First Model of Dongfeng-Volvo Alliance to Showcase in April

www.chinatrucks.com: The new Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Co., (DFCV) jointly established by Dongfeng Group and Volvo AB, will start operation in the second half of the year, reported Beijing News.

The team structure of the joint venture company will mainly consist of the old DFCV personnel, with Volvo staffs as a supplement. The first heavy-duty truck jointly developed will showcase at this year’s Shanghai Auto Show in April, and will be produced in Volvo’s plant in Brazil.

According to an insider of DFCV, the first product of the new joint venture will be a 13L heavy-duty truck and Dongfeng will pay the labor fees to Volvo. “We will also negotiate with Volvo’s dealers in Brazil and sell this model through their overseas sales channels. With complementarity of resources, Dongfeng will be able to open its overseas sales channel easily,” said the above insider.

 
In fact, the Dongfeng-Volvo alliance is a bridge that Dongfeng built for itself to the world’s market, and it is also the reason that Dongfeng insists on using its own logo. Products with Dongfeng logo can be exported freely without being limited by certain areas. The new models cannot enter Volvo’s other overseas markets if they wore Volvo logo.

Chinese enterprises’ automobile technologies, especially the electricity and electronic control systems, are far behind their overseas counterparts and can barely meet the high standards of the developed markets, said Tong Dongcheng, vice president of Dongfeng, during a media interview. “New technologies of the two parties will be shared on one platform, and current products can also be manufactured on the platform.” “We will also set up a commercial vehicle R&D center in Europe at later stage,” said the insider.

According to Dongfeng’s overseas strategy, the company will realize an export volume of 300,000 units by 2016, and will take up 10 percent of its total independent brand sales. To achieve this goal, Dongfeng established the international business department in 2011 to promote the strategic transfer of the company’s overseas business.

 

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