Garaget - Volvo Cars Podcast

Vi talar om Polestar och dess resa mot att bli helt klimatneutrala 2030. Om vad Dennis med sin gedigna bakgrund och breda CV kan bidra med in i Polestar och hur företaget kan utvecklas med nya modeller och nya affärsmodeller. Välkommen med i samtalet. 

In this episode you will meet Håkan Samuelsson, the CEO of Volvo Cars. We talk about record sales, electrification and much more but also about a culture that instead of just talking dare to take action and "just do it". Håkan have just turned 70tie, and he may be the oldest person in Volvo Cars just now but I can promise you that he is more vital than ever and so curios of what the future will bring. No plan to resign.

In this episode you will meet Alain Visser, the CEO of Lynk&Co Lynk&Co has just announced and revealed their new concept of joining their community and be member of the Lynk&Co club. They call it a streaming mobility service. A very different way of offer a mobility services for a car company. Has this concept the power to pave the way for a very different way how to consume mobility? Can it possible reform the whole automotive industry? Welcome to Garaget International!

In this episode you will meet Håkan Samuelsson, the CEO of Volvo Cars since 2012. We talk about the corona pandemic and how it has hurt the business but also how it has accelerated the transformation of Volvo Cars to become a true premium electric car company. An organisation with aspiration to adapt to new customer behaviours and find ways to buy and use mobility services. An organisation that want to attract talents and people with ambition to make a difference towards a true sustainable mobility company. We also touch on the merger between Volvo Cars and Geely Auto and possible consequences for Volvo Cars as an independent company.

In this episode you will meet Håkan Matson and Frederic Cho. Håkan is one of Sweden’s most well-known automotive journalists and co-writer to the book “Volvos revanche – How the tiger was unleashed”. Frederic is an eminent Chinese experts and business advisors in Sweden with more than 30 years business experience from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and also writer to book “China according to Cho” and my contribution as host is as writer of the book “The truth about Volvo”. We talk and reflect about the exiting story of Volvo Cars since Geely's acquisition 10 years ago and what the recipe has been for the success. We also discuss the situation today and what the future might bring. Welcome to Garaget International!

In this episode you will meet Stefan Rosen. SVP for Lynk&Co design heading an office with nearly 400 coworkers at Lindholmen in Gothenburg.  Stefan and I have a long history together at Volvo Cars but this time we focus on his thoughts about creating design and values for a  new mobility brand – Lynk&Co. A global blend and brand with roots both in west and east. Welcome to Garaget International!

In this episode you will meet Alexander Murdzevski. He is head of Geely Group Motorsport and lead the Team to the victory of the Word Touring Car Cup 2019 with the Lynk&Co "zero-three" car sport sedan car. We talk about racing, what it takes to win a global motor cup and about the network within the Geely family that made it possible. And if Lotus or Polestar  will enter formula racing backed by Geely motorsport. Welcome to Garaget International!

In this episode you will meet Hans Oscarsson. We know each other since many years together at Volvo Cars but now Hans is in a new role as CEO for Geely Sweden Holdings AB since august 2019.  We talk about his role to oversee all Geely's investments in the Nordic countries. They have a strong impact on Sweden but an even bigger influence of the city of Gothenburg. Welcome to Garaget International! 

This is the third episode from my visit at Lotus Cars and their facility in Hethel in Norwich England.  This time you will meet the head of design Russel Carr. He will tell you about the importance of Lotus design and especially about the story behind the new hypercar from Lotus the Evija.  I will also talk with Matt Windle about engineering and David Hewitt about manufacturing of today’s hand built Lotus sportscar.

I’m back with the second episode from my visit at Lotus Cars October 2019 and their facility in Hethel in Norwich England. This time you will meet Clive Chapman, son to the legendary founder of Lotus Cars Colin Chapman and Gavan Kershaw that is responsible for handling and performance of today’s Lotus sports car. Welcome to Garaget International! 

I visited Lotus Cars in their facilities in Hethel, Norwich England in mid-October where the legendary engineer genius Colin Chapman founded Lotus Cars more than 70 years ago. An amazing place. Lotus is now a part of the Geely group and I was so interested to understand what that has meant for the brand and the company and how the future looks like. This is the first episode in a series of episodes from Lotus Cars. In this first episode I meet with Geoff Dowding director of sales and Simon Clare director for Global marketing. Welcome to Garaget International! 

