Volvo And Geely To Setup New Tech-Sharing Venture

Volvo Cars today signed an agreement with parent company Geely Holding to set up a joint venture for the sharing of existing and future technology, in line with the former’s mission to fully electrify its vehicles by 2019. 

According to the MoU signed today, Volvo Cars, Geely Auto and Lynk & Co will share vehicle architecture and engine technologies via cross licensing arrangements of technologies managed by the new joint venture.

The agreement also states that the joint venture will be owned 50/50 by Volvo Cars and Geely Holding, with a headquarters in China and a subsidiary in Gothenburg, Sweden.

“Partnerships to share know-how and technologies are common practice in the automotive industry. This is the model we are adopting,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive. “This planned collaboration will strengthen Volvo’s ability to develop next generation electrified cars.”

Volvo Cars and Geely already share technology, most notably the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) which is being used by Volvo Cars for its soon-to-be-announced smaller range of 40 series cars and by Lynk & Co.

It is expected that the collaboration will be extended in future to also cover electrified vehicle components such as battery cells, e-motors and charging systems in order to maximize synergies across the group.

Separately, it was also announced that Volvo would take a significant minority shareholding in Lynk & Co.