Under Samuelsson, 71, and the ownership of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Volvo transformed from a Ford Motor cast-off to one of the automakers at the forefront of the shift to electric vehicles. The company plans to pivot to an all-EV, all-online sales model by the end of the decade.
Rowan’s view on Volvo’s need to change its approach to software echoes comments his predecessor made almost a year ago.
“Today, the software is decentralized in a lot of black boxes, and we buy it from suppliers based on specifications, but when we want a change and you have to talk to suppliers, it is too slow,” Samuelsson told a mobility conference in May. “To have speed of development but also to guarantee high-quality, over-the-air downloads, you really need to secure the compatibility of all functionalities, and that is very difficult if you have the old structure.”
A day after Rowan became CEO on March 21, Volvo warned delivery growth will be marginal this year because another disturbance in semiconductor supply will hamper production for months. Although that disruption isn’t related to the war in Ukraine, Russia’s invasion has increased the company’s raw material, energy and freight costs.
Volvo also cautioned it expects supply-chain constraints to remain problematic for the industry throughout this year. The automaker’s shares have still advanced 24 percent since its initial public offering in October, outperforming the roughly 7 percent drop in the the OMX Stockholm 30 Index.
The stock jumped as much as 12 percent on Tuesday as auto companies outperformed a broader market rally on optimism about cease-fire talks between Russia and Ukraine.
