Volvo based on Ren.

Volvo top brass, including Li Shu Fu, were on hand in Beijing yesterday to announce Volvo’s new brand strategy for the next few years. Volvo did of course become part of the Geely empire earlier this year and will put a greater emphasis on the Chinese market over the next few years as a way to cash in on the burgeoning market for luxury cars and recoup Geely’s 2 billion investment in the Swedish company.

Volvo’s new strategy is based on ‘Design around you’ which will put the human factor at the center of its new car designs and will play on Volvo’s rich history in developing safe and dependable cars. Richard Monturo, Volvo’s vice president of global marketing was on hand to say “”It summarizes our approach to understanding people, giving them a luxury experience that is a little more human-oriented – while at the same time linking firmly to our heritage of building safe and dependable cars, We are the most human-centric car brand in the industry. And we need to communicate that to our customers.”

The S60 sedan was recently introduced into the Chinese market and has won a great deal of positive feedback from automotive media and consumers alike, the XC60 compact SUV has also won great praise in the Chinese market. Sales of Volvo’s in China surged by 36% to 21,000 units in the first of half 2011. The most popular Volvo models in the Chinese market are the XC60, S80L and S60 sedan.

Construction of a new Chengdu plant has already begun and should be completed within the next year, Volvo are also planning for a new factory in Daqing and will work on expanding its dealership network across China, currently Volvo has 117 dealers in the China.

Volvo will be working to give Chinese consumers a greater choice of vehicles in the next year with the introduction of the Volvo V50.