Geely and Volvo to share R&D centre Geely and Volvo Cars will jointly build a research and development centre in Gothenburg in one of the biggest co-operations so far between the Swedish carmaker and its Chinese owner. The R&D centre, which will employ 200 people of which more than half will be Chinese, will develop a shared platform and parts for compact cars for both Volvo and Geely, ending the Swedish group's search for a partner in the so-called C-segment of small vehicles. Geely will continue to improve its product quality in the years to come and can learn from Volvo Cars. However the sharing of knowledge and technology has to be done without jeopardising brand integrity and individual product development. "We believe a standalone, yet joint R&D centre with a focused approach is the best way to achieve this," said Li Shufu, chairman and majority owner of Geely, the Chinese carmaker. Geely bought Volvo from Ford Motor in 2010 but has struggled to make the high-profile acquisition pay off as a slump in the European car market has caused the Swedish manufacturer to fall into losses. Analysts argue that Volvo lacks sufficient scale to compete with the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes and also has a brand that is some way below the leading premium carmakers. Ford agreed to continue providing Volvo with car platforms and parts after the sale but the Swedish carmaker has been seeking to free itself from the constraints of its former US owner. It is currently developing a platform for its larger models - known internally as scaleable platform architecture - but has been searching for a partner for its smallest cars. The new R&D centre means that Geely will be that partner in developing a modular architecture for small cars with both the Swedish and Chinese carmakers going out of their way to underline that Volvo's independence would be maintained. We feel that we have our destiny in our own hands. Volvo plays the leading role. Volvo doesn't have to compromise in any way on its requirements and we believe that would have been the case if we had had to work with external partners," said Peter Mertens, head of R&D at Volvo. Carl-Peter Forster, a senior adviser to Geely and former head of Opel, highlighted how the centre would be based in Sweden and headed by a Swede. "It is a very clear signal that the architecture fully enables Volvo to meet its needs," he added. He said it remained to be seen how much of the Geely models would be developed in Sweden. Volvo executives also touted the ability to tap into Geely's supply network in Asia. That fits into plans by Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo's new chief executive, to put cost pressure on its European supply base.