Volvo is asking the European Investment Bank (EIB) for a further EUR100m (US$127m) as it firms up development plans following the takeover by Chinese group Zhejiang Geely.
The Swedish automaker had originally requested EUR500m from the EIB to cover the period until 2012 but this has now been revised to a year later.
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“The new loan is intended to cover up to 2013 so that changes the scope,” a Volvo spokesman in Sweden told just-auto.
“The purpose of the loan is for environmental reasons related to projects in Gothenburg [Sweden] and Gent [Belgium] in our factories there,” he added, although declined to reveal what these were. “We want to keep our product development for ourselves of course for competitive reasons.”
Volvo will now approach the Swedish government for loan guarantees and although it has the “full autumn” for this process to go through, it must be finalised by the end of the year.
The Volvo spokesman added that following Geely’s takeover, there had been “no indications whatsoever” the workforce would be changed.
