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Geely targeting US market in 2016 with help from Volvo

Following reports that it'd team up with corporate sibling Volvo on a Chinese-market car comes a report from Bloomberg that Geely would reattempt its entry into the US market. The Chinese brand had a display at the 2006 North American International Auto Show, but has been absent from the US scene ever since.
The Geely branded cars will be jointly developed with Volvo, and bank on the Swedish manufacturers reputation for safety and reliability. Geely's CEO, Gui Shengyue, explained, "Our acquisition of Volvo enhanced our image and overseas consumers are seeing us as an international company." This represents a change in rhetoric for the brand, after Geely Chairman Li Shufu hamstrung the idea of a closer pairing, citing fears that an association would harm Volvo's reputation. The news of projects between Geely and Volvo first broke last week, although it's unclear if the cars that end up coming to the US will be the same as those being sold in China.
As we reported last week, Geely is already aiming to be the biggest brand in the Chinese domestic market. With this move to the US market, it's also attempting to overtake Chery as China's largest automotive exporter. According to the Bloomberg report, Geely has already moved 180,000 units overseas, which is extremely close to the 184,800 vehicles sold by Chery in 2012. By 2018, Geely anticipates that 60 percent of its sales will be occur outside of the PRC.

New electric Volvo crossover on the way, to be built in the U.S.

Automotive News reports that Volvo has a new electric crossover coming, the intel relayed by "two sources familiar with the plans." Said to be codenamed V546 at the moment, the new product is said to slot in between the XC60 and XC90. If size is a factor in its tweener placement, the XC60 is 185 inches long, the XC90 195 inches long, so the V546 could be about the length of the 189-inch Ford Edge. The sources claim it will ride on a new electric platform, which could be SPA2 bones that will support the coming electric XC90 and that the Concept Recharge electric crossover study (pictured) sits on. The Swedish automaker debuted the Concept Recharge in June last year as a template of future styling cues, sustainable materials, and advanced infotainment and autonomous technology. The AN piece says we'll see that some design and tech transfer into the V546. Out of a global production of about 100,000 units, 40% will be allotted to Volvo's plant in Ridgeville, South Carolina, to serve the North American market, starting in early 2025. That leaves an available capacity of 110,000 units out of the plant's 150,000-unit annual cap. The four-year-old plant builds just the S60 sedan at the moment — turning out roughly 23,000 units last year — but is transitioning to an all-EV assembly operation. Before the V546 arrives in three years, the Ridgeville facility will add the battery-electric version of the next-generation XC90, thought to be called the Embla, and the battery-electric Polestar 3, both hitting the market in 2023. Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson has said Ridgeville will "be the only plant in the [Volvo Cars Group] which only makes full-electric cars."  And although it's fallen off the radar, we're still anticipating the new flagship XC100 to debut in 2023 as well. AN's Future Product Pipeline says the top model will come in six- and seven-seat layouts akin to what BMW and Range Rover do, with the six-seater bolting up captain's chairs in the second row. Ridgeville also gets the nod for this one, production said to begin in early 2023.  Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. 2022 C40 Recharge crossover

Volvo is preparing to abandon its alphanumerical naming system

Volvo's alphanumerical naming system is familiar, straight-forward, but tilted towards the unimaginative side of the scale. The firm will start from scratch in the coming years, and it plans to give its future models an actual name. "If you look at cars today, they all have XC, T8, AWD, double-overhead-cam — their full specifications on the rear of many cars. Now, we're talking about a new architecture, one that's born electric and all electric. I think it's good and clear to mark that this is a new beginning. That's why we're not going to have numbers and letters, an engineering type of name. We're going to give cars a name as you give a newborn child. We have a very interesting and creative discussion going on about this now," company boss Hakan Samuelsson told Auto Express. He stopped short of providing more details about where Volvo plans to take its naming system. Historically, the company has almost always used numbers, letters or a combination of the two. The first car it released was the OV 4, which stood for oppen vagn 4 cylindrar ("open car, four cylinders" in Swedish). Volvo gained a foothold in the United States thanks to the PV544, among other models. Some of its greatest hits include the P1800, 240 (and its six-cylinder-powered variant, the 260), the Bertone-designed 780, and the 850. Notable exceptions to this decades-old rule include the Amazon (also known as the 120 series) and the Duett (called PV445 in some markets). Regardless of Volvo's next approach to naming cars, the change will be a big one. It sounds like the next-generation XC90 will inaugurate this new naming system. It's expected to make its debut before the end of 2022 with a suite of surprisingly advanced semi-automated driving technology under its sheet metal. Next, the Swedish company will turn its attention to the other side of the crossover scale. It will reportedly launch an entry-level soft-roader positioned below the XC40 and developed to lure younger buyers into showrooms. We previously thought it would wear the XC20 nameplate, though that's seemingly no longer the case. Regardless, the crossover will offer an electric drivetrain and it will "very likely" be made in China, according to Samuelsson, to keep costs in check. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. 2022 Volvo C40 Recharge charging