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Geely's new EV plant in China will build premium Polestar cars

BEIJING/SHANGHAI — An electric vehicle factory planned by China's Geely will produce cars under the premium Polestar marque, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday. Zhejiang Geely Holding Group plans to build a plant with annual manufacturing capacity of 30,000 premium EVs in the western city of Chongqing, run by a wholly owned, newly registered company, according to documents on its website. Geely and Polestar declined to comment. The plan comes as foreign automakers including BMW AG and Tesla expand EV production in the worldÂ’s biggest market, sourcing major EV components such as batteries locally and often even exporting a portion of the vehicles it builds. Hangzhou-based Geely is ChinaÂ’s most internationally known automaker. It owns Volvo Cars and Lotus, almost half of Proton and 9.7% of Daimler AG. Through wholly owned company Polestar, it builds low-volume Polestar 1 hybrid performance cars in the western city of Chengdu and Polestar 2 volume sedans in Taizhou in the east. It also plans to begin production of the Precept sedan, displayed at this yearÂ’s China auto show. Polestar aims to eventually offer bigger, more sporty vehicles at its showrooms, which currently span nine countries and whose number it plans to raise to 45 from 23 by year-end. Polestar Chief Executive Thomas Ingenlath told Reuters the firm is scouting markets in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Geely is also building a factory in China to make sport-utility vehicles under the Lotus marque, Reuters reported.  

Volvo recalls small batch of cars — 74, exactly — for potentially serious steering issue

Volvo announced earlier in January that it is recalling a small number of cars (just 74) to address a potentially serious issue with their steering boxes. An extra screw unintentionally inserted during assembly can work its way into the steering gear, potentially locking it up and causing a loss of steering control. The issue is present only on a small number of 2019-2022 Volvo V60CCs, XC60s and XC90s.  Per Volvo, the issue can be traced back to a single assembly line station that erroneously double-fed screws into the affected units, allowing the loose hardware to remain behind, where it can foul the gear. Volvo says it knows which steering boxes were assembled this way, allowing them to recall only the units in question. Customers whose cars exhibit the defect will not show any outward symptoms until the screw begins to interfere with steering box operation, which could be indicated by a grinding noise when turning the wheel.  Volvo has already notified dealers of the issue and will send notices to the 74 owners in March.  Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Recalls Volvo Ownership Safety Crossover SUV Wagon

Volvo XC90 prototype spied for the first time ever

Despite its advanced age, the Volvo XC90 remains a highly competent luxury SUV. The design has aged nicely, and it's clear from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety naming the big Volvo a Top Safety Pick + that the safety-minded Swedes behind it knew what they were doing. Still, even the finest cars need replacing, especially after nearly 12 years on sale.
Here we have the first spy shots of the next-generation XC90, under development somewhere cold (at this rate, it could be anywhere from Arvidsjaur to Atlanta). Now, as our spy photogs point out, this is the real deal, judging by all that camo over the vehicle. There's a production body under there, rather than this being a mule with the old vehicle's skin on top of it.
It's difficult to make out much because of all the camo, although there are some similarities to both the Concept XC Coupe from the Detroit Auto Show and a batch of teaser images we showed you earlier this year. We can see the greenhouse retains a shape similar to the current XC90, although the beltline climbs rather aggressively once past the C pillar, much like it does on the Concept XC Coupe. In back, Volvo has eschewed tall, vertical lights in favor of more conventional units, which we expect to be similar to what we saw in the teaser images. We'd bargain that there will be a traditional rectangular grille, like what you can see on the concept. The headlights, meanwhile, should wear T-shaped LED elements, like the teaser images.