A listing for Volvo would represent a milestone in what has been at times a rocky turnaround effort since

Ford Motor Co.

sold the company to Geely for $1.8 billion in 2010. It has long capitalized on a brand recognized for safety, but at the time of its sale, its product lineup had failed to excite car buyers.

Geely bankrolled Volvo’s recovery over the next decade, opening China as a market for the brand and providing financing to help the company revamp its model offerings. Today, Volvo is profitable, with a road map for electric-model rollouts that is ahead of some competitors. It now competes with Germany’s suite of premium brands, including

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG

,

Volkswagen AG’s

Audi brand and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz.

Last week, Polestar, a Swedish electric-vehicle maker jointly owned by Volvo, Geely and others, announced plans to merge with a special-purpose acquisition company and list in New York in a deal that would value the Swedish electric-vehicle maker at roughly $20 billion.

Volvo Cars said last month that it expected to own close to 50% of the combined company after completion of Polestar’s merger with

Gores Guggenheim Inc.

The Polestar deal generated a pathway for Volvo to pursue its own offering by assigning a value of about $10 billion to Volvo’s stake, according to some of the people familiar with Volvo’s listing plans.

In September, Reuters reported that Volvo was in talks to list its shares in the coming weeks.

Earlier this year, Volvo and Geely decided against merging Volvo with Geely Auto Group, raising expectations that the company would pursue a separate listing and greater independence from Geely Holding. Geely has previously indicated it would likely remain a major shareholder after any offering.

“Volvo Cars is especially well-positioned to deliver continued growth and harness the full potential of electrification and the delivery of safe autonomous-drive functions,”

Eric Li,

chairman of Geely Holding, said in May.

Write to Ben Dummett at ben.dummett@wsj.com and William Boston at william.boston@wsj.com