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Volvo Postpones Plans to Build the Universe Concept

At the 2011 Shanghai Auto Show, Volvo released the Universe Concept, which was designed in order to compete against world class limousines like the 7-Series from BMW, S-Klasse from Mercedes or Audi’s A8 flagship, but now the Swedish manufacturer announced that it will postpone any plans that include further development of the project, according to Automotive News.

"It is not in our midterm or long-term strategy right now," CEO Stefan Jacoby explained. "That has been decided," he added.

Last year, Volvo was purchased for $1.7 billion (EUR1.15 billion) by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which intends to expand the brand in order for it to become a serious rival for German manufacturers. At this point, it seems that Volvo does not count in the idea of bringing a luxury limousine on the market.

"It is too early to enter the S-class-size market," Jacoby said. "We are concentrating with our new products on our core segments," he explained.

In the next few years, the automaker intends to invest $11 billion (EUR7.46 billion) in order to completely redesign its model range and build factories across China. Already, Volvo intends to build a production plant in Chengdu and is keen on deciding any time soon whether to build a second plant or not.

"We regard the Chinese market as the second home market for Volvo Car Corporation and a very important part of the plan to build a successful future for the company," said Stefan Jacoby, Volvo CEO.

"We will build an entirely new plant in Chengdu and further investigate the opportunities for establishing an additional factory in Daqing. Our production in China will, however, not have any impact on decisions affecting capacity utilization of our plants in Sweden and Belgium," he added.

The factory in Chengdu is set to have a production capacity of 125,000 units, while the deadline to start production is scheduled for in 2013.

The Swedish automaker’s plans for China include an annual sale volume of 200,000 units by the end of 2015.
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