- Volvo Cars is replacing its chief executive officer yet again.
- The Swedish brand poached one of the biggest Volkswagen Group executives to replace Håkan Samuelsson.
- Last year, the company’s board voted to bring back Samuelsson, who led the automaker when it was developing the SPA architecture.
Volvo Cars is getting a new CEO, again. The company’s board of directors has appointed Klaus Zellmer as President and chief executive officer of the brand, less than two years after bringing back Håkan Samuelsson to steer the marque in the right direction.
It’s a big win for the Swedish automaker, which has been struggling to keep its sales figures in the green and profitability high in the past few quarters. Zellmer, who will take over from Samuelsson no later than October 1, 2027, has over three decades of experience in the automotive industry, with two decades spent at the Volkswagen Group, where he’s currently the CEO of Skoda.
In his current position, Zellmer transformed Skoda into Europe’s third-largest automaker, with an operating margin of 8.5% in the first half of 2026. That number is especially important for Volvo, which is aiming for a similar figure by 2030 as part of the biggest product push in its history. But getting there won’t be easy, as the Geely-owned premium marque was at 3.5% last year, and manufacturing costs in Sweden are much higher than in Czechia.
No fewer than 13 new models are scheduled to debut until the end of 2030, with six launches slated for Europe and the United States, and an additional seven developed specifically for China. During the strategy update, Volvo emphasized that the key to its success is regionalization, with each region getting bespoke cars built locally.
Thankfully, Zellmer, Volvo’s upcoming boss, has a lot of experience managing an ever-changing auto industry with a knack for electrification. Last year, the Skoda Elroq was Europe’s second-best-selling EV, after the Tesla Model Y, while the larger Enyaq crossover ranked fifth, according to Dataforce.
Zellmer took over the Czech automaker in 2022 and has plenty of experience in Europe, but he also made his presence felt in the United States, where he led Porsche’s North American division between 2015 and 2020. During his tenure here, the automaker’s U.S. sales rose to a record 61,568 units in 2019 from 51,756 in 2015.
“Klaus Zellmer combines deep automotive expertise with broad international leadership experience and a strong record of guiding organisations through transformation and changing market conditions,” says Eric Li, Chairman of Volvo Cars. “His experience from both the high-end premium segment and high-volume brands is an excellent fit for Volvo Cars. The Board is confident that, under Klaus Zellmer’s leadership, Volvo Cars will build on its strong foundations and enter its next chapter with a clear ambition to strengthen its position as a leading premium car company.”
By the time Zellmer takes his new role at Volvo Cars, the company will have gone through four CEOs in roughly five years, but that’s not exactly a surprise. Håkan Samuelsson, who led the company through the development of the SPA architecture that went on to underpin the vast majority of modern Volvos, left in 2022. He was replaced by Jim Rowan, a Scottish tech executive, only to come back last year after spending on a new technology platform spiraled.
When Samuelsson came back in 2025, Volvo said that his tenure would only last two years, while it looked for a long-term successor. Now, that successor has been found.
