The chief executive of Volvo cars said he thought the US car market would hit bottom this year, and that the Swedish brand could survive the downturn without making more job cuts.

“I honestly believe this year is the trough, and we’ll need people to build cars and do other things,” Stephen Odell, the brand’s chief executive, told the Financial Times in an interview at the Geneva motor show. “To take people out is not the right thing to do.”