Garaget International - A Podcast with Magnus Sundemo

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!

In this episode you will meet Gang Wei. Hi is responsible for the new Geely Innovation Center that is under construction in Gothenburg. This innovation centre will be a landmark in the middle of the mobility cluster at Lindholmen in Gothenburg with room for more than three thousand engineers, designers and researchers and innovators when its ready 2022. Listen to Gang and his vision and thoughts about this exciting project that invites start-ups and innovators to join Geely’s journey to be one of the global leaders in tomorrow’s mobility landscape.

Welcome to Garaget International. In this episode you will meet Mats Fägerhag CEO in CEVT, China Euro Vehicle Tecnology, owned by the Chinese company Geely, the same company that owns Volvo Cars since 2010. CEVT is a rather new automotive engineering company with it’s base in the heart of the mobility cluster at Lindholmen in Gotheburg, today with more then 2000 employees. CEVT has made an incredible journey since the start 2013 and Mats freely share his experience trough the last five years. Welcome to this exciting episode!  

Alain Visser is the CEO of Lynk & Co. We meet at his office in Lindholmen, Gothenburg earlier this fall and talked about what it takes to create an entirely new Car brand. Lynk & Co is a very special brand with huge ambitions. The first models have already meet buyers in China and they will probably sell nearly 150 000 cars already 2018 and the ambition is to sell half a million cars already 2020. And the demand is huge from customer. The plan is then to expand and offer a new type of mobility globally with start in the Netherlands. We also talked about the culture in the company with a large influence from China. The main difference is “speed” and “cost”. Welcome to the conversion.

Einar Gudmundsson and the revolution at the dealer Rejmes Einar was appointed CEO at Rejmes five years ago and since then the company has made an unbelievable journey from worse to best in class in a lot of different aspects. Rejmes is now number one dealer in Sweden in most of the customers surveys that Volvo Cars runs to measure customer satisfaction. We talk about this journey and what the drivers are. A main reason is that management has focused on supporting all the employees in their daily work and Einar as CEO meets and talk with all the 100 employee in three sites every week. There is a huge interest in the revolution at Rejmes and Volvo Cars Sweden has assigned Rejmes to be benchmark when it comes to customers satisfaction. Please welcome to the conversation.

Summer special - Xiaolin Yuan head of Volvo Asia Pacific Xiaolin was appointed Senior vice president of the market area Volvo Asia Pacific in February 2017. It includes China that is the largest single market of Volvo Cars today. We talk about the reasons of the rapid growth for Volvo in China and especially what challenges Volvo Cars meet. We also talk about the Volvo culture and what Xiaolin learned during his stay at Volvo Headquarter in Göteborg when he held the position as head of Charimans Office at Volvo. Welcome to this episode!

Care by Volvo featuring Patrik Illerstig Care by Volvo is a new way to address the need and wish for hassle free car ownership and mobility. The concept was launched a year ago and since February this year Patrik Illerstig joined Volvo as the CEO in order to boost the concept. Patrik came with a lot of experience from E-commerce and joined our company after looking for a really challenge, a company with sound values and a word class company. And the choice fell on Volvo Cars. The concept “Care by Volvo” is already a success in the US and is now spread all over the globe. It’s essential to build on a common bas concept but adapt it to the needs and the conditions on each market. Volvo Cars is again a pioneer and a frontier. An idea we discuss is to use some of our company cars in order to test and develop the concept to the next level. Who doesn’t want a hassle free car? Welcome to this inspiring and challenging episode!

The Agile transformation Volvo Cars is just in the middle of a dramatic change in how we work together. We call it the Agile transformation and is about a fundamental change in how we interact with one another. The Agile methodology is valid when we develop anything from a new software to an entire new car. In this episode you will meet Anna Sandberg and Magnus Lindh, that are deeply involved in supporting this change. They both believe that Agile work methods drastically can increase the efficiency in the daily work and help everyone to do a better job. It build on trust and the believe that everyone wants to contribute and do their part of the task without need of a lot of control. That will make the job both more inspiring and more fun and the result will be better. But of course we need training so get ready and get on board! Welcome to this inspiring and challenge episode!

Emelie Emanuelsson a true womengineer Emelie is one of two founders of the organization Womengineer. Their goal is that 2030 50% of all graduated engineers in Sweden should be women. They believe in that the reason why women is still a minority at the technical university’s in Sweden is because lack of information to possible girl candidates. Emelie is an employee at Volvo Cars since 2015 and holds a position as product owner for clean air quality and enjoy her work and find it extremely fun, exciting and developing. The work with womengineer is all voluntary and includes organisation an yearly event called IGE(Introduce a Girl to Engineering)-day that let nearly 2000 girl from 12-19 year to visit a workplace and understand what it could be working as an engineer. Volvo Cars was one of the sponsors earlier this spring and opened up for several girls to visit our offices and plants. Get inspired and listen to Emelie – a true role model for coming generation of womengineer!  

