Within only four years of having taken over Volvo from Ford, Geely plans to launch up to three new luxury models, according to company sources.

The Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which is Ford’s preferred bidder for Volvo, told the Wall Street Journal that the firm would sell two or three bigger, more luxurious cars within the next four years to boost global sales.

Under Geely’s restructuring plan for Volvo, the target is to achieve global sales of more than one million units per year. Currently, Volvo’s sales are around 400,000 units per year, but Geely plans to more than double this number within five years.

To do so, Geely plans to build a new plant in China with the capability of producing 300,000 units per year. Geely predicts that Volvo could sell up to 200,000 units per year in China.

Last year, it sold 12,600 units. Geely is offering around two billion euro for Volvo but what makes the sale drawn out are the issues over intellectual property rights.

Ford Motor Company [NYSE: F] announced today that a consortium led by Zhejiang Geely Group Holding Co. Ltd. is its preferred bidder in the ongoing discussions concerning the possible sale of Volvo Car Corporation.

Ford said that while it will be engaging in more detailed and focused negotiations with Geely, no final decisions have been made.

“Ford’s objective in our discussions with Geely is to secure an agreement that is in the best interests of all the parties,” said Lewis Booth, Ford Motor Company executive vice president and chief financial officer. “Any prospective sale would have to ensure that Volvo has the resources, including the capital investment, necessary to further strengthen the business and build its global franchise, while enabling Ford to continue to focus on and implement our core ONE Ford strategy.

“Ford believes Geely has the potential to be a responsible future owner of Volvo and to take the business forward while preserving its core values and the independence of the Swedish brand. But there is much work that needs to be completed in the more substantive discussions that are agreed to take place. We have no specific timeline to conclude the discussions.”

While Ford would continue to cooperate with Volvo in several areas after a possible sale, Ford said it does not intend to retain a shareholding in Volvo.

John Fleming, chairman of Ford of Europe and Volvo Cars, said: “Ford fully understands the iconic Swedish nature of the Volvo brand and the responsibility we have as Volvo’s custodian to its employees, local communities and other key stakeholders.

“Any sale also would need to take into account the significant connections between Ford and Volvo in terms of continuing component supply, engineering and manufacturing.”

Ford and Volvo will maintain appropriate communications with key stakeholders, such as Volvo’s employees, unions and the Swedish government, during the ongoing process.

“Volvo’s management team welcomes today’s announcement as a positive step forward,” Volvo CEO Stephen Odell said. “At Volvo, we are continuing to keep our attention firmly fixed on engineering and building great Volvo cars, to reduce our cost base and to return the business to sustainable profitability at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Geely Automobile to buy automatic transmission companies in Australia at the signing ceremony, New South Wales, Australia Government Building. Chinese ambassador to Australia Zhang Junsai; New South Wales Minister of China and Australia, such as government officials and mainstream media in the two countries attended the signing ceremony.

The company name is DSI, DSI is the abbreviation of Drivetrain Systems International. DSI automatic transmission is a set R & D, manufacturing and sales of automatic transmission major companies, is the world’s only two independent enterprise outside the vehicle automatic transmission companies, covers an area of 300,000 ㎡, the factory area 36000 ㎡; Institute covers an area of 3,000 ㎡. With an annual output of 180,000 Units of the production capacity of automatic transmission; the company has 80 years of history, has accumulated abundant technology and industry experience. Automatic transmission parts and components world-renowned company BorgWarner once wholly owned by the company for 30 years. DSI company has a number of world-class excellent engineers, its products cover four-speed and six-speed before and after the drive and all-drive high torque automatic transmission for Ford, Chrysler and Ssangyong Motor Co. and other world-renowned facilities, is currently being development of the world’s advanced level before and after the eight-speed automatic transmission drives, DCT dual-clutch transmission and CVT Continuously Variable Transmission.

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Geely Holding Group, China’s largest privately-owned automaker, unveiled its new logo at Beijing Geely University yesterday, the company announced yesterday.

“The new logo will start to be used in new vehicle models launched next year; it will not affect existing models,” said Geely’s vice president Wang Ziliang.

Earlier sources familiar with the plan said the logo will first be used on London taxicabs produced by Manganese Bronze and Geely’s joint venture in Shanghai next year. Geely bought U.K. automaker Manganese Bronze in 2006 in order to boost the sales of its cheap cars globally.

The designer of the logo, a student from Anhui University, has a won 2 million yuan ($260,300) award from Geely. In January this year, Geely set aside 3.6 million yuan (or about $484,000) for the logo design contest and the winner was finally selected by online voting as well as 66 experts.