Volvo r&d boss vows to turn quality hiccup into a win

Volvo received a wake-up call after it finished third to last in J.D. Power’s 2018 Initial Quality Study in the U.S.

Volvo r&d boss Henrik Green says the poor score was because of quality issues the Swedish automaker had when it launched its flagship XC90 SUV. Volvo used the experience to tighten procedures during the rollout of its best-selling XC60, which Green said was the most successful launch in the company’s history from a quality perspective.

He told Automotive News Europe Managing Editor Douglas A. Bolduc he wants to achieve even better quality results with the debut of the new S60 sedan.

Why was Volvo near the bottom of the current J.D. Power U.S. Initial Quality Study?

A lot was going on last year and it continued into this year. We have to admit that we had a bit of a struggle when we launched the XC90. We had a very good package when it came to attributes in the features and functions, but we had some challenges on the quality side. We worked a lot on those and they should be overcome by now.

How do you measure this?

We have many metrics. One that we measure is the number of repairs after three months of service. We are down to where we should be now with the cars we have produced since the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I think there is some carryover [in the study of the previous quality problems] and that explains where we were in the J.D. Power report.

Are you confident Volvo will climb in next year’s quality study?

Yes. The S60 should be the best car launch in Volvo’s history when it comes to quality. The best one we have so far is the XC60 launched form our plant in Torslanda, Sweden, in 2017. I foresee the S60 beating that. Whether that happens remains to be seen now, but we will know three months after the first models are on the market.

Those S60s will be built at your new U.S. plant near Charleston, South Carolina. This factory won’t start mass production until next month. Is Volvo ready to have this new plant compete with other factories in your network for contracts?

I don’t think it’s in our culture to play plants against one another to win contracts for cars. But I would say there should definitely be some competition when it comes to delivering quality and getting acknowledged for delivering quality. That is healthy.