Volvo Cars has announced that President and Chief Executive Officer Håkan Samuelsson will continue in his role until 2022.
In a press release, Volvo Cars said that the “extension provides the company with management continuity as it continues to transform itself into a global and diversified mobility service provider.”
Samuelsson added, “I have enjoyed leading this company tremendously so far and I look forward to continuing the transformation of our company.”
Since he became President of Volvo Cars in October 2012, the company has undergone nothing short of a transformation. Samulesson’s tenure has seen the company establish itself as a strong competitor in the premium segment with a completely new range of vehicles based on in-house developed platform, powertrain, safety and infotainment technologies.
Additionally, Volvo Cars says it has also witnessed several years of record sales and profits, as well as numerous prestigious awards and recognitions for both its vehicles and technology.
Moving forward, Volvo Cars says that Samuelsson and the company will “seek to continue this upward trajectory by capitalizing on and leading the disruption currently underway in the industry.”
Volvo Cars has also previously announced that long term, it wants to establish itself as a leader in mobility for the future, including electrification, autonomous driving and new models of car ownership and access.
Volvo says that under its Freedom to Move initiative, the company aims to offer a range of additional safe, personal and sustainable mobility services instead of just simply selling cars and SUVs to consumers.
By the middle of the next decade, Volvo Cars says it expects half of all annual sales to come from fully electric cars, while one-third of all cars are expected to be autonomous. It also aims to offer half of all cars to customers via subscription.
Volvo Cars anticipates this approach will transform its connection to its customer base and help it establish over 5 million direct consumer relationships by the middle of next decade. This also aims to offer the company far greater potential to develop connected and other services around the car to its customers.
To help realize these goals Volvo Cars has already restructured its businesses by providing offerings such as subscription service Care by Volvo, its new mobility company M, its electric performance arm Polestar in addition to interests in new Chinese car brand LYNK & CO and autonomous software company Zenuity.
“The industry is changing and so are the expectations of our customers. We need and want to answer those demands,” said Samuelsson. “Our course for the coming years is to turn our disruptive ambitions into a concrete reality. Our transformation is not over and in the Volvo story there is a lot more to come.”