Volvo Cars has appointed Henrik Green as its new senior vice president for research & development as a replacement of Peter Mertens, who moved to Audi.

Green moves from his role as senior vice president of sales and production planning and customer service. He has worked for Volvo since 1996 in both Sweden and China.

Green has extensive experience in research and development, powertrain development and other advanced areas of engineering such as software and control systems. He was also one of the leading figures behind Volvo Cars’ decision to move to using only four- and three-cylinder engines, a decision that has been matched by other carmakers since.

“There has never been a more exciting time to work in automotive research and development and there has never been a more exciting time to do so at Volvo. The industry is changing and I intend to make sure that Volvo leads that change,” said Green.

Green inherits control of Volvo’s highly-successful 6,500-strong global R&D department, which has overseen a complete transformation of Volvo Cars’ technical operations since the company was acquired by Zhejiang Geely Holding of China in 2010.

This transformation includes the introduction and launch of its Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) modular vehicle architecture, its Drive-E modular engine architecture and numerous groundbreaking new safety, connectivity and infotainment technologies.

Commenting on Green’s appointment, Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive said, “Henrik is ideally qualified to lead our team of highly talented engineers around the world as we enter the second phase of Volvo’s transformation.”

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