Volvo and Geely want to imitate the public

According to the frontline news, although the relationship between Volvo and Geely, Li Shufu unabashedly hopes that the two brands can produce the "chemical reaction" between Audi and the public, but he also admitted that there is a distance between the latter and the latter. However, today's distance has shortened a big step. With the operation of the Geely Holding Group's European R&D center, Volvo and Geely are trying to replicate the mass-market success model, starting from “modular” as well.

New products launched within three to five years On September 13, the Geely Holding Group's European R&D center began operations in Gothenburg, Sweden. The R&D center, which is only 8 minutes drive from the Volvo headquarters, was jointly built by Geely Automobile and Volvo Cars to develop a new midsize car modular architecture and related components. The trial operation of the R&D center also marks Geely Automobile and Volvo. The synergy effect of automobiles has entered into the substantive implementation stage.

According to the plan, Geely Automobile China R&D Center and Volvo Car R&D Center will independently develop their own branded vehicles based on the architecture and components developed by the R&D center, and will be responsible for mid-term upgrades. Among them, Volvo Cars will continue to focus on its global luxury car market, while Geely Automobile will focus on the Volkswagen market, while the European R&D center will continue to focus on future product technology reserve development.

An Geinhui, president of Geely Group, revealed that a whole new generation of products based on the new mid-size car modular architecture will be launched in the next three to five years. Zhang Lin, vice president of Geely Automobile and general manager of the international company, said earlier that with the mass production of the second-generation products developed by the center, Geely is expected to enter the European and American markets in 2016.

"The purpose of setting up an R&D center is to maximize the use of the resources of Geely Holding Group." An Zhihui said that the modular structure of mid-size cars is an important guarantee for Geely Group's sustainable development in the world in the future, and Geely Automobile can take advantage of this With regard to the quality and performance of future products, Volvo Cars can use the Group's capital investment to advance the landing of cutting-edge technologies. It can also select excellent suppliers from the supporting systems of Geely Automobile in Asia, thus systematically optimizing the procurement of components and realizing more. Healthy cost structure.

It is reported that as of now, more than 70 engineers of various types have started working at the R&D center, and it is expected that 200 engineers can be fully operational by the second half of next year.

The day the European Research and Development Center of Audi-Volkswagen AG was put into operation, "through brand integration, it is more conducive to the development of the Group. Today, the opening of the R&D center is the production of mid-range cars. The brand division is similar to Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda." An Zhihui made clear the future of Geely. The group brand division is similar to Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda's product positioning, and put forward the idea of ​​targeting the Volkswagen Group.

In fact, this idea began to brewing on the day Geely acquired Volvo. During this year's Shanghai Auto Show, when faced with the question of whether or not to treat Volvo and Geely against the branding model of Audi and Volkswagen, Li Shufu said frankly, “It is difficult for Geely and Volvo to achieve this level in a short time, but it will In this direction, he said that the European R&D center established by Geely Group is just a start.

Currently, the XC90, developed by Volvo based on the latest SPA platform and expected to be available at the end of next year, is the Volvo brand's highest-level model under the 70 Series, 60 Series, and V40. Geely's product camp includes three sub-brands: Dorsett, Global Hawk and British. Although the products are relatively abundant, how to promote the balanced development of the three major sub-brands has been a strategic issue that Geely has yet to solve.

In the future, Volvo brand products will compete with the Audi brand; A, B-Class cars based on the modular platform of the European R&D center will be used to target the Volkswagen brand; and the integrated Geely existing small-car platform products will be labeled with the Skoda brand. .