TOLEDO and UNTERGRUPPENBACH, Germany — A recently formed joint venture company between Dana and GETRAG has signed an agreement with Volvo Car Corp. (VCC) to purchase a 60-percent interest in VCC’s operations in Koping, Sweden.
The resulting joint venture with VCC will be known as GETRAG All Wheel Drive AB, a Dana/GETRAG Co. The company will produce all-wheel-drive (AWD) and chassis systems and components for passenger cars and sport-utility vehicles.
“We are extremely excited about this latest chapter in the Dana-GETRAG relationship and even more so about this opportunity to work with a distinguished automaker such as Volvo,” said Bill Carroll, Dana’s acting president and COO. “This arrangement will leverage the combined expertise of Volvo, GETRAG, and Dana to serve the growing crossover-vehicle market.”
Plans for the joint venture call for the operations in Koping to be streamlined to create a fully integrated, self-sufficient All-Wheel-Drive Center of Excellence that will include research, development and engineering, sales and marketing, purchasing and production of AWD components and assemblies. The joint venture will market its services to Ford Motor Co., its affiliates and other automotive manufacturers around the world as a member of the GETRAG Group.
Principal products of the joint venture will include power take-off units, rear-drive units, front-drive units and chassis systems and components.
“Together with Volvo, we will transform Koping into the leading full-service supplier in the increasing European AWD marketplace,” said Tobias Hagenmeyer, CEO of the GETRAG Corporate Group. “This venture is exciting because it is driven by the high-value technologies that Dana and GETRAG can jointly provide to the world’s leading AWD car manufacturers. It also presents a tremendous opportunity to grow our support for Volvo, Land Rover and other affiliates of Ford Motor Co., as well as servicing the European customers of GETRAG and Dana’s global all-wheel-drive activities.”
As part of the joint venture, the new company expects to enter into long-term supply agreements with all involved affiliates of Ford Motor Co.
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