Volvo and Geely eye joint R&D

Swedish carmaker Volvo and its Chinese majority owner Geely will set up a joint research and development center in Gothenburg in Sweden to extend their cooperation in technology, according to a statement released Wednesday.

The facility will develop a new set of components and modular architecture to save costs of developing, testing and sourcing for future C-segment cars of both companies based on economies of scale, according to the statement.

"The modular design allows several different vehicle platforms to be developed from one single architecture. This will be a showcase for cooperation between a Western world premium car manufacturer and a thriving Chinese automotive company," Mats Fagerhag, CEO of the new R&D center said in the statement.

The center is set to open by the end of this year and will employ about 200 engineers from Sweden and China.

Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Automobile, said the company will continue to learn from Volvo but "the sharing of knowledge and technology has to be done without jeopardizing brand integrity and individual product development."

He said a stand-alone joint R&D is the best way to achieve this, a view echoed by Peter Mertens, senior vice president for research and development at Volvo Cars.

"With Geely as a partner, we emphasize that Volvo Cars will be in full control of the development of our next generation C-segment cars," Mertens said.