Dive Brief:

• Volvo CFO and long-time company alum Tina Hultkvist announced she would be retiring as the automaker’s finance chief as well as stepping down as a member of its executive board, the company said in a release Friday.  
• Hultkvist, who took the automaker’s top financial seat just shy of a year ago in March 2022, will leave her role “with immediate effect” but will remain available to the company during 2023, Volvo said in the Friday release.
• The Gothenburg, Sweden-based company has initiated the search for Hultkvist’s successor, with previous Volvo finance chief Jan Ytterberg stepping in as acting CFO while the search is ongoing.

Dive Insight:

Ytterberg, who joined the automaker in 2018,  served as EVP, group finance and CFO for AB Volvo between 2018 and 2022, according to the company, and became a strategic advisor for the automaker upon Hultkvist’s appointment in March 2022.

Prior to serving as Volvo’s CFO, Hultkvist previously served as their SVP group reporting, tax and control, according to a March 2022 company press release. She has also held various financial roles for the firm throughout her 25-year tenure with Volvo Group, according to the company.

The CFO change comes as the automaker, as well as its competitors in the industry, continue to face economic headwinds. These include inflation and continued supply chain challenges, Volvo President and CEO Martin Lundstedt said during the company’s fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings call. Volatile energy prices, have also been worrisome, he said.

Persistent cost pressures are leading many in the auto industry to reduce their own expenses and to compete for waning customer attention. Both Ford and Tesla announced they would be slashing prices on their electric vehicles, according to a CNBC report, and Ford also plans to cut up to 3,200 jobs in Europe.

Meanwhile, while General Motors forecasted a robust 2023 following stronger than expected 2022 profits — setting a goal to make a million electric vehicles by 2025 — the automaker also plans to cut $2 billion in costs, CEO Mary Barra said, according to a New York Times report.

Volvo itself is aiming to strike the right “balance between performing here and now and to invest and lead the transformation,” Lundstedt said on the Jan. 26 call, with Volvo “continuing to invest significantly to expand our range in electric products,” he said.

Volvo is also taking steps to invest in “the more well-known technologies,” Hultkvist said during the call. On Jan. 18 prior to its fourth quarter earnings call, Volvo announced a strategic investment into Canadian autonomous trucking startup Waabi, a bid that follows previous forays by the Company into autonomous vehicles such as its Vera trucks, according to a report on the investment by TechCrunch.

Volvo did not respond to requests for comment.