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<br />
Geely-owned automaker Volvo Car Group reported its operating earnings tripled in the first half and said a further roll-out of new, more up-markmodels would help drive sales in the remaining months of the year. <br />
<br /> The carmaker, bought by China's <keyword id="1604952" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Zhejiang-Geely-Holding-Group-Co">Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co</keyword>. from Ford Motor Co. in 2010, said operating earnings rose to 5.59 billion Swedish crowns ($649.8 million) from a year-ago 1.66 billion. <br />
<br />
Gothenburg-based <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Coming-soon-Volvo-is-going-to-launch-luxury-compact-SUVs-to-compete-with-Audi-BMW-Mercedes/articleshow/52397391.cms">Volvo </a>saw sales rise to 83.65 billion crowns from 75.22 billion a year ago underpinned by strong demand for its flagship XC90 SUV, and said the launch of its S90 sedan and V90 estate would provide a boost in the second half. <br />
<br /> "This robust first half financial and operational performance combined with a positive product pipeline allows me to state confidently that <keyword id="143503" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Volvo-Cars">Volvo Cars</keyword> expects to report another record full year in 2016 in terms of sales and profitability," Volvo Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said in a statement. <br />
<br />
Launch costs for the new models meant the group's operating margin dipped slightly relative to that reported for the first quarter alone, but it still stood at 6.7 percent versus the 2.2 percent posted in the first half of last year. <br />
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<a href="http://www.in4ride.net/in4ride/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Li-Shufu-Geely-Volvo.jpg"><em>Image source</em></a><br />

Volvo Cars trebled its profits in the first half of 2016

<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/bidu-stock"></a><ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/bidu-stock">Baidu</a> is set to go ahead with a second <keyword id="35212" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="listing">listing</keyword> in <keyword id="24349" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Hong-Kong">Hong Kong</keyword>, which could raise up to $3.5 billion for the Chinese tech giant, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-07/china-s-baidu-said-to-pick-clsa-goldman-for-hong-kong-listing">Bloomberg reported on Thursday.</a></li><li>CLSA and Goldman Sachs have been tapped to lead the offering. </li><li>The news comes a few weeks after Reuters reported that <keyword id="70373" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Baidu">Baidu</keyword> is mulling an entrance into the electric vehicle market, sending shares up 25% in less than a month.</li></ul><p><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/bidu-stock">Baidu</a> is heading to Hong Kong for a planned second listing, which could raise 5%-9% of the company's share capital, or up to $3.5 billion, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-07/china-s-baidu-said-to-pick-clsa-goldman-for-hong-kong-listing">Bloomberg reported on Thursday.</a></p><p>The Chinese tech giant tapped CLSA Ltd. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for their move to the Asian financial hub.</p><p>Baidu had been mulling a move to Hong Kong for some time. CEO Robert Li first discussed the idea back in May of 2020, when fellow Chinese tech giant JD.com made a similar move, raising $3.87 billion.</p><p>The news of Baidu's Hong Kong listing comes weeks after <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/baidu-auto/exclusive-china-search-giant-baidu-considers-making-own-electric-vehicles-sources-idUSL8N2IR1UR">Reuters broke the news</a> that Baidu was mulling an entrance into the EV market.</p><p>The search-engine giant was reported to be in talks with automakers, including Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd, and <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword> FAW Group Corp Ltd's Hongqi about a possible joint venture.</p><p>Since then, shares have skyrocketed over 25%. Though <keyword id="312660" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="EVS">EVs</keyword> may sound out of step with Baidu's primary business, the company has experience in the transportation industry.</p><p>In 2017, Baidu established an autonomous driving unit called Apollo that has worked with established carmakers like Ford. The company also operates an autonomous taxi service called Go Robotaxi in Beijing, Changzhou, and Changsha, with plans to expand to 30 more cities in the next three years.</p><p>Baidu's EV play will follow a growing frenzy of demand from investors for exposure to the sector. However, Baidu will face stiff competition in an already stacked Chinese EV market. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/nio-stock">Nio</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/li-stock">LI Auto</a>, and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/xpev-stock">Xpeng</a>, among others, are already fighting it out for a growing customer base.</p><p>Shares of Baidu are trading at $206.43, up 1.29% as of 10am E.T. on Thursday.</p>

