VW buys majority stake in Volvo’s connected car business Wirelesscar

Volkswagen has bought a 75.1% stake in Wirelesscar, the connected car business owned by Volvo Group.

Volvo Group builds Volvo Trucks, Buses, construction equipment and marine engines, having sold Volvo Cars in 1999.

Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, with offices in the USA and China, WirelessCar provides connected vehicle services and solutions to global producers of passenger cars.

VW will use the WirelessCar technology to further its goal of developing value-added services for customers, by enabling safe and stable data exchange between operating systems in its cars and a cloud platform it is developing with Microsoft.

The German brand aims to offer a range of app-based solutions including parking, delivery and car sharing services.

Customers will also be able to access third party service such as music streaming, and access functions such as map downloads.

“We are committed to remaining the leader within the field of connectivity and connected services. This agreement will enable us to fully focus our resources and efforts on connected solutions for commercial vehicles,” says Jan Gurander, deputy CEO of the Volvo Group.

The deal is worth £97 million.