Volvo Cars has inaugurated a brand new battery assembly line in its Ghent plant, a first for the Swedish carmaker.
The new battery assembly line is in line with Volvo’s commitment for its electrification ambitions and climate action plan, including the target of 50% of car sales to be electrified vehicles by 2025.
Volvo’s head of global production operations, Geert Bruyneel said, “As the first of our plants to get a battery assembly line, Ghent plays a pioneering role as we continue to prepare our manufacturing network for electrification.”
Apart from the Ghent plant in Belgium, Volvo has also announced its planned construction of a battery assembly line at its US plant in South Carolina. Construction of the assembly line is expected to start this autumn.
The Ghent plant will act as a testbed for the battery production operations, where important learnings in efficiency and process optimisation can be brought over to future manufacturing sites.
Volvo’s first Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), the XC40 Recharge, will also be built in the Ghent plant later this year, alongside the battery assembly line.
Volvo will also build BEVs based on the brand’s CMA platform in the Luqiao manufacturing plant in China, alongside sister brands Polestar and Lynk & Co.
Last year, Volvo signed a long-term agreement with CATL of China and LG Chem of South Korea for the supply of batteries over the coming decade. The agreement will cover next generation Volvo and Polestar vehicles, including the XC40 Recharge P8.