Meet Shahbaz Kahn - traffic general in Goteborg Shahbaz is newly appointed chairman of the Traffic board of Goteborg. We have an intense discussion in Goteborg about the new train tunnel “the west link” and that discussion is something that we handle. But most important is how the world leading mobility cluster in Goteborg that has rapidly developed the last 10 years can collaborate with the city and the academy to strengthen all parties. The city is already a test arena for new technologies with the “Driveme-project” and others but we have all opportunities to develop it to a entirely new level. When it comes to banning diesel cars in the city Shahbaz is clear that he is against this kind of prohibition. This will only close the city for people with less resources and is not a tool he want to use. He wants to work with positive motivation so people voluntary pick traffic solutions that is both efficient and good for the environment. And he is very interesting in visiting Volvo Cars to explore possible opportunities to collaborate in finding both short- and long-term solutions on traffic challenges. Welcome to the conversation.

Meet Håkan Samuelsson, CEO at Volvo Cars Volvo Cars had a great 2017 and a fantastic start of 2018 with lots of great achievements and awards. Håkan’s view is that this has created a sound self-confidence in the whole company that also is necessary in order to move forward. But we cannot lean back on old victories. Håkan introduce a new idea of an organisation that builds on a clear vision and mission but without all detailed roles and hierarchies. An organisation that organize itself and is much more flexible than today’s organisation. His vision is to release people from detailed role description that hinder them, and instead “bring out the best” from each and every one and be able to get passionated about the job. Please welcome to a challenging and interesting conversation!

Meet Hanna Fager, head of HR at Volvo Cars Volvo Cars is going through a dramatic transformation and that put a lot of challenges on all of our employees including the head of HR. The company has doubled the number of employees since 2008 and we need to focus on what is important. Hanna look on 2018 as a year when we need to consolidate what has been achieved the last years and to find new way to “group around a challenge” and leave the bureaucracy behind. We need to develop our leadership skills and that goes for all of us , not only our formal managers. Welcome to on intense and inspiring session with Hanna.

Meet Martina Buchhauser Volvo Cars new head of Procurement Martina is new Senior Vice President for Procurement at Volvo Cars since October 2017. She has a background from GM both in the US and in Germany and the last years from BMW. She has made a flying start with a rapid reorganization, focusing in early involvement from procurement from the start in the development process in order to get the best supplier on board as early as possible. She wants to establish a true global procurement organization, getting both quality and material cost right and trying to find a solid process for capacity. We had an intense conversation and she encourage everybody that has anything important to share to contact her. Her door is open and she is open to listen.

Joint Venture with Geely - an opportunity to coolaborate 2017 a new company was founded called Geely Volvo Automobile Technology. The scope for this Joint Venture company between Volvo Cars and Geely Auto is to share technology in order to save resources and use our common competence in the Geely group as optimal as possible. We have already reaped the fruit of successful corporation when Volvos first car the XC40 on the common CMA-platform just won the prestigious award “Car of the year 2018”. The JV-company has two offices. One in Göteborg and one in China. Hans Lindh with a long carrier for more than 30 years is the CEO of the Goteborg based office. We meet and talked about the setup of the company and all opportunities but also on risks for this new corporation. Please join us in the dialog.

Circular economy - increase profit and save the planet In this episode you will meet Mats Williander. He is a researcher at RISE- Victoria Institute at Lindholmen, Goteborg with focus on sustainability and new business models that could help business both increase profit and at the same time save the planet. He has studied “Circular economy” that is a tool to both develop the business and revenues and in the same time develop long term sustainability in order to save resources and build a eco systems that will work for coming generations. We discuss especially how this model could be adopted to the automotive industry and future mobility. Welcome to an challenging and inspiring discussion and conversation.

Bodil Eriksson and Volvo mobility service Bodil is the CEO for the newly started initiative called Volvo mobility services. This initiative address the fact that more and more people ask for flexible mobility to meet their communication needs without having to buy or lease their own car. Volvo has been sort of a pioneer in this area with Sunfleet that has been operating for 20 years and their operation is a starting point for this service but the ambition is to lift it to an entire new level and to implement it globally. Bodil’s team is situated in the very heart of Stockholm in an office called Epicenter, where a lot of start-ups and dynamic company share office and space in order to cross fertilize between the different companies. This new services have fierce competition both from companies as Uber and Google but also from OEM’s like BMW and VW. But they believe that they have an unique business idea and work intense to be able to launch their first offers to the public in 2019. We wish them good luck!