Chinese tech giant Baidu is seeking to raise $3.5 billion in a Hong Kong stock listing, report says

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Bryan Logan/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">Volvo XC40.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>The Volvo XC40 is the newest and smallest addition to the Swedish automaker's SUV lineup.</strong></li><li><strong>It arrives at the perfect time for Volvo, as the luxury compact SUV segment evolves in the US.</strong></li><li><strong>The XC40 is a tasteful, high-quality and exceptionally well-packaged small SUV for a starting price of around $33,000. It's also available via subscription through the Care by Volvo program, which lumps the car payment, insurance, and scheduled maintenance into one monthly fee.</strong></li></ul><p>The Volvo XC40 is the newest addition to the Swedish automaker's SUV lineup and it joins a growing segment of compact sport-utility vehicles and crossovers currently dominating the market.</p><p>Now eight years into its relaunch as a luxury brand under the Chinese automotive conglomerate, Geely Holding Group, Volvo has launched seven new models, three of which are SUVs: the XC90, XC60, and now the XC40.</p><p>The 40 is built on Volvo's proprietary small-car skeleton, denoted as the Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) platform which was co-developed with Geely.</p><p>As automobiles go, being the smallest and least expensive model in a lineup usually means you'll have to make some compromises - the evidence of which might manifest itself in lower-quality materials and fewer options than the pricier models.</p><p>That is not the case here. The XC40 feels nearly every bit as premium as a compact luxury four-wheeler should.</p><p>From the moment you pull open its hefty doors, plant yourself into the sculpted, leather and Alcantara-wrapped driver's seat, and grip the thick-rimmed steering wheel with the stoic chrome-plated Volvo badge planted dead-center, you realize you're about to pilot a very capable, exceptionally well-built machine.</p><p>At the same time, it's also quaint. And comfortable.</p><p>Unlike its larger siblings, the XC40 has no plug-in hybrid variant yet. It can only be had with one of two versions of the company's four-cylinder, turbocharged, gas-powered engines - available with 187-horsepower, or a more energetic 248-horsepower variant. An all-electric version is currently in development.</p><p>Volvo recently loaned us a fully loaded XC40 R-Design for a weeklong drive in Los Angeles. These are our impressions:</p>

The 2019 Volvo XC40 hits a sweet spot in the compact luxury SUV segment - and it's already bringing a new generation of customers to the Swedish automaker

