Volvo Cars – DHM Bergendahl Professional

Volvo Cars celebrates 20 years of All-Wheel Drive in the snow with a firm eye on the future

Volvo Cars, the premium carmaker, is celebrating 20 years of mechanical All-Wheel Drive (AWD) by putting some of its most capable cars through their paces on the frozen lakes around the Northern Swedish ski resort of Åre.

“Volvo cars are well known for what we call ‘framkomlighet’ in Swedish – the ability to get you wherever you want to go – regardless of the weather conditions. This is an important part of our heritage and a clear reflection of who we are and where we come from. With the recent addition of electric All-Wheel Drive to our top-of-the-line products we have further refined our performance in this important area,” said Henrik Green, Senior Vice President, Research & Development at Volvo Cars.

“Electrification will bring ever more flexibility to AWD. You can see the first signs of this in our XC90 T8 Twin Engine, where we have an electric rear-axle drive unit powering the rear wheels. As we move to full battery electric vehicles and other powertrain applications, we will see increased opportunities to control each motor and wheel independently, based on either the surface conditions or the desired driving style,” said Henrik Green.

Volvo Cars celebrates 20 years of All-Wheel Drive in the snow with a firm eye on the future

Volvo Cars puts people first in the development of autonomous cars

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, has revealed its distinctive approach to developing autonomous cars with the introduction of a family of four at the Detroit Motor Show.

The Hain family, from Gothenburg in Sweden, are the first people chosen to take part in a real-life autonomous drive research program using real cars, in real traffic.

“We do things differently at Volvo Cars – we always have,” said Håkan Samuelsson, President & CEO, Volvo Car Group. “Our main focus has always been on people and making their lives easier. Technology should improve the consumer experience making mobility safer, sustainable and more convenient.”

“The aim of the Drive Me research project is to focus on how to enhance people’s lives and have a positive impact on society. We take a holistic rather than a purely technical approach to our research and development processes. No one else to our knowledge is developing autonomous drive from a human-centric standpoint,” said Henrik Green, Senior Vice President, Research and Development at Volvo Car Group.

Volvo Cars puts people first in the development of autonomous cars

Swedish police first to use V90 estate as a police car

The Swedish police will take delivery of its first V90 police cars early next year after the car recently achieved the highest rating ever in the Swedish police’s highly demanding driving test.

The demands on emergency vehicles are higher than on normal road cars. On top of that, unlike in many other countries, in Sweden the police car is judged as a workplace. This means any car has to meet very strict demands in areas such as performance, comfort, quality and ergonomics in order to qualify as a police car.

The Swedish police car test focuses on five areas: a brake test, an obstacle course, evasive action tests with and without breaking, and high-speed emergency driving.

The overall score for the V90 was 9.2 out of 10, the highest rating ever achieved by any car in this demanding test.

https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressreleases/201339/swedish-police-first-to-use-v90-estate-as-a-police-car-other-countries-also-targeted

Volvo plans hybrid, electric cars to take on German rivals in India

MUMBAI: Volvo Auto India, the Swedish luxury car maker on the fringes of the Indian market, will be banking on range of hybrid and electric cars to be rolled out in the coming years to challenge the top three German luxury car makers -Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi -in the country .

Volvo plans to double its market share to 10% by 2020 and is considering bringing in electric and hybrid vehicle options across the portfolio right from its entry car to the top of the line one in the next three years and if volumes grow, they may also be assembled in the country eventually.

Volvo India’s XC90 plug hybrid launched a month ago has already seen over 50 bookings for the model and in 2017 it plans to roll out the plug-in hybrid model of S90, making it the first luxury car maker to bring in hybrid model in the mainstream sedan space.

Eventually , the company is likely to have 4-5 hybrid and electric vehicles in the country by the end of the decade.

Launching the new Volvo S 90 last week, Tom Von Bonsdorff, managing director, Volvo Auto India told ET, that he sees hybrid portfolio as a key differentiator.

“I really hope Hybrids can be called our thing. We have the capability of employing the technology in all our cars and if we are able to have a good Hybrid offering, we can eventually get a better ranking in the premium segment,“ Bonsdorff said.

Volvo plans hybrid, electric cars to take on German rivals in India

Volvo Cars: Drive Me, the world’s most ambitious and advanced public autonomous driving experiment, starts today

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, has officially kicked off Drive Me, the world’s most ambitious and advanced public autonomous driving experiment. This morning it produced the very first autonomous car that will be used in theDrive Me project in Gothenburg.

