Hi, welcome to Volvo's Irvine office. This is where I work.
I spend all my time here. Come in and I'll show you around.
Adjacent to our lobby we have a conference room,
which is where we have our meetings.
Brad Moorhead, head of retail development
for the Western Region office is in here.
-Hi Mark! How are you doing? -Good!
This is really where the magic happens. Where the team works together.
It makes it easy and fun. I can turn around and ask a question.
I'm texting the rest of the group.
It'd be fun to go to an event called "Cars & Coffee".
Early morning, but I think we'll have a great time.
Four new employees of Volvo Cars were given a mission.
Together, they will explore our company from the inside.
Our explorers are in the USA to get some insights on how we make business.
They start in Los Angeles, California,
where Mark shows them one of his favourite events: Cars & Coffee.
This event happens every Saturday.
Everyone parks their car and a lot of people know each other.
It's a fun event, completely free and open to the public.
Anyone can take their car here and hang out.
It's a fun site.
Takes one to know one Especially when you're that old.
-Are we having fun yet, or what? -Tell us a bit about your car.
It's an old car.
It's a 62, as you can tell. One of the oldest ones out here.
Sorry for asking, but would it be okay to sit in it?
-Help yourself. -Yeah? - Could you...
Thank you. It would be really cool.
-I'm going to be careful. -Yes. Be careful.
Let's see how I get out from this...
Which lever opens the door?
-How can he open? -Can you open from the outside?
No, no, it opens from the inside. Just pull the handle back.
-This one? -Yeah. Just pull it back.
Thank you.
His first time. I think it's his first time in a Volvo...
First time in an 1800.
After an early morning looking at cars, drinking coffee and talking to people,
it's time to dig into this episode's theme:
Business.
To achieve good profitability is important for Volvo Cars.
It enables us to invest in new cars and future technology,
such as autonomous drive, electrification and connectivity.
High profitability also creates a buffer
so that we can remain cost-effective even if demand weakens.
And it reflects positively on our brand.
People want to buy from successful and financially healthy companies.
Before leaving Cars & Coffee, Mark introduces the gang to a first mission.
One of you is going to have some experience doing some sales work.
You're going to try and sell a Volvo.
And the way we're going to decide who does it
is that you are going to draw sticks.
-Who's got the shortest one? -That's...
-Anton. -Anton!
Going from engineering to salesman. Cool!
-Hi! Alyssa. Nice to meet you. -I'm Anton.
I will show you around today.
We can start with knowing a day in the life of a sales consultant.
-Sounds good! -Let's sit over here. Any questions?
Anton's mission is to meet a customer on his own.
He needs all the advice he can get from Alyssa.
Since his is your first time, I'd take it really slow.
Definitely understand what they're looking for.
What their desires are.
If it's a family, they're probably going to be looking more at the XC90.
Just hone in on what they want for themselves and their families.
Decide that, and get them in the right vehicle.
Without Anton knowing about it, Alyssa's colleague is waiting outside.
I'm actually the new car sales manager,
but today I'm going in to pretend I'm a customer to challenge Anton.
We're going in now.
It looks like we have a client out there. You're on your own. Good luck!
If you have any questions, I may answer them for you.
-Hi. -Welcome. I'm Anton.
-I'm Michael. Nice to meet you. -A pleasure.
I was walking by and I saw the XC90...
-Yes? -We're expecting a second child.
-I want to check out the 90. -Yeah?
Do you want to sit down first and have a beverage?
I think it went well in the beginning: The greeting, offering the beverage...
-Can we look at that car outside? -Yes, let's have a look.
This happens to be my wife's favourite colour.
But then, when he started asking questions about the cars
which I didn't know that much about...
The technology packet you can get, is that standard in this?
How do you get out of this?
What's the city safety?
What's the range of the hybrid?
How do you put the third row up?
"Alyssa, help! Alyssa - help!"
-How do I get back there? -You have to jump over the seats.
-Do you? Really? -No.
The third row seats... He asked how we put it up to get back to the third row.
I said you jump over the seat and he said that was a deal-breaker.
It turned out you can easily fold up the seat and walk into the third row.
Thanks to Alyssa, we worked that out.
Anton's challenge is over. Time to let him know who he's really talking to.
I'm Michael Giorgio, and I'm actually the new car sales manager here.
-At this dealership. -Aha? Okay!
So - you were punked!
I just realized how little I know about the cars inside.
Much respect to the sales persons who have to learn all this,
meet the customer and answer all these questions.
I did think he needs to work on his product knowledge a little.
Knowing what makes the product the product,
knowing more about the features, the technology
and, since the man had a family, knowing how to move those seats.
Other than that, he did fantastic.
Lesson learned: To sell the product, you have to know it very well.
To have manufacturing in North America is also important for our business.
In the first episode of Volvo Cars Explorers,
we learned from the CEO that we should produce where we sell.
That's why the explorers' next stop is at Volvo Cars' newest plant
just outside Charleston, South Carolina.
We're about 25-30 minutes outside Charleston in South Carolina,
at the beginnings of the first ever Volvo manufacturing facility in the US.
We can see here that the construction is underway,
and there are a lot of new people here working to get things up and running.
This is exciting for me especially, being from the United States.
Seeing this spring up and take life.
The plant will start production of the new Volvo S60 next year.
Later, the next generation XC90 will also be built here.
Now we're going inside to meet Katarina Fjording,
who's our vice president for the project operations here.
-Hi, I'm Anton. -Hi.
Welcome! It's a very cool journey you get to do.
But this is probably one of the coolest stops you will make.
This is something very historical.
We've been talking about this for a really long time,
doing a production unit in the US.
Now we're here.
To be part of doing this is a bit like a dream come true.
Many of us have thought for a long time we should have production here.
-Are you ready? -Yes.
Now, the American way: Are you ready?!
-Yeah! -Right, let's go.
Coming up here, we actually have an on-site concrete factory.
It saves the environment, not driving concrete back and forth.
Putting a manufacturing footprint in place here is extremely important.
Not just from a financial perspective for us,
where we limit our currency exposure
and also increase in localization degree, affecting import taxes etc.
It's also sending a strong message to our customers and dealers
that we're serious about this market.
The tour is over, and it's time for the explorers to sum up the experience.
It's pretty cool that we have plants in all regions.
-And that we have a wide footprint. -Yes.
-It's amazing. -The amazing thing about this facility
was how large the footprint of the facility is here.
It really shows that this project is a serious one.
The investment in the US is going to be here for the long haul.
We're not going to go away or pull away from things.
We are here to stay.
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