Volvo moves to regain safety and reliability image

Shanghai December 10 (Gasgoo.com) Volvo China CEO Alexander Klose said at the launching ceremony of the S80L last week that sales of Volvo cars increased 52% in the first nine months this year in China, while the capacity of the Volvo XC60 and XC90 has become very tight, so the company's top priority right now is to expand its production capacity, the Beijing Times reported Friday.

The Swedish carmaker, which Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co acquired from US giant Ford for $1.5 billion in August, has launched the XC60 2.0T and the new S80L in the Chinese market, with the latter's price being cut by 30,000 yuan.

Volvo is seeking to change its direction and become what it once was - the premium safety and reliability automobile brand, Klose said.

Volvo has been pushed away from the spotlight as the No.1 luxury brand for quite a while. According to Ford's second quarter 2010 financial results, the brand sold only 191,000 cars worldwide in the first half, which is about 34% of the sales of the Mercedes-Benz or Audi brand and 27% of the sales of the BMW brand.

China has become Volvo's third largest market, with more of its car models to go on sale in the world's largest auto market this year, Klose said in Tianjian. "As the technology advances, we'll probably even see 1.6 liter engines or 1.5 liter engines in the future," he added.

In addition, Volvo has aggressively expanded its dealer network to 98 outlets in 81 Chinese cities this year.