Håkan Samuelsson: outgoing Volvo boss and electric car pioneer
Håkan Samuelsson was a relatively late convert to electric cars. He took over as boss of Volvo in 2012, but it was only three or four years later that he realised he needed to oversee the biggest shift in the company’s history: ending the use of fossil fuels.
Since then, Volvo has committed to making no more petrol or diesel cars after 2030. That will be the fastest phase-out of any traditional carmaker of equivalent size, and Volvo has put sustainability at the heart of its branding.
Samuelsson was persuaded by “absolute engineering type of logic”, he tells the Observer via video call from a sparsely furnished office in Volvo’s Gothenburg headquarters. Batteries are the most efficient way to transform sun or wind energy into power to turn the wheels of a car. But it was Tesla
Age 71
Family Two adult children.
Education Studied mechanical engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, which was “very fancy”.
Pay £19.3m in 2020.
Last holiday To his home north of Barcelona in Spain.
Best advice he’s been given “Don’t have this career planning; do something you really like doing, because then you will do it well.”
Biggest career mistake “That list would be so long, it would take a whole section of your newspaper,” he says, before highlighting two: not being “diplomatic” enough when making a bid for Scania when he was leading Man Trucks; and not realising earlier that electric carmakers would need their own supplies of batteries.
Word he overuses “Goes without saying – I use that often and maybe it is not so obvious for other people.”
How he relaxes Reading history and economics books, including Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations recently, doing DIY at home, and going to the dump.
founder Elon Musk, automotive disrupter par
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