The autonomous Volvo XC90 SUV was finalized in Volvo Cars’ special manufacturing facility in Torslanda this morning and is the first in a series of autonomous cars that will eventually be handed to real families in Gothenburg to be driven on public roads.

https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressreleases/196240/drive-me-the-worlds-most-ambitious-and-advanced-public-autonomous-driving-experiment-starts-today

Volvo Cars launches large engineering recruitment drive in Sweden

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, is launching one of the largest engineering recruitment drives in its 89-year history as it boosts the development of next generation safety, autonomous driving and electrification technologies.

The company plans to recruit around 400 engineers in the next twelve months, primarily in the area of software development. The majority of these new recruits will be based at the company’s R&D headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Furthermore, the company is opening a research & development centre in the university town of Lund in southern Sweden, where the first 35 employees will already start as of September. Lund is the site of a renowned international university and located close to Sweden’s third-largest city Malmö and the Danish capital Copenhagen.

With the recruitment drive, Volvo further strengthens the automotive cluster in Western Sweden and establishes it as an emerging hub for automotive software engineering. Volvo is investing heavily in new technologies in the areas of autonomous driving, active safety and electrification, underlining the need for the constant recruitment of top-notch software engineering talent.

https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressreleases/195299/volvo-cars-launches-large-engineering-recruitment-drive-in-sweden

Volvo Cars reports double-digit sales growth of 10.5 per cent for first six months of 2016

Volvo Cars’ success story continues:

Sales of 256,563 cars in first half of 2016, growth in all major sales regions

Strong demand for new XC90 main growth driver

June sales up 10.6 per cent, 13th consecutive month of growth

Volvo Cars reported a solid double-digit sales increase for the first six months of the year, posting growth of 10.5 per cent to 256,563 cars compared to the same period in 2015. Sales of the new Volvo XC90 were the main growth driver globally.

Volvo reported growth in all major sales regions in the first half of 2016. In Europe, sales rose by 10.3 percent to 138,851 cars as a result of strong performances in key markets such as Sweden, Germany, the UK and France. The XC60 was the best-sold Volvo model in the region, while the new XC90 also saw strong demand.

Volvo’s resurgence in the United States also continued apace, as the company delivered close to 25 per cent more cars over the six-month period. As total sales for the period rose to 36,654 cars, demand for the new XC90 was the key growth driver and the SUV was the best-selling Volvo model in the US.

China was Volvo’s largest single market in the first half with 40,688 cars sold, an increase of 6.3 per cent year-on-year, driven by growing demand for the new XC90 as well as the locally produced XC60 and S60L sedan.

For more information, see:

https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressreleases/193843/volvo-cars-reports-double-digit-sales-growth-of-105-per-cent-for-first-six-months-of-2016

Volvo Cars goes from strength to strength as first V90 rolls off production line

Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, started production of the new V90 premium estate at its manufacturing plant in Torslanda, Sweden this week.

The first customer-bound V90 rolled off the production line only weeks after the first S90 premium sedan was built. This means all new models in the top-of-the-line 90 series, based on Volvo’s in-house developed modular vehicle architecture SPA, are now being produced in Sweden.

The SPA-related investments in Sweden have had positive effects on employment at the company. Volvo has almost doubled its staff numbers at the Torslanda plant in the last two years, to a current total of around 6,300 employees. The company has also hired approximately one thousand engineers over that period, and continues to recruit in its R&D department.

Furthermore, so-called multiplier effects have created numerous new jobs at suppliers to the company and other businesses in the region, providing a boost to the automotive manufacturing cluster in Gothenburg and the wider economy in Western Sweden.

Full press release: https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressreleases/193246/volvo-cars-goes-from-strength-to-strength-as-first-v90-rolls-off-production-line

Zlatan Ibrahimović to star in new Volvo V90 marketing campaign

Volvo Cars is set to launch a new V90 marketing campaign featuring global footballing star Zlatan Ibrahimović.

“The campaign is a celebration of the independent mind, of the power that lies in the ability to think differently. There are many similarities between Zlatan’s and Volvo’s journeys. We haven’t gotten to where we are now by doing the same as everyone else,” said Anders Gustafsson, Senior Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa at Volvo Car Group.

https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/sv-se/media/pressreleases/191536/zlatan-ibrahimovic-to-star-in-new-volvo-v90-marketing-campaign/