World Car Person of the Year Award is given by the jury of the World Car of the Year and is considered to be the number one automotive awards programme globally. The winner of the 2018 award is Volvo Cars President and CEO, Hakan Samuelsson.
Speaking on his achievement, Hakan Samuelsson, said, “I see this award as an acknowledgement of the efforts made by the entire Volvo Cars organization in recent years.” The award was presented to him at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland.
Under the supervision of Mr Hakan, Volvo Cars recorded profit and growth in sales in 2017. It showed an increase of 27.7% in operating profit and sold 571,577 cars globally. This shows the improvement and transformation of the company under the guidance of Mr Hakan.
Mr Hakan also helped Volvo Cars to introduce the Scalable Product Architecture and Compact Modular Architecture. Utilising both of these two concepts, Volvo has been successful in launching seven new models in the past three years.
Hakan Samuelsson has been extremely serious regarding the electrification of the industry. And it was him under whose direction Volvo Cars announced in 2017 that every Volvo car launched after 2019 will have an electric motor. Volvo's commitment to electrification was further underlined by the launch of Polestar as a new stand-alone electrified car brand.
Under Mr Samuelsson's leadership, Volvo Cars also reinvented the traditional model of car ownership with its new 'Care by Volvo' subscription service. It is available on the new 2018 XC40 and the new V60 estate. It makes having a car as transparent, easy and hassle-free as having a phone.
Mr Samuelsson also took the initiative to deepen Volvo Cars' collaboration with its parent company Geely Holding of China and other strategic partners. A joint venture with Geely started in 2017 provides economies of scale in technology development. Volvo Cars also signed a framework agreement with Uber to sell it up to 24,000 autonomous driving compatible base cars between 2019 and 2021.
We congratulate Mr Samuelsson for winning the 2018 World Car Person Of The Year Award. He truly deserved it for all his efforts. Apart from this award, he has also been recognised for his leadership qualities by the 2017 Golden Steering Wheel award issued by German publishing house Springer. He was also named as the Disruptor of the Year at the 2018 Roadshow by CNET awards.
