Volvo Cars, the Swedish premium car maker has just opened its doors to its first manufacturing plant in the USA. Located in Charleston, South Carolina, the new plant was established in line with the car maker’s global manufacturing strategy of “Build where you sell”.
The Charleston facility spans 1,600 acres of land while the building space covers 2.3 million square feet. At maximum capacity, the plant is able to produce 150,000 cars per annum. Volvo Cars is investing around US$1.1 billion for this plant and are expected to create around 4,000 new jobs in the coming years. The plant estimates to employ 1,500 staff by the end of 2018.
President and CEO of Volvo Car USA, Anders Gustafsson said: “The opening of our first American factory is a very big deal, Our US business is developing well, our cars have won prestigious awards, and the new South Carolina facility will be a big asset to both Volvo Cars and the community.”
The plant will start production of the new Volvo S60 destined for the domestic US market and international export. The factory will also build the next-generation Volvo XC90 SUV when the new SUV is due in 2021.
In a separate note, Volvo Car Malaysia’s assembly plant in Shah Alam rolled out its first car, the Volvo 144 back in 1966. Currently, the Shah Alam plant is capable of assembling Volvo’s latest Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) platform and T8 Twin Engine Plug-in Hybrid models for domestic consumption as well as export markets.
IMAGE GALLERY
Volvo Cars Manufacturing Plant in South Carolina, USA
Volvo S60 R-Desgin
