Volvo Cars to start manufacturing in the US. Sets up state-of-the-art production facility in South Carolina

In line with its global manufacturing strategy ‘Build where you sell’, Volvo Cars has opened its first US manufacturing plant in Charleston, South Carolina. The company now has manufacturing facilities in all three major sales regions. The state-of-the-art production facility in South Carolina complements its two manufacturing plants and an engine plant in Europe, three car factories and an engine plant in China, and assembly plants in India and Malaysia.

The Charleston plant will start production of the new Volvo S60 premium mid-size sports sedan in the fall of 2018. From 2021, the factory will also build the next generation of the Volvo XC90 large premium SUV. Cars built at the plant will be both for the domestic US market and international export.

Volvo Cars is investing around USD 1.1 billion in its US manufacturing operations and will create around 4,000 new jobs at the Charleston site over the coming years. Approximately 1,500 staff will be employed by the end of this year.

The new Charleston facility includes an office building for up to 300 staff from R&D, purchasing, quality and sales. The plant can produce 150,000 cars per year at full capacity. The site occupies 1,600 acres and the building space covers 2.3 million sq. ft. Construction on the facility broke ground in 2015.

The company will build plug-in hybrid cars at all of its car plants globally. In 2017 Volvo Cars was the first global car maker to announce its strategy that from 2019 all new models will be electrified.