Yes, Volvo is now officially Chinese. Geely, or the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Company Limited in full, has basically made good on its offer to purchase Volvo from Ford. The initial deal announced in late March was finally concluded very recently. Geely had initially agreed to purchase Volvo from Ford at a reasonable sum of US$1.8billion, of which Geely has already settled the initial US$200million deposit in March, now US$1.3billion and the remaining balance by the end of this year.

Stefan Jacoby, previously CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, takes over from Stephan Odell as CEO of Volvo, who is still attached with Ford and basically moves to Ford of Europe. Geely head honco/chairman Li Shufu will become Volvo's new Chairman.

Mr. Li Shuf had stated that "This famous Swedish premium brand will remain true to its core values of safety, quality, environmental care and modern Scandinavian design as it strengthens the existing European and North American markets and expands its presence in China and other emerging markets."

While ownership is by Geely, its headquarters and manufacturing facilities will still be in Sweeden and Belgium. As stated earlier, Ford will continue to supply components and engines to Volvo for now. So I would presume there would be no change in actual manufacturing as it basically will follow Ford/Volvo manufacturing practices instead of going Geely all the way. Cars like the new V60 show that quality is still retained. By the looks of it, and as I stated in early April while reporting the initial sale, Volvo will probably do as well as Jaguar, which is now Indian (in a way), in the hands of Tata.