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Volvo Automobiles has introduced again former boss Håkan Samuelsson to supply the Geely-owned Swedish carmaker with a “regular hand” wanted to navigate geopolitical turbulence and cut-throat competitors.
Samuelsson, who turned 74 this month, served because the group’s chief govt for a decade till 2022. The corporate’s share value has fallen 66 per cent prior to now three years below Jim Rowan because it struggled with the trade’s slower-than-expected shift to electrical automobiles.
“The automobile trade is below stress from many instructions,” Samuelsson, who will begin a two-year time period on Monday, stated in a press release on Sunday. “I’m honoured to return at such a defining second for Volvo Automobiles.”
Rowan’s abrupt resignation got here after he lately warned of decrease profitability and a “very difficult 12 months” forward for the corporate, partly due to the uncertainty brought on by US President Donald Trump’s commerce insurance policies. Rowan couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
“The trade might be below the best stress ever. It’s not simply inside issues for Volvo. In that point, you solely have one probability. It’s a must to play a protected card,” stated an individual near the Gothenburg-based carmaker.
Analysts have stated the carmaker might be hit exhausting by a 25 per cent tariff the US plans to impose on overseas automobile imports from April 2 because it depends on exports from Europe for gross sales within the US.
Relying on the extent of the tariffs, Volvo Automobiles has stated it desires to extend manufacturing in South Carolina. However that won’t utterly defend it from tariffs as a result of even locally-produced vehicles use a excessive quantity of non-US content material. The corporate can be uncovered to a authorities ban on Chinese language software program in electrical automobiles within the US.
To handle the EU’s larger tariffs on imports of electrical automobiles made in China, Volvo Automobiles may even produce its EX30 EV mannequin in its Ghent plant in Belgium, in addition to in China from this 12 months.
Geely’s founder Eric Li, who’s the chair of Volvo Automotive’s board, cited Samuelsson’s “industrial depth” and “confirmed management” as a cause for bringing him again.
“Because the trade enters an much more complicated part, we imagine his expertise and regular hand are precisely what is required to strengthen Volvo Automobiles’ world place,” Li added.
An individual accustomed to the board’s pondering stated that Volvo Automobiles wanted to be ready for a “a lot harder future” that may require cost-cutting and Samuelsson to attempt to unlock extra benefits from the Chinese language possession, together with entry to cheaper suppliers.
An individual near the corporate stated Geely had been pissed off with Volvo Automotive’s valuation even from the time of its preliminary public providing in Stockholm in 2021, which Samuelsson oversaw.
Along with his regular file, the individual stated Samuelsson was additionally in style with each staff and automobile sellers.
The Swedish carmaker final 12 months deserted plans to promote solely electrical vehicles by the top of the last decade.
Volvo Automobiles may even be hit by the EU’s leisure of emissions targets since it could lose among the income it earned from promoting credit to rivals that have been lagging behind it in lowering carbon emissions.
