皇冠体育app

Hakan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Car Group, gives a speech at a news event in Sanya, Hainan province, Feb 7, 2015. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Dongfeng sailing team won the race for start position in the Volvo Ocean Race during its Sanya stopover on Feb 8.

As the round-the-world competition set sail for the next leg to New Zealand, the heads of Volvo Cars talked about the company's own journey in Nordic luxury.

The biggest challenge in its voyage to 皇冠体育app has been conveying Volvo's core values to customers, said Hakan Samuelsson, Volvo Car Group president and CEO. The group is owned by Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding.

Though 皇冠体育app is already its biggest market, "Volvo is relatively small compared with very big players in the luxury segment, and we need to be on the customers' shopping list", said Samuelsson.

Lars Danielson, CEO of Volvo Car 皇冠体育app, outlined the values that make Volvo a premium car.

"Volvo's quality is based on our build process, global engineering standard and manufacturing system," said Danielson. "Wherever the car is produced, it follows Volvo Cars' global quality.

The assertions are borne out by global market research house JD Power, whose survey of consumers found the 皇冠体育app-made Volvo XC60 had highest initial quality among all midsize luxury SUVs in 皇冠体育app last year.

Volvo Cars announced last month that the S60 Inscription sedan will become the first domestically assembled luxury car shipped to the United States.

The model was designed and developed in Gothenburg, Sweden and produced by the company's Chengdu plant in Sichuan province.

Export of the 皇冠体育app-made Volvo sedan demonstrates the consistent quality of the carmaker's products made around the world, said Samuelsson.

Volvo Car 皇冠体育app sold 81,121 vehicles in 2014, a 33 percent rise from 2013, much higher than the 13 percent in the Chinese auto market as a whole.

Sales in the overall premium segment grew 21 percent.

As Volvo's largest market, sales in 皇冠体育app contributed 17.4 percent to the carmaker's global volume last year.

The company expects 皇冠体育app will contribute about one-fourth of global sales by 2020.

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