XC60 launch In this episode you will meet Karl-Johan Ekman and Magnus Olsson, two key persons in the development and launch of the new XC60 that was presented last year. The project has been extremely successful and the car has received several very prestigious awards such as the 2018 North American Utility of the Year. The XC60 is the fourth car on the SPA platform and the ramp up in production went extremely smooth. We talk about leadership and trust and how important that is in order to succeed. Please join us in this interesting dialog.

Oskar Falk Oskar is site manager for Volvos engine plant in Skövde. He has also been deeply responsible for the establishment of our first engine plant in China in Zhangjiakou. We talk about both struggles in this challenge but also what has been the success factories now when its running and produce engines both to our factories in Chengdu and in Daqing and soon also in Luqiao when Volvo will start producing the new XC40 in 2018. A critical question for the future for a plant that produce combustion engines is of course what will happen when the amount of electrified cars will increase. Oskar is a optimistic and sees more opportunities then risks and maybe we will see electric engines in the future produced in Volvos engine plants. Welcome to an interesting talk. I also want to thank you for all feedback during the year and look forward to a very exciting 2018 in the Garage with a lot of interesting visitors. Happy new Year! Magnus

Thomas Ingenlath Thomas is back in the Garage but not as Senior Vice president for Design at Volvo Cars but as CEO of the new car brand Polestar. Polestar has launched their first model #1, a beautiful performance coupe with impressing electric range as a plugin hybrid as well as a high end performance car. The media attention has been great and the interest in this new car brand with its natural connection to Volvo Cars is fantastic. We talk about Thomas new role as CEO and Polestar as a company that is a natural complement to Volvo Cars when it comes to positioning. Polestar has all the ingredients and the potential to compete with all he top competitors in the segments including Tesla. It will be exciting and thrilling to follow the future of Polestar. Welcome to the conversation.

Michael Fleiss Michael came to Volvo from Bentley and Volkswagen six years ago and became soon Vice President for Volvo Cars Powertrain engineering. He started his automotive career in his father’s garage fixing neighbours cars, 10 years old and has since then been a true car enthusiast. Since not quite a year he entered a new era in his career as Vice President for Vehicle hardware. We talk about the shift to electrification and what impact that could mean for his new area and for the whole industry. We also talk about leadership behaviour and what he brought from Volkswagen but also what he learnt at Volvo and what he appreciate from our working culture. For Michael knowledge and technology skill is an essential part of his leadership and that will not change dramatically in his organisation even when we introduce new way of working in product streams and with agile work processes. Management and Technology cannot be strict divided. Welcome to the conversation.

Katarina Eriksson and Simon Lundqvist – two talented team leaders Katarina and Simon are both team leaders in the Torslanda plant and work on the pallet line with assembly of engines, fuel tanks, exhausts systems and much more. We talk about all the challenges on the assemble line with high work load and stress, but also about an inspiring workplace with lots of ambition to improve quality and to deliver better and better. We discuss Volvo Cars culture and their dreams and wish for the future. They are young and enthusiastic and they are an essential part of Volvos bright future. Welcome to the conversation.

Philip Nordahl – An unique Volvo career Philip Nordahl was only 22 years old when he decided to pack the bag and go to China to sign up for Greely’s team who was set to acquire Volvo Cars. The year was 2009 and Ford had just went official that Volvo Cars was for sale. His exciting journey started in a Geely plant as a spot welder to test him and find out if he was a spy or not. Today he is making a successful career at Volvo Cars and his message is clear: - If you get a chance – jump on it! Welcome to the conversation.

Smart cities – a treat or an opportunity In this episode we discuss ”smart cities” with Karolina Bjurhed and Martin Ivarson. Smart cities that is liveable, workable and can provide good quality of life for their citizens. In a smart crowded city a traditional car is questioned. But was does that mean for us as a car company today and in the future? How can we be part of this development and use it as an tool to grow and build new business opportunities? Karolina and Martin is working on a strategy on this subject and they invite you all to participate in the discussion.

Dennis Nobelius – an autonomus CEO Many of you know Dennis from his long and successful career at Volvo Cars in a lot of different positions. His career peaked at Volvo Cars as program manager for the XC90 that was launched some years ago and was a mega success. But since nearly a year ago he has been leading the process to develop a brand new company; “Zenuity”. I visited him at his and Zenuity’s brand new office in Lindholmen and got the chance to talk about this new company, a joint venture between Volvo Cars and Autoliv. It was thrilling and exiting and the ambition is to be one of the leaders in the world when it comes to software engineering for autonomus vehicles. A field that will revolutionize the entire automotive landscape in the coming decade. But we talked also about leadership, a flat organisation and what motivates the people in this very exciting and rapidly growing company. Welcome to the conversation.

