Volvo Cars says to hire 400 engineers to spearhead high-tech push

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Chinese-owned Volvo Car Group said on Tuesday it would recruit about 400 new engineers over the coming year to bolster development efforts in safety technology, autonomous driving and electrification.

The recruitment drive, which Volvo said was one of its largest ever, comes as the manufacturer is enjoying brisk sales of a fleet of new, up-market models as it looks to solidify its position in a premium car market dominated by larger rivals.

Volvo, bought by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. from Ford Motor Co. in 2010, said in a statement most of the engineers joining the company would be based at its research and development centre in Gothenburg, in western Sweden.

"With the recruitment drive, Volvo further strengthens the automotive cluster in Western Sweden and establishes it as an emerging hub for automotive software engineering", Volvo said.

Volvo is ramping up technologies at the cutting edge of development in the auto industry such as autonomous vehicles and only this month signed a partnership with ride-sharing company Uber in the field of autonomous cars.

The company also said it was opening a research and development center in the southern Sweden university town of Lund, where an initial 35 employees would begin work next month.

(Reporting by Niklas Pollard; Editing by Alistair Scrutton)