our core values of safety and environmental care." One of the first cars to benefit from both the new SPA platform, as well as the new VEA engines will be the all-new XC90, a large SUV which will only be powered by four-cylinder engines, as we had previously reported.
Håkan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Car Group said: "Almost half of the approximately 11 billion USD investments covering the years 2011 to 2015 will be spent in Sweden in the form of infrastructure for the new vehicle architecture and engine family. This is a proof of Volvo Car Group's determination to strengthen the company's position as a Swedish car maker with a unique attractiveness on the global market."
He added that the “SPA and VEA sharpen our cars' attractiveness in all areas - design, driving pleasure and quality down to the smallest detail. And of course we are at the same time boosting our core values of safety and environmental care." One of the first cars to benefit from both the new SPA platform, as well as the new VEA engines will be the all-new XC90, a large SUV which will only be powered by four-cylinder engines, as we had previously reported.
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