<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><span><span data-post-image="" class="image on-image"></span><p></p></span></span>The company responsible for this 40-ton big-rig that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/volvo-has-a-braking-system-that-can-stop-a-40-ton-semi-on-a-dime-2015-3">stops itself on a dime</a> is building a $500 million assembly plant in South Carolina.</span></p>
<p>It'll be Volvo's first-ever US assembly operation, sitting right in the backyards of its luxury rivals, BMW - which has a plant in Spartanburg, SC - and Mercedes-Benz, which builds its wildly popular SUVs in Alabama.</p>
<p>Volvo has good reason to want to mix it up with the Germans stateside.&#xa0;<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Its sales in the US are tanking. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It sold 56,000 vehicles here in 2014, down 8% from the previous year</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, while juggernauts BMW and Mercedes signed up about 670,000 new owners combined</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.&#xa0;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Even Porsche sold more cars than Volvo last month.</span></p>
<p>It's an uncomfortable reminder for Volvo that it better shape up or bust a u-turn if it wants to be competitive in the US market.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><span><span data-post-image="" class="image on-image"></span><p></p></span></span>Volvo is one of many automotive brands that have fallen out of favor with American buyers in the last decade. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It has only recently<span>&#xa0;begun to turn the corner</span>, thanks to a new corporate owner, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in China.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">That new gusto is primarily fueled by the company's fresh focus on its original strength: safety. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The company is pumping up that focus with a goal that "no one should be killed or injured in a new Volvo by the year 2020,"&#xa0;</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Volvo's Technology and Product expert, Jim Nichols</span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">&#xa0;tells Business Insider. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Nichols says that goal begins with a suite of standard crash-avoidance technologies that help Volvos detect potential threats on the road.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Volvo has been fine-tuning that technology for years, but the engineers are apparently just as interested in preparing for those times when a crash is unavoidable:</span></p>
<p><span class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><span><span data-post-image="" class="image"></span><p></p></span></span></p>
<p>To that end, Volvo's new South Carolina plant looks like it may help the automaker scale those endeavors to match its beefier rivals. Volvo expects the new assembly plant to employ between 2,000 and 4,000 people after it opens in 2018 and produce about 100,000 vehicles per year.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In the meantime, Volvo will have to leverage its global sales success to win back American buyers (it sold a record 470,000 vehicles worldwide in 2014). Nichols says they'll do that in the next 4 years by "replacing every car in the lineup," <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/volvo-xc90-r-design-hot-rod-suv-2014-9">beginning with the 2016 XC90</a>.&#xa0;</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">More than 1,900 of the first XC90 models sold out in just two days last fall. The pre-orders quickly grew to more than 30,000 worldwide - probably the first time people have been so quick to snap up a Volvo.</span></p>

Here's why Chinese-owned Volvo is spending $500 million to fight BMW and Mercedes in the US

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said in a statement on Monday it will buy a minority stake in domestic smartphone maker Meizu Technology Co for $590 million.</p>
<p>Alibaba didn't disclose how much of the privately owned handset maker it will acquire.</p>
<p>The deal will help Alibaba push its mobile operating system within China through Meizu's handsets, while giving Meizu access to Alibaba's e-commerce sales channels and other resources, the companies said in a joint statement.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Paul Carsten; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)</p>

Alibaba is making a big play in the smartphone market

