Volvo on Tuesday introduced its first vehicle designed and built under Chinese ownership. But the influence, if any, of the new owners from Hangzhou has been carefully hidden by many layers of Swedish aesthetic.
Volvo managers, overwhelmingly from Sweden or other European countries, portrayed the new XC90 sport utility vehicle as Scandinavian to the marrow. It has an interior designed to evoke an elegant Swedish living room and an optional sound system that supposedly replicates the acoustics of the concert hall in Gothenburg, the hometown of Volvo Cars.
China has become Volvo Cars’ largest market since Zhejiang Geely Holding bought the company from Ford Motor in 2010. But that is partly because sales in other markets have been poor. The seven-seat XC90 is aimed primarily at another market: the United States, where Volvo aims to challenge BMW, Mercedes and Audi S.U.V.s in the driveways of the suburban well-to-do.
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Jack Ewing, New York Times via CHINA US Focus http://ift.tt/1nyUQ7l
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