VOLVO puts safety first. The Swedish carmaker was the first to introduce three-point seat belts in 1959. Its aspiration is that its technology will ensure that no one is killed or seriously injured in any Volvo sold after 2020. Safety issues may also explain the decision on September 10th to shelve long-held plans for an initial public offering, which Volvo had hoped might value the firm at $30bn. At that lofty price it might have struggled to protect investors’ money as conscientiously as it looks after the well-being of passengers.

The firm said the unpredictability of a brewing global trade war had persuaded it to wait. But an IPO that valued the upmarket Swedish carmaker on a par with Audi—which makes nearly 2m cars a year, three times as many as Volvo produces—always looked a stretch. Its owner, Geely, a Chinese carmaker, decided to delay when it became clear that the firm would not merit such a high valuation.

Volvo is nevertheless worth a lot more than when it was snapped up in 2010 for $1.8bn by Li Shufu, owner of Geely. The seller was Ford, and the Volvo brand was then close to the scrapyard (which was where Saab, another Swedish carmaker, ended up in 2011 under the ownership of General Motors). Even so, there was widespread incredulity that a Chinese maker of cheap, low-quality vehicles could be a suitable guardian for a premium marque.

In fact, Volvo has thrived largely by being left to get on with what it does best—developing fine cars with advanced technology and cool Scandinavian design. Production has nearly doubled since the last full year of Ford’s ownership, to 572,000 in 2017, when profits hit a record SKr14bn ($1.6bn).

The association with Geely has worked well for both. Mr Li’s willingness to invest—Geely has put $11bn into Volvo—has resulted in a string of well-received new models, such as the XC40 SUV (pictured). Volvo is also part of Mr Li’s attempts to build a worldwide carmaking group, which includes Malaysia’s Proton, Lotus (a British sports-car firm), the maker of London taxis and significant stakes in both the Volvo lorry business (a separate firm since 1999) and Germany’s Daimler.

Geely has used Volvo’s expertise to improve its own cars. Owning the Swedish brand also brings scale to a small company that has to make big investments in the future of motoring. Lynk & Co, a joint venture set up in 2016 between the two, is manufacturing SUVs on the Swedish firm’s platform for less than a Volvo equivalent. These are mainly for use in a car-sharing service that may one day substitute for car ownership. The new headquarters of Polestar, another joint venture between the two that will make high-performance electric cars, is a shimmering cube of light at the firm’s otherwise grey concrete headquarters in Gothenburg.

Yet despite its readiness to embrace a world of electrification, mobility services and autonomous driving, success is as uncertain for Volvo as it is for other carmakers. Volvo is setting the pace on electric vehicles (EVs), for example: it has promised that all its cars will be electrified by 2019. But the transition to EVs will be expensive, and Volvo is far smaller and less profitable than German rivals. Returns from selling mobility services are largely untested.

Volvo is at least trying to articulate a future for high-end autonomous cars. It recently unveiled a concept car with an interior that includes a seat that turns into a bed for overnight driving, which it thinks might challenge short flights or high-speed trains in a decade or so. Another idea is an office on wheels. If and when plans for an IPO are revived, ideas such as these will help determine whether Volvo is more deserving of a premium price tag.