Today was the big day when Geely-bought Volvo wanted to announce its plans for the future. They did not disappoint.
First, they need a new plant in China. Former VWoA and now Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby, who wants to sell about 200,000 cars in China by 2015, said: “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.”
Several cities had been vying for the Volvo plant. The Jiading District of Shanghai and the city of Daqing in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang were seen as top contenders. They had helped with the financing of the deal.
Jiading will get Volvo’s Chinese headquarters and design center. Daqing will get nothing for the time being.
Volvo will “build a new plant in the southwestern city of Chengdu with capacity to produce 100,000 cars a year,” reports the Financial Times.. As far as Daqing is concerned, Volvo will “continue investigations” for a plant there.
Going to Chengdu will please the Chinese central government. It plays right into their “go west” policy. There are a lot of inducements for big companies that move their plants into the wild and open west, away from the heavily populated eastern seashore.
It is important for Geely owned Volvo top establish good relationships with the government. The Chinese government is the biggest buyer of cars in the country. The announced policy that 50 percent of the government cars should be Chinese has been largely ignored. Volvo is Chinese now.
And of course, Volvo is looking to export the cars. With the Volvo brand Geely is the first Chinese company that has a real chance to be a player on the world market.
“It is obvious that at some point manufacturers will export from China,” Jacoby told Bloomberg. “We, as a global premium brand with European heritage, have a very good opportunity to be owned by a Chinese enterprise and to utilize our manufacturing capacities here.”
Volvo Cars plans to invest as much as $11 billion worldwide over the next five years to successfully sell its cars to China and the world. In 10 years, Volvo wants to sell 800,000 cars. Not an unrealistic target.
So how many cars in the Chinese government buying?
Or what about children of communist party members – does that apply to them?
This sucks, I am not even going to consider a new Volvo for next 5-10 years. You know, so that others have a chance to discover unhardened steel and poisonous plastic parts. I know sounds bigoted but I am merely relying on clear generalized track record. I’ll just apply more TLC to my 240DL for now.
Maybe once they start exporting them from China, they can make a Volvo that will sell for a competitive price in Canada. This could be good for Volvo and their potential customers.
I am confident that Volvo will have no more ‘unhardened steel and poisonous plastic parts’ than they do now.
When I trade-in my ’07 XC70 in about 6 to 8 months it will not be on another Volvo. This one has been great, but can not bring myself to buy a communist car and support the regime. And yes, I avoid all communist made products if at all possible.
Ah, so you avoid ALL laptops (well, the last time I shop for laptops, including tablets etc, all I can find are still made in Communist China), iphone, ipod, ipad and probably most, if not all, small and large home electronics like most TV from Sony/LG/Samsung (those from Japan, if you can still find at Bestbuy, is clearly not within my badget).
Norma; My laptop and all electronics are from Taiwan, S Korea. I do not own an Apple anything, nor will I. Everything that is purchased for me personally or for the company is searched for origin. Not only company HQ, but actual fabrication. It sounds extreme, or so I am told by some, but it is my personal ethics, a little savings will not make me feel better about funding a communist regime that has done a lot of bad. And yes, I have lived and worked there.
Have you also look into where the rechargeable batt. of your laptops are made?? Taiwan, doubtful. S. Korea, possible, but as likely as you can find a PC made in the U.S.A.
I still believe that one day, Ford will regret putting these particular assets into the hands of what are likely to be Ford’s strongest competitors in the future.
Wow. Everything is BIG in China.
“Going to Chengdu will please the Chinese central government. It plays right into their “go west” policy. There are a lot of inducements for big companies that move their plants into the wild and open west, away from the heavily populated eastern seashore.”
Well, Sichuan is the second most populous province in China, with a pop. of 81.6m (at least according to an online source), doesn’t seem ‘wild and open west’, to me. Chengdu also has 11m. Wow. This is wide and open west, away from the heavily populated!
“Norma; My laptop and all electronics are from Taiwan, S Korea. I do not own an Apple anything, nor will I. Everything that is purchased for me personally or for the company is searched for origin. Not only company HQ, but actual fabrication.”
If you own a Taiwanese or Korean laptop, odds are it was made in one of the same Foxconn factories in mainland China that make Apple products.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn#Clients
No one who owns or purchases modern electronics can avoid Chinese components. Fact of life. Deal with it.
Sam P, you’re right; it may be impossible to totally avoid Chinese-made goods without living in a cave. But I don’t see what is wrong with someone, for reasons of concience, attempting to minimize the money they send to a place that tramples on the human rights of its citizens and badly exploits the workers who make the products sent our way.