Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, has announced a close partnership with Google, one of the world’s largest technology companies, to develop the next generation of its award-winning in-car infotainment and connectivity solution based on Android, offering access to a wide array of apps and services. It will launch on new Volvo models within two years.
The partnership promises to revolutionise how Volvo customers engage and interact with their cars. The large catalogue of popular Android apps – developed by Google, Volvo, or third party app developers – will offer connected and predictive services in and around the car.
“We are making an important strategic step with the Google partnership. Google’s platform and services will enhance the user experience by enabling more personalisation possibilities, while Android will offer increased flexibility from a development perspective,” said Henrik Green, Senior Vice President Research & Development at Volvo Car Group.
Volvo Cars’ partnership with Google reflects the ongoing convergence between the automotive and technology industries as cars become increasingly connected. Volvo believes smart partnerships are the future for the car industry. Using Android as the base operating system will increase speed and flexibility in the development and offer its customers the ability to personalise the connected in-car experience.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Volvo to bring Android into their next generation connected cars,” said Patrick Brady, Vice President of Android Engineering at Google. “This partnership gives us the opportunity to deliver a more seamless experience to Volvo drivers through a full-featured infotainment platform and rich ecosystem of Android applications and Google services.”
“With the advent of Android we will embrace a rich ecosystem while keeping our iconic Volvo user interface. We will offer hundreds of popular apps and the best integrated experience in this broad, connected environment,” said Henrik Green.
Volvo is also collaborating with Google on another initiative to update recent Volvo models by adding Google Local Search, a location based service application. This will be released through an update to customers with Sensus Navigation.
Further details on the partnership and Android OS will be announced at Google’s annual tech show, Google I/O on May 17.
Volvo Cars most recently launched a replacement to its bestselling medium size SUV, the XC60 at the Geneva Motor Show. It is set to reveal a smaller SUV, the XC40, later this year.
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Volvo Car Group in 2016
For the 2016 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 11,014 MSEK (6,620 MSEK in 2015). Revenue over the period amounted to 180,672 MSEK (164,043 MSEK). For the full year 2016, global sales reached a record 534,332 cars, an increase of 6.2 per cent versus 2015. The record sales and operating profit cleared the way for Volvo Car Group to continue investing in its global transformation plan.
About Volvo Car Group
Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 534,332 cars in 2016 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding.
As of December 2016, Volvo Cars had over 31,000 employees worldwide. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), Chengdu and Daqing (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofström (Sweden).