Robin Page, senior vice-president of design at Volvo Cars, says that the quality of vehicles built in China is often better than that of those produced in Europe.
Volvo Cars, of course, is owned by Chinese multinational automotive manufacturing company, Geely.
Speaking to GoAuto, Page said that the Geely’s facilities in China were “pretty damn good”.
“What we’re finding is that the quality of the cars are actually better in China than they are in Europe,” Page told the Australian publication.
“Everyone was worried about quality, but as soon as they started, the quality was even higher on score than in Europe. To be honest with you, if you talk to the [European] manufacturing guys, they’ve put so much automation into the system, you haven’t got that manual adjust,” he said.
Page explained that less automation allowed the Chinese facilities to “fine-tune” the production process and thus ultimately achieve tighter tolerances.
“They’ve got more people on it, less automation, which actually gives you that ability to get tighter on the tolerances … and make finer adjustments,” he said.
“It’s not a massive difference, but if you do scores-to-scores and averages, China’s pretty damn good, so we’re not so worried about that now.”