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Volvo Trucks / YouTube" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/528fcf2decad04f11ca7c385-960/jean-claude-van-damme-volvo-truck-stunt-split-5.png"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7FIvfx5J10">Volvo Trucks / YouTube</a></p></div><p></p></div>It's not often you see advertisements for big rig, commercial <keyword id="47193" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trucks">trucks</keyword>. After all, the market for those massive vehicles is pretty much limited to small business owners and large corporate executives, who are more likely to make their capital investments based on the physical capabilities of the vehicles rather than a clever marketing campaign.</p>
<p>But over the past year and change, <keyword id="6359474" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Volvo">Volvo</keyword> Trucks has managed to do something rather impressive in a space where most of their competitors simply aren't found. In its series of "Live Test" stunts from the Swedish agency Forsman &amp; Bodenfors, Volvo has not only highlighted the performance advantages of its trucks for its niche audience, but permeated the mainstream with a steady stream of viral YouTube videos.</p>
<p>This week, Volvo Trucks nearly broke the internet with actor Jean-Claude Van Damme's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jean-claude-van-damme-epic-split-volvo-trucks-2013-11">epic split across two moving trucks</a>. The video has been viewed more than 44 million times on YouTube, <a href="http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/why-a-volvo-stunt-is-jean-claude-van-dammes-biggest-hit-in-years-1200858266/">making it the second most viewed automobile campaign of all time</a>, according to tracking firm Visible Measures. The ad also increased Volvo's brand consumption by more than 300%, according to the measuring firm Kontera.</p>
<p>While it might look to the outsider like overnight magic,<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> in truth, the megahit has been in the making since the summer of 2012.</span></p>
<p>That's when Volvo unveiled its first live test, which was arguably even more incredible the Van Damme's triumph. In it, tightrope walker Faith Dickey <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zXwOoeGzys">was challenged to walk across a rope tied between two speeding trucks</a> before trucks went their separate ways through a two-lane tunnel. The stunt was made to demonstrate the Volvo FH's steering abilities. But that's not why the video has been viewed more than 8 million times on YouTube since being posted in August 2012.</p>
<p></p>
<p>After a year off, Volvo picked up the campaign again this fall, making waves by included president of its trucks standing on a truck suspended from a crane above the Swedish port of Gothenburg. The stunt showed off the strength of Volvo's towing hooks, by which Volvo Trucks president Claes Nilsson was attached to the crane.</p>
<p></p>
<p>On the same day, Volvo posted a video showing off how high its trucks sit by driving over one of its technicians buried up to his neck in sand.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Later in September, Volvo had a hamster (!!!) drive a truck around a winding canyon by chasing a carrot across its precision steering wheel.</p>
<p></p>
<p>And the following month, a Volvo truck maneuvered around a winding Spanish road while being chased by bulls.</p>
<p></p>
<p>After five crazy stunts and a combined 18.6 million YouTube views, Volvo finally hit the internet jackpot last week with Van Damme's incredible split. At more than 40 million views, it's likely you've already seen it. But if you haven't by all means, take a look:</p>
<p></p>
<p>While the Van Damme live test has certainly increased Volvo's brand awareness and made it look like a cool brand willing to take risks, it remains to be seen whether Volvo Trucks will see a spike in sales. Though only so many people are in the market for commercial trucks, producing a video and putting it on YouTube is an extremely inexpensive way of reaching a large audience, and commercial trucks can run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>If Volvo was able to sell just 10 more trucks from the Live Test series, the videos will likely justify the time and money Volvo spent making them. And at <a href="http://www3.volvo.com/investors/finrep/ar12/ar_2012_eng.pdf">$291.7 billion in global sales last year</a>, Volvo Trucks make up about two-thirds of Volvo Group's annual revenues (the Volvo brand of passenger cars is actually owned by the Chinese company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group).</p>

