Geely hires VW's North American CEO to head Volvo

Shanghai, June 28 (Gasgoo.com) China's automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., who is buying Ford Motor's Volvo car unit, has hired Volkswagen's North American chief executive officer Stefan Jacoby to lead its up-coming Volvo brand, according to German media.

Jacoby will replace Briton Stephen Odell, who will leave Volvo to become the head of Ford's European operations, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. Volkswagen had replaced Jacoby as head of its U.S. operations on an interim basis "until (his) contractual situation has been clarified."

Swedish premium-car maker Volvo is being purchased by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group from Ford Motor. Geely has cashed out a total of $1.8 billion to buy Volvo and its related assets from Ford Motor. The deal is expected to close by the end of August of this year.

"The future management of Volvo cars will be a decision for the new owner once the deal is completed, which we still expect in the third quarter," said a Ford spokesman, although Geely has made no comment yet on this issue.

Zhejiang Geely, parent of Geely Automobile Holdings (0175.HK), plans to make the Volvo XC60 SUV in China later this year, followed by Volvo S60 in 2011. Geely aims to sell 150,000 Volvo cars in China annually by 2015.

Volvo S40 and S80 models are currently made at Ford's China car venture Changan-Ford-Mazda. Production of S40 will be halted in the future, Chinese media said, but made no mention of the fate of S80.
 
Zhejiang Geely has yet to pick a site for Volvo's China plant, with Beijing, Chengdu and Ningbo among the options, but Geely-Volvo's China headquarters likely to be based in Shanghai.