Volvo Cars announced that it will establish a third manufacturing plant in Slovakia, positioning the company well to meet the continued demand from its customers for electric cars and capture future growth potential.
The new state-of-the-art plant will be climate neutral and build only electric cars, underpinning the company’s ambition to become fully electric by 2030 and climate neutral by 2040 and to continue expanding its global production capacity to match its growth ambitions.
By picking Slovakia as the location for its new plant, Volvo Cars is creating a European triangle of manufacturing covering