How An Obscure YouTube Account For Truckers Became The Biggest Thing In Social Media This Week

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Bryan Logan/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">2016 Volvo XC90</p></div><p></p></div></div>The US auto industry is one big story of innovation, success, failure and recovery.</p><p>One look at the bankruptcies and bailouts of the last half-decade among America's big three - GM, Chrysler and Ford - and it's easy to see that even the giants were liable to fall.</p><p>The economic crisis also touched some well-loved import brands, like Volvo and Saab. Saab filed for bankruptcy in 2011. Volvo flirted with an unceremonious near-collapse in the late 2000s.</p><p>All of these carmakers have bounced back in their own way, but the story of Volvo's revival might be the most inspiring. Business Insider sat down with Volvo Cars of North America CEO Lex Kerssemakers at the 2015 LA Auto Show to learn how the Swedish brand turned itself around.</p><h2>A loss of identity</h2><p>Volvo went through an identity crisis after Ford bought Volvo Cars for nearly $6.5 billion in 1999. The Swedish vehicles once known for their quirky, offbeat styling and robust performance, began what would be a decade-long march toward irrelevance.</p><p>Though the carmaker would sell nearly 140,000 vehicles in the US under Ford's ownership in 2004, sales would fall off a cliff from then on. Ford was having a crisis of its own. It sold its other luxury brands - Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin - in 2008, but held on to Volvo, hoping to expand the line to compete with BMW and Mercedes-Benz in the US.</p><p>The effort wasn't successful. Volvo sales bottomed out at just under 54,000 models sold in 2010 - the same year that Ford sold the hobbled brand to China's Geely Holding Group for nearly $1.5 billion.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama</span></p><p class="caption">Volvo Cars of North America CEO, Lex Kerssemakers, left, and Thomas Ingenlath, pose with a Volvo Concept Coupe at the media preview for the Tokyo Motor Show at Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Volvo minus Ford</h2><p>Volvo was left scrambling. "We had to literally reinvent the company," Kerssemakers recalled, citing that harrowing 2008 to 2010 period. "[We had] no platforms and no engines because they were all Ford ... we faced an aging XC90 at that stage, and we had no platform to put a car on."</p><p>Kerssemaker's introspective tone betrays a sense of urgency. Clearly, Volvo was fighting for survival, and it all depended on the product. The Swedish carmaker had to reclaim its identity. It started with the engines.</p><p>"We went for 4-cylinder turbos," Kerssemakers explained, "we combined it with plug-in hybrid technology because we strongly believe that's the best alternative."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson</span></p><p class="caption">A worker polishes the 2016 Volvo XC90 at the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California.</p></div><p></p></div></div>If you think this amounts to the diminution of engine performance, you would be mistaken. As Kerssemakers put it, "you get V8 power with 4-cylinder fuel efficiency."</p><p>Of course, a new engine is no good without a new platform to pair it with. Volvo made "a new platform that was scalable, which facilitates batteries from the start," Kerssemakers said of Volvo's Scalable Product Platform (SPA).</p><h2>The first pitch</h2><p>With a brand-new engine and platform, Volvo still had to show a sign of life - proof that its multibillion-dollar comeback strategy was really taking shape.</p><p>That's where the the new XC90 crossover came in, Kerssemakers said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Bryan Logan/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">2016 Volvo XC90</p></div><p></p></div></div>The XC90 concept first debuted in spring 2012, three years before the production model hit US dealers in 2015. It has been very well received. The first batch of 1,927 "launch edition" examples sold out in just under 48 hours.</p><p>As of the end of October this year, customers have snapped up nearly 7,300 new XC90s, and just this week, Motor Trend named it <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-best-car-truck-and-suv-of-the-year-according-to-motor-trend-2015-11">SUV of the year</a>.</p><p>To Kerssemakers, this is confirmation that Volvo is finally headed in the right direction. The award "supports our platform strategy, our engine and electrification strategy - that's big for us. Getting a prize like this, you know that what's coming [next] is good. That's why it's so emotional."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Mike Blake</span></p><p class="caption">Volvo's concept cabin of the automated driving vehicle set for release in 2017 is pictured during the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California November 18, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>The next phase</h2><p>Volvo plans to put its newly minted platform to good use.</p><p>In the "next four years, we're going to replace everything," Kerssemakers said, suggesting that Volvo's flagship S80 sedan and its smaller crossover, the XC70, are due next.</p><p>And with the help of its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/volvo-is-building-its-first-us-factory-2015-5">first-ever US assembly plant</a>, the company wants to pass the 100,000 vehicle sales threshold again.</p><p>In addition to new product launches, Volvo is also wading deeper into autonomous technology, with its "Concept 26" program. It's built on the premise that connected autonomous vehicles could give back the average 26 minutes that drivers spend commuting in the US.</p><p>After its decade of uncertainty, Volvo's transformation into an energetic and self-assured brand is proof that, despite tough odds, the Swedish automaker hasn't lost an ounce of its grit.</p><p>But challenges remain. Volvo can claim only half a point of market share in the US, while BMW and Mercedes handily send hundreds of thousands of customers home with their vehicles year after year.</p><p>And as popular and capable as the Volvo XC90 is, the company has to move quickly on its next new batch of vehicles. Some of them will be based on a smaller platform Volvo is co-developing with its Chinese owner - which itself could be an iffy proposition with choosy American buyers. </p><p>Getting back to the 100,000 annual sales mark still may be a stretch goal for Volvo since the company's new South Carolina plant won't be able to hit those six-digit production numbers until after 2018.</p><p>But, if nothing else, Volvo has proven its skill in beating the odds.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bmw-i8-hybrid-review-test-drive-specs-2015-6">BMW made the first hybrid you won't be embarrassed to be seen driving</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="AxaWtndTpcVX4wDTKSWkDYOO7uFhNrt3" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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Volvo Cars trebled its profits in the first half of 2016

Chinese tech giant Baidu is seeking to raise $3.5 billion in a Hong Kong stock listing, report says

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