Opening of Volvo R&D Center in China／Foundation laying of Asia-Pacific Headquarters

　　[News] On September 9, 2015, Auto officially opened the newly-built China R&D headquarters in Jiading, Shanghai, and laid the foundation stone for the Asia-Pacific headquarters of Volvo Car Group. The opening of Volvo Car’s R&D headquarters in China will not only enhance the overall strength and level of R&D in China’s automobile industry, but also train more automotive technical talents with leading core R&D in the world for China. All senior R&D executives from the Transport Committee of the Swedish Parliament and the headquarters of Volvo Car Group also came to the R&D headquarters of Volvo Car in China to witness this historic moment symbolizing that Volvo’s development in China has entered a new stage.

　　Volvo Car China R&D headquarters is located in Jiading District, Shanghai. The first phase of the project has a construction area of 35,000 square meters and an investment of about 420 million yuan. It consists of vehicle emission laboratory, powertrain laboratory, electronic and electrical laboratory, durability laboratory, active safety and chassis laboratory, indoor air quality laboratory, color matching laboratory, material testing laboratory, salt spray corrosion laboratory, test instrument development laboratory, test preparation workshop, logistics warehouse and engineer office area.

　　R&D scope includes automobile modeling design, interior and exterior decoration design, active safety and chassis design, electronic and electrical system design, powertrain, and new energy and intelligent interconnection technology representing the future development direction of automobile industry. According to Volvo’s global standards and management process, China R&D Headquarters has adopted the industry-leading laboratory layout and equipment, which will comprehensively enhance the R&D capability of China and maximize the synergy with Sweden R&D Headquarters.

"Left: Volvo Asia Pacific S60L Right: Imported"

"Left: Volvo Asia Pacific XC60 Right: Imported"

　　The establishment of Volvo China’s R&D team dates back to 2011. Since its establishment in early 2011, the number of the team has exceeded 500, and it has successfully developed a variety of products for the global market, including XC90, which has just been listed. Since its inception, the R&D team has focused on the R&D and testing of S/V series cars, multi-purpose vehicles and XC series, trying to create products that meet the needs of consumers in China, and at the same time integrating the needs of consumers in China into new products facing the global market.Up to the present position, Volvo China R&D team has completed the following nine important R&D projects, namely:

1. Design, configuration upgrade and localization of 1.S60L (China Extended Edition).
2.S80L (China market extended edition) vehicle model change.
3. Design, configuration upgrade and localization of 3.XC60
4. Localization of
5.2.0 localization of li5p
6. Localization of the new generation 2.0L VEP engine
7. Calibration and matching of new generation VEP engine (2.0L) and gearbox
8. Development and localization of 8.S60L plug-in gasoline models
9. Development and localization of 9.S60 Inscription (exported to the American market)

　　In addition, China R&D team cooperated with manufacturing engineering teams and other departments, participated in the construction of Chengdu and Daqing factories and led the production qualification review of the above two factories and new energy vehicles. At the same time, the center has completed the establishment of Volvo’s supplier system in China from scratch in the past four years, and has developed more than 340 local suppliers (including the production organizations of international suppliers in China), greatly improving their overall quality and management level. At the same time, Volvo also launched the "202020 Strategy" for product development–by 2020, it will only take 20 months for new products based on new platforms to be defined and put into production, andChina’s future product planning and launch will be completely synchronized with Europe.

　　Different from most joint venture brands setting up R&D centers in China,Volvo Car Shanghai R&D Center is a wholly-owned organization, so there is no barrier between the new R&D headquarters and the Swedish headquarters, let alone a firewall.The R&D resources and achievements have been shared globally, and the R&D work has progressed together. Through Volvo’s global unified product development system, China has formed a R&D pattern with the headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, which unifies research methods, workflow, standards and equipment.

　　At present, Volvo Cars has put some research and development work on the latest generation of energy-saving and environment-friendly engines and intelligent in-vehicle interactive systems in China. In the future, the focus of research and development work in China will include researching and developing a series of highly competitive products that meet the needs of consumers in China on a brand-new platform, and working with the headquarters to develop a new generation of new energy vehicles. At the same time, the R&D team of China will actively assist the headquarters in the research and development of new generation powertrain technology, active and passive safety technology, intelligent interconnection technology and autonomous driving technology.

"Volvo Asia Pacific S60L T5 Hybrid Model"

　　In addition, with the domestic production of T5 plug-in hybrid products, the team has introduced the latest generation of new energy-saving and emission-reduction engine research and electric drive system platform to China, and made changes according to the China market, so that the diesel hybrid power model originally launched for overseas markets finally has a gasoline model equipped with Drive-E powertrain that is more in line with the demand of China market, which greatly promoted the technical level of China R&D team in powertrain and new energy vehicle development, and laid a sufficient talent base for further research and development of more models in the future. What’s more worth mentioning is that China’s R&D team cooperated with various departments to successfully export the extended version of "Made in China" Inscription to the United States this year, which is also a historic breakthrough in the history of China’s automobile manufacturing.

　　At the same time, the foundation stone was laid for the Asia-Pacific headquarters building of Volvo Car Group, which will be adjacent to the China R&D headquarters building of Volvo Car in the future, with a total investment of about 1.7 billion yuan, with a total area of 38,400 square meters for new buildings and 108,500 square meters for new buildings, with a total area of 300 mu. Upon completion, it will not only become the nerve center of sales, R&D, procurement and production of Volvo Cars in the Asia-Pacific region, but also include the headquarters building with a construction area of about 60,000 square meters, the automobile museum, the design and modeling center, the trial-production workshop, and other laboratories and their auxiliary power facilities that will be built in the China R&D Center.

　　At present, the R&D Center in China has nearly 500 staff members, including 30 experts from Volvo’s Swedish headquarters, 15 overseas senior experts (including 2 specially invited experts from the National Thousand Talents Program) and more than 400 technical R&D engineers (including 14 doctors, 136 masters and 229 undergraduates). With the full development of Volvo Car R&D project in China, the total number of R&D centers in the future will continue to grow rapidly. (Text/Photo/Photo by Huang Zhengqiao, car home)

Extended reading—

Will be exported to the American-made S60 Inscription real vehicle.
//www.autohome.com.cn/news/201505/874222.html