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Roger Yu, the current vice president of Volvo Automotive Greater China sales Company, will become the acting President of the Greater China sales Company from January 1, 2024, and he will report to Yuan Xiaolin, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific President and CEO of Volvo Automobile Group. In addition, Pan Hesong (Martin Persson), the current president of Volvo Automotive Greater China sales Company, will serve as the head of commercial operations in Volvo Asia Pacific excluding Greater China (APeC), which will take effect from February 1, 2024.

According to the data, Yu Kexin graduated with a master's degree in international studies from Hiroshima City University in Japan. He entered the automotive industry in 2004 and worked in Toyota Daihatsu, Honda Technology Research (China), Nissan China and other automobile companies. In 2015, Yu Kexin joined Volvo Automotive Greater China sales Company and served successively as Director General of Peking University and Senior Director of National sales. In July 2019, he was appointed Vice President of sales of Volvo Greater China sales Company. lead the team to promote the electrified layout of Volvo cars in the Chinese market.

Earlier, Volvo announced a personnel change. Martin Persson, the current general manager of Volvo Motor Japan, returned to China as general manager of the Greater China sales company, reporting to Chief Business Officer Bjorn Annwal, Volvo announced on August 18. In addition, Yuan Xiaolin will continue to serve as the president of Volvo Automotive Greater China, reporting directly to Volvo Global CEO Mule Wen Rong.

From the industry's point of view, Volvo's frequent adjustments and changes at the top are backed by bets on the electrified market in China. Volvo proposed a comprehensive electrification strategy as early as 2017 and further deepened and defined the market layout in 2021. In 2021, Volvo announced a rather radical plan. Volvo says its pure electric models will account for 50 per cent of total sales by 2025, with the rest in hybrid models. By 2030, Volvo will transform into a pure electric brand, when it will sell only pure electric cars, eliminating all cars with internal combustion engines around the world. By 204, Volvo strives to become a climate zero-load benchmark, and all pure electric models will be sold online only.

With the arrival of the electrification era, the crazy inward roll of the new power of car construction and the upward development of domestic independent brands, even if Volvo speeds up the layout of the electric car market, it is difficult for Volvo to move consumers only with the label of "safety". The latest figures show that Volvo sold 632701 cars worldwide in the first 11 months of this year, up 17 per cent from a year earlier, of which 154100 were sold in China, up 6 per cent from a year earlier. Although Volvo is also growing in China and remains Volvo's largest single market in the world, there is a marked lack of bright spots compared with Volvo's global growth of 17 per cent.

Until now, fuel vehicles are still the backbone of Volvo's sales. According to the official website, Volvo currently achieves four domestic models in China, including S90, S60, XC60 and XC40, of which S90, S60 and XC60 are plug-in hybrid models based on fuel vehicles, that is, oil-to-electric models, which are basically the same in appearance as the fuel version, but different only in the front face. Volvo's highest-selling electric car in November 2023 was the XC60 RECHARGE, with 5277, while the S90 RECHARGE and XC40 RECHARGE were 2952 and 2297, respectively, and the all-electric C40 was only 1048, according to the Federation of passengers.

At the 2023 Guangzhou Auto Show, Volvo unveiled its EM90, which had previously announced a pre-sale price of 818000 yuan. It is understood that EM90 is Volvo's first pure electric MPV, which will be produced by Zhejiang Haoqing Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., based on the same platform of Polar Krypton 009. In addition to the EM90, Volvo earlier launched the EX30 in Milan, Italy, which was built on the same platform as Polar Krypton X, making it the smallest SUV in the history of the Volvo brand and will be produced domestically in the future. At the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, Volvo unveiled EX90, which is based on the SPA2 platform and will be the first to be listed on the Chinese market. However, whether these models can succeed in the Chinese market is still full of uncertainties. Volvo, as a Nordic luxury brand, does not want to put down its posture to compete with domestic brands, and its pricing is inflated, and it is very likely that it will be difficult to achieve the desired results.

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