Volvo Building New Plant in South Carolina

Volvo is building its first factory in North America.

The Swedish automaker is investing $500 million in South Carolina to help revive sales in the U.S., which have more than halved over the past 10 years. The new Volvo factory will be constructed in Berkeley County, north of Charleston, joining BMW as the second European automaker to build vehicles in the state. The plant is scheduled to open in 2018 and will eventually have the capacity to build 100,000 units annually with about 4,000 employees.

Volvo was acquired by Chinese company Zheijang Geely Holding Group Co. in 2010 and is aggressively expanding to meet its goals of annual global sales of 800,000 vehicles by 2020. This year, the company is aiming for 500,000 deliveries as the brand works to catch up to German rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

SEE ALSO: 2016 Volvo XC90 Review

Volvo currently has an $11 billion worldwide investment program that will completely overhaul its lineup in the next four years, starting with the new XC90 SUV that will be available in the second half of 2015. Last year, the company sold about 56,000 vehicles in the U.S., less than its peak 139,000 in 2004.

“It was the total package: It’s logistics, it’s labor, it’s infrastructure, everything,” said Volvo Cars Chief Executive Officer Hakan Samuelsson in a phone interview with The Detroit News. “It’s good to have other producers in the same state, as it’s good to have a supplier network.”

[Source: The Detroit News]

Discuss this story at our Volvo forum