Volvo Cars is reviving veteran CEOs, tackling tariffs and tackling industry challenges

Copenhagen (Reuters) – Volvo cars are replacing Jim Rowan, who has been running the group since 2022, reviving former CEO Hakan Samuelson and leading the company for the next two years in turbulence marked by applying tariff pressure.

Samuelson, 74, said the 25% obligation on vehicles not built in the US would kick this week after US President Donald Trump took the helm over the threat of new tariffs on imported cars.

“The automotive industry is under pressure from many directions,” Samuelson said in a statement.

The company’s stock has fallen almost 70% since the group’s 2021 list, falling 1.2% at 0844 GMT on Monday, with Stockholm’s wider market down 1.6%.

Samuelson was on work Tuesday and said Sunday he would serve a two-year term while the group prepares to appoint a long-term successor.

The Rowan exit will come about three years after he was appointed in January 2022. This follows Volvo’s list on the Stockholm Stock Exchange from the previous year.

Volvo Cars Board Chairman Eric Li said the company faces rapid moving technological changes, growing geopolitical challenges and increasing competition.

“He brings a rare combination of industrial depth, strategic clarity and proven leadership, and Hakan has extensive knowledge of our group,” Li said of the veteran CEO who ran Volvo from 2012 to 2022.

Last month, Volvo Cars warned that 2025 will be a year of upheaval and competitiveness that could struggle to match 2024 sales performance and profitability.

Geely Sweden, who manages the group’s investments in European brands such as Polestar and Volvo Cars, declined to make further comments.

Trump is scheduled to announce more tariffs on Wednesday, and he is called “liberation day.”

(Reporting by Shivani Tanna of Bengaluru and Johann Arlander and Marie Mans of Stockholm, edited by Sharon Singleton, Jane Merriman and David Evans)