Volvo lineup redo aims at U.S. comeback

Volvo Cars, the Swedish maker of premium cars owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., said it will use smaller engines and a revamped lineup to rebound in the U.S. and take on German rivals by offering more fuel economy.

The company, spending $11 billion on products, technology and plant investments to stage a global sales revival, will show a concept version of a small crossover vehicle at the Detroit Auto Show next month. That’s when the Gothenburg, Sweden-based automaker starts adding cars, wagons and SUVs with new turbocharged four-cylinder engines to draw U.S. buyers, said North American Chief Executive Officer Tony Nicolosi.

“Next year we’ll probably grow eight to 10 percent,” Nicolosi said Tuesday at the automaker’s technical center in Camarillo, Calif. A new marketing push starts in 2014 “to let people know we exist,” he said.

Volvo, which Ford Motor Co. sold to Geely in August 2010 for about $1.5 billion, was once famed in the U.S. for vehicles that ranked among the industry’s safest. This year, the brand’s U.S. sales in the premium auto market have lagged behind those of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG’s BMW, Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz and Audi AG, all up more than 10 percent. Volvo, down 9.1 percent over the same period, is rebuilding research and marketing that had languished as Ford prepared for a sale.