Volvo Cars cuts 2,500 jobs as Chinese sales collapse

Volvo lays off 2,500 workers as China stops buying its cars

A truck that can't be switched off because the electric parking brake is stuck. A dealership with no idea how to fix it. That scene, described by a haulier who has driven several of the brand's trucks, sums up for him the crisis at Volvo, which is facing 2,500 layoffs while its Chinese market collapses and US tariffs shut it out of the world's largest economy.

The company sold its car division to Ford in 1999, and the American manufacturer offloaded it in 2010 by handing it over to China's Geely group. Since then, the brand has carried a split identity: **Swedish engineering in Gothenburg**, factories in Sweden, Belgium, the United States and China, and a majority shareholder that calls the shots in Beijing. For some participants in the debate, the result is a product that no longer convinces even its own loyal customers.

Who really owns Volvo

Confusion is the norm. Volvo Cars has belonged to Geely since 2010, but AB Volvo — trucks, buses and construction machinery — remains in Swedish hands and has nothing to do with the Chinese. The trucks seen on Europe's roads, many decades old and heading to the scrapyard in Segarro, belong to the Scandinavian branch. The passenger cars are another story.

Some argue the brand stopped being European the day the sale was signed. Others point out that the engineering is still in Sweden and that combustion and hybrid models are still built in Europe. Both are half true, and that's the problem: **a brand without a clear owner has no clear story either**.

The electric car nobody wants to buy

According to several participants, the bet on electric cars has turned into a shot in the foot. Volvo stretched out its petrol and hybrid models for years because the electrics weren't selling, neither in Europe nor in China. And in the Chinese market, the brand can't compete with local manufacturers or with Tesla: the same components, Chinese batteries, higher prices. The Chinese buyer is no fool.

On top of that comes the de facto closure of the US market. The Trump administration blocked sales of models from the Polestar sub-brand, with software developed in China, and tariffs on vehicles built there have turned exporting into an exercise in losses. **The Chinese market is over for European manufacturers**, and Volvo is the first to pay the price with 2,500 jobs.

The broken toy of Chinese engineering

The industrial logic is relentless, according to some debaters. China already dominates electric vehicle technology and doesn't need to keep a European brand to sell cars in Europe: its own badges are enough. Volvo is left with the legacy of combustion engines, where it retains some reliability, while peripheral components degrade. The brand that used to boast about robust cars now carries a fruta for breakdowns that didn't exist before.

The case of Saab, another Swedish brand that ended up in the scrapyard, hangs over the conversation. The difference is that Saab died without an owner, while Volvo has one with money. The question is whether that money will save the brand or merely squeeze what's left of it.

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One fact remains jarring: the brand that was sold because it was broke is the same one now laying off 2,500 people for failing to sell. Perhaps the problem was never the owner, but the product.