Garaget 71. Sofia Granath Sofia is director for digitalization at Autoliv since February 2017 and have an impressive CV with experience from a variety of different areas. She look at herself as being a little bit crazy. She believe in the potential in the human being and have hope and faith that everything is possible. She’s loves problem solving and values open organizations, where not only leaders should initiate products and changes. We talk a lot of different possibilities with new technology to solve the daily challenges in everyday life including needs for more efficient mobility services. Welcome to the conversation.

 Per Gyllenspetz – an outsiders reflection on Volvo cars Per is a designer, innovator, mobility expert, teacher, researcher with a past as designer at Volvo cars mainly in the eighties and the nineties. I asked him to challenge Volvo Cars of today and give his thoughts of what to prioritize for the future. He talks about the “big curve” meaning that we have to deviate from a linear development and to embrace change and new radical thinking to be able to be a true sustainable company. Welcome to the conversation!

RCC – How good is Volvos internal consultants? Some of the internal consultants at RCC (Resorce & Competence Centre) meet in a round table talk about what it is to work as an internal consultant at Volvo Cars. What are the pros and cons in being an internal resource and what are the reactions from customers and colleagues. Can you do a career within RCC? Will RCC continue to grow and what does it take to be an RCC-consultant. Meet Johanna Wennberg, Reiner Gustavsson, Charlotte Hammarström, Jesper Nerhed and Britta Berg in this episode of the Garage.  

Johan Nyhus – "infarstrukturministern” i Göteborg Johan är kommunalråd i Göteborg och ansvarig för trafik och infrastrukturen i vår stad. Många av oss på Volvo har ibland uppfattat våra politiker som bilfientlig men den bilden vill Johan ändra på. Han kör själv gärna bil och har i år varit på husvagnssemester med sin familj. Han öppnar öppet spjället fullt för samarbetsidéer mellan fordonsindustrin och staden och vill gärna se vår stad som en ledande testa arena för framtida mobilitet. Han lovar att driva dessa frågor hårt politiskt så att Göteborg kan bli den mest framstående staden i Europa och gärna i världen i detta avseende. Välkommen med i samtalet där Johan också får dela sin bild av Västlänken och Göteborgspaketet.

Henrik Green - Strategist and coffee connoisseur Henrik is Vice president for Product & Quality since December 2016 but has a long history at Volvo Cars in severely different positions since more than 20 years. Henrik is eager to communicate with all his co-workers and write a letter every week in a lot of interesting subjects. We discuss the latest announcement that all new Volvo Cars will be electrified in 2019, how we as a company can work in the same direction in order to take on all new challenges and what new business models can mean if the cars are shared instead of personal owned in a near future. We also talk about our company culture and what coffee you should enjoy during your holiday to get the best experience. Please welcome to the conversation.

Lex Kerssemakers – stay razor sharp Lex is Senior Vice president for Volvo Cars in the Americas since 2015 and he has lead the organization during a crucial transformation and manged to start the turn around of our US-market. Last year we increased the sales with nearly 20% and the question for 2017 is if can keep the pace and the increasing trend. We discuss obstacles and opportunities on this challenging market and what the US premium customers search for when the look for a new car. How important is electrification and is the US-customer ready for car sharing? He urges us all to stay razor sharp in a competitive business where there no time to lean back if you want to stay in the business. Welcome to the conversation!

Jan Ivarsson – How will Volvos safety vision 2020 become a reality Jan is Senior Technical Advisor Safety at Volvo Car Group and has been working with safety issues within Volvo for decades. He was part of the team that formulated the challenging vision 2020 as early as 2006 that “no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car by 2020”. We discuss the background of this bold promise and how it should be interpreted in if it’s really an realistic goal. We also discuss the hot electric bicycle trend and how that influence transportation safety in the cities. Should Volvo Cars start to produce safe electric bicycles? Please join us in our conversation.

Karin Thorn Karin has been in Volvo Cars quite a while and started her career in Power train development and has been working in different areas but with focus on Advanced Engineering and concept development. Last year she where appointed VP for Complete Vehicle but after the latest reorganisation she is back in the Powertrain area but now as VP for what is now called Vehicle Propulsion, where the former powertrain unit of course is the core of the new organisation. We are in a shift when it comes to powertrains and electrification is becoming a more and more important part in our coming cars. Karin share her view on this major challenge and we talk about the transformation in knowledge and competence in this respect and how it could be handled. Please join us in our conversation.