Over the coming weeks, a few Volvo cars will begin a historic journey from southwestern China to the US. The Swedish company’s S60L sedans will be transported by truck to Shanghai’s port, loaded on to car carriers for shipment across the Pacific, and finally rolled off in Los Angeles.
Manufactured at Volvo’s new plant in Chengdu, the first made-in-China passenger cars purpose-built for export to the US are a reminder of how far the country — like Japan and South Korea — has come in global manufacturing.
China has evolved from a supplier of low-cost, labour-intensive products to an exporter of what Ralf Speth, chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover, calls “the most complex consumer product on earth”.