In this episode you will meet Joe Lin and Jerker Andersson. They are both winner of the 2018th Shufu Award, founded by Geelys chairman Li Shufu. Their backgrounds differ a lot but there are also similarities. They have made great achievements for the Geely group and they are both passionate about their work.  We talk about what made them winner of the award and what it has meant for them to receive this achievement. Welcome to Garaget International! 

Niclas Anderson is Director for Supplier quality for Volvos and Lynk&Co’s small platform, CMA.  His workplace is CEVT in Gothenburg and his job is to secure the quality for all components within the region of Europe. But the success of his work is depending on that he can work together with people from China and Europe and from Geely and Volvo and suppliers from all over the world. We talk about what the challenges are and what opportunity this gives him in his daily work. Welcome to Garaget International! 

I meet two of the co-workers at Volvo Cars innovation lab in a cool office in the city centre of Gothenburg earlier this spring.  It was Lotta Ahlberg and old friend with a mixed history from Volvo Cars from Innovation support and Ergonomics and Paul Aston a fresh Volvo employee with a background as tech designer with a lot of experience from the non-automotive business. LABS has been in operation for less then two years and they have a mission to innovate new business for Volvo cars. Some ideas is soon reaching real customers and some are still only ideas. Join our conversion and get inspired!

Welcome to celebrate the one hundred episodes of this podcast. We recorded it in front of a live audience for the first time. Anna Margitin, Board member of Volvo Car group and union leader was co-host for this anniversary. Culture was on the agenda and we had a very interesting guest on board; Lex Kerssemakers SVP and responsible for Direct Consumer Business at Volvo Car. He is a passionate advocate of a strong company culture and has recently been out in social media in this matter. And as a bonus you get the song from the eighties “The spirit of Volvo” in the end of this episode. Warm welcome to join us in this historically episode.

Peter Horbury is more or less synonym with Geely Design that started as a seed six years ago with less than 10 people. They have now grown to a global design organisation present on three different continents with more than 900 employees. Peter and I meet at his office in Lindholmen, Gothenburg and spoke about the incredible success for Geely Auto and the part that Design has played. Geely Design is now responsible for the design of next generation Lotus cars and this is sort of dream coming true for Peter. We also talk about possible synergies in the Geely group and how we can learn from each other. Welcome to the conversation.

Håkan Samuelsson is a recurring guest in Garaget. This time we talk about the challenges in today’s tougher business environment and how to meet them in a constructive way. He wants to stimulate job rotation and use the potential in all employees in order to increase efficiency. More focus to group around a challenge and a mission and less on boxes and a firm organization. Håkan is also convinced that Volvo need new ways to reach consumers but that today’s retailers has to be part of the new infrastructure.  Electrification and autonomous drive is also focus area’s for Volvo that we cover in our dialog. Welcome to Garaget International!

Thomas Ingenlath is the CEO and the incarnation of Polestar, the new car brand in the Geely group.  We meet in Polestars new office “The cube” in Torslanda Gothenburg a bright Saturday morning and had a very relaxed talk about where Polestar is today and where the company is heading for the future. It’s a new company with a new unique culture but with very close bonds with its parent’s Volvo Cars and Geely. Polestar just launched its second car Polestar 2 that is a pure electric car with ambitions to compete with cars like the Tesla model 3. But for Thomas this is only the beginning. He sees lots of opportunities for the future and I quote him: “The sky is the limit!” Welcome to Garaget International!

In this episode you will meet Carl-Peter Forster. He has an impressing experience and CV from more than 30 years in the car business. He has worked for BMW, has been the president for GM-Europe, CEO for the Tata-group including Jaguar and Land Rover and much more. He has also been a member of Volvo Cars Board more since early 2013 and is now leaving that position. He share his thoughts about what made the turn around of Volvo Cars possible and how to meet future challenges. He praise the Volvo engineers and there importance for the success. We discuss the impact and influence from Geely as owner and what that has meant for Volvo Cars and what opportunities it will give Volvo for the future. Welcome to Garaget International!

In this episode you will meet the director for MobilityXlab Katarina Brud. MobilityXlab is situated in the heart of the mobility cluster in Lindholmen Gothenburg and is a place where tech startups can accelerate their development by accessing competence from leading mobility experts. MobilityXlab was launched during the fall 2017 and the partners is CEVT, Ericsson, Veoneer, Volvo Cars, Volvo Group & Zenuity. The initiative is hosted by Lindholmen Science Park. Welcome to Garaget International!