China’s Geely is planning on moving 150,000 Volvos in China by 2015, a prediction that could very well come true in the world’s largest car market.

According to reports, Geely will manufacture the Volvo XC60 and S60 in China by 2011, while discontinuing production the S40 compact sedan at its Chinese factories. Geely will establish an all-new plant to help meet its sales targets, but the company has yet to announce a location for the factory. Geely purchased Volvo for $1.8 billion in March, making it the largest automotive acquisition by a Chinese company.

[Source: Reuters]

Ron Fellows may have retired from full-time racing duties with Corvette Racing and the American Le Mans Series, but he proved this weekend that he’s still the Mayor of Mosport in a Corvette.

The Mississauga, Ontario native and Corvette Racing legend has always been hard to beat around his home track, Mosport International Raceway, so it should come as no surprise that he claimed the top step on the podium during Sunday’s World Challenge event from behind the wheel of the Carlisle Companies/Cragar Wheels Chevrolet Corvette. The win didn’t come easy though, starting 2nd to Randy Pobst in the K-Pax Volvo S60 and having been passed off the start by Kuno Wittmer’s Dodge Viper.

Fellows quickly battled back against Wittmer, passing his fellow Canadian in Turn 10 before turning his sights on race leader Pobst. Running down the K-Pax Volvo, Fellows turned a record fastest race lap of 1:23.828 (105.602 mph), a feat that thrilled the hometown crowd. On lap 15, Fellows and Pobst went side-by-side down the front straight and through Turn 1, splitting the Touring Car Mazda RX-8 of Eric Meyer between Turns 1 and 2. Fellows managed to take the inside line for the downhill left hander and slowly pulled away from Pobst from that point on.

According to Fellows, ”I got a terrible start, but other than that it was just a matter of being patient. Even though I hadn’t raced here much lately, it comes back to you. To be honest, the slick conditions may have helped. I was hoping it stayed overcast, but our car is lighter than the Volvos and that was probably better. It was a lot of fun, and feels good.”

Having spent the day before at Laguna Seca for Corvette Racing’s 50th anniversary of racing at Le Mans, Fellows’ win at Mosport might not have happened if he’d missed his connecting flight from San Francisco to Toronto, having literally made the connection with 3 minutes to spare. As Fellows reported on his personal website, he was very pleased to have been able to race at Mosport on this historic weekend for Corvette Racing and because he hadn’t raced at his home track since 2007.

Pobst’s runner-up finish in the Volvo, combined with his Saturday race win at Mosport, extended his point lead to 47 over Wittmer and the Dodge Motorsports Viper (541 to 494), followed by Crescentini in the Centric Parts/Stoptech/GMG Porsche 911 GT3 (420), Andy Pilgrim (383) and Daskalos in his Daskalos Developments Dodge Viper (379). Volvo also extended its point lead in the Manufacturers’ Championship to seven (35 to 28) over Porsche. Dodge is third with 26.

[Sources: World Challenge, Ron Fellows]

The 2011 Volvo S60 will be priced from $38,550, a price hike of roughly $7,000 from the outgoing model. The new S60 is a complete departure from the outgoing car, featuring larger dimensions, standard all-wheel drive and the Volvo T6 six-cylinder engine featuring 300 horsepower and 325 lb-ft of torque mated to a six-speed automatic gearbox. Option packages can easily push the sticker price of the car to over $45,000, but the S60 is undoubtedly a much more premium car than the outgoing model.

With cars like the S80 and XC60, Volvo, like Saab, seems to be making a push into the upmarket, but only time will tell if their gamble will pay dividends.

Looks like Toyota might not be the only company having problems with “unintended acceleration.” At a recent demonstration of Volvo’s collision avoidance system, the Swedish automaker shot a Volvo S60 out of a specialized tunnel and aimed it directly at the back of a dump truck. Ostensibly, the collision avoidance system was supposed to bring the car to a stop without human intervention, but things didn’t work out as planned, with the car slamming into the truck in front of an assembled crowd of journalists.

Volvo claims that human error caused the crash, due to a lack of preparation on Volvo’s part, and that a human driver would have been able to notice that the system wasn’t working properly. We’re not safety experts and will withhold comment for now, but there’s no doubt that this was an embarrassing episode for a company renowned for their safe vehicles.

[Source: Wired]