Despite my image of a no-life car fan, I’m very important for the entire automotive industry and I finally have proof of that.
The minute I saw the Volvo Universe Concept and the announcement according to which they were considering making it their flagship sedan I said it was wrong.
The proof I was talking about is pretty obvious as the Swedish company just announced they’re taking back the idea and continuous effort on making it happen.
Carrier for the “awful” news was Volvo’s CEO Stefan Jacoby, a man who really carried the torch for all that Swedish practicality and realized the complications that would come around in entering this market.
This latest of decisions, the one that kills off hope of the Volvo Universe Concept, also kills off the dream of a man called Li Shufu, the chairman of Chinese automaker Geely.
It appears that when he bought Volvo and got the company out of the rat hole it was sinking through not that long ago, he had high hopes for one of his companies making a proper luxury car.
When all is said and done, it’s not the right time for Volvo to launch a production version of the Universe Concept, but that doesn’t mean a flagship luxury sedan will never happen for them any more.
I just heard an interview with Jacoby in Swedens biggest TV-news program and read a long interview in a newspaper.
This is not true:
“The latest of decisions, the one that kills of hope of the VUC also kills off the dream of a man called Li Shufu, the chairman of Geely”.
Li want a luxury car for China and the chinese customers and he will get it! What´s happening in US and Europe we do not know exactly. Wait and see. The new S80 will use Volvos new platform SPA (scalable platform architecture). All of our large and medium sized cars will be based on SPA, Jacoby said.
Li know what the chinese want and Jacoby know what we other want. That´s a very good combination!!
With the new factories China will be Volvos biggest market. They must built cars the chinese want to buy!!