Volvo & Geely to jointly develop a shared platform

2013 Volvo V40 Cross Country

Companies will establish joint a Research and Development Center in Sweden

Volvo and Geely have announced plans to establish a joint Research and Development Center in Gothenburg, Sweden to develop a new modular architecture that will underpin future C-segment vehicles.

Smaller than the previously announced Scalable Platform Architecture (SPA), the C-segment platform promises to be flexible and deliver "considerable cost savings in terms of development, testing and sourcing." However, Geely Chairman Li Shuf said "the sharing of knowledge and technology has to be done without jeopardizing brand integrity and individual product development. We believe a stand-alone, yet joint R&D Centre with a focused approach is the best way to achieve this."

There's no word on when the C-segment platform could be introduced, but the companies intend to have the R&D center fully operational by the end of 2013. When this occurs, the center will employee approximately 200 engineers from Sweden and China.