Swedish engineer grows with suburban district, salutes vibrant environment

Inset: Per Edberg takes a group selfie with his colleagues at Volvo Car Asia Pacific to build team spirit. Right: Edberg works as a supervisor who helps in advanced engineering and the verification of new cars. — Lu Lianghui

Per edberg has been the senior director of Complete Vehicle engineering with Volvo Car asia Pacific since august 2018.

The Swede’s work is to support Volvo Car asia Pacific to achieve its research and development goals, so the company can more compre-hensively develop and integrate new technologies, and better serve the new car projects.

“It’s definitely a challenge, but it’s also an opportunity. If I look at what we have invested here in Jiad-ing since I came here, we have built a new battery lab and e-motor lab,” edberg said.

He believes that Volvo, as an au-tomobile enterprise, assumes the responsibility to make changes for energy conservation and emission reduction to ensure environmental sustainability.

edberg is responsible for work ranging from advanced engineering to verification of new cars that are to be launched, including battery and motor testing, complete vehicle thermal testing and volatile organic compound testing.

When people think of safety, ac-cidents and collisions may come to their mind.

but in actuality, the scope of safety is much wider, and deals more with the protection of families, the living environment and the world. This is also the reason why Volvo Cars re-gards sustainability as an important part, according to edberg.

People can be strong, but the team is always stronger. There are more than 200 people in his team. They often talk about collaboration rather than cooperation. Cooperation is to work together, while collaboration is to think together and rely on the strength of the team to jointly com-plete a task.

edberg believes that as a supervisor, it is very important for him to provide support for his team at any time. He also learns a lot from his colleagues, which is also an important part of Volvo culture.

edberg recalled eating snow and skating on lakes in Sweden as a child, but says now the environment is different.

In his eyes, Chinese culture is very fascinating, and quite similar to Sweden’s in some ways. It respects all people and experiences. He has been to many cities in China and has also made personal explorations in Jiading District, where he resides.

“When you walk through the alleys, you can find local food and meet very friendly people. Compared with the place where I was born, Jiading is a bigger area,” he said.

“Jiading is doing a very good job in attracting new companies, not just automotive firms but also suppliers and high-tech companies, so I find it a very vibrant and an interesting environment to be in. We have good cooperation with the Jiading District government and with the Jiading In-dustrial Zone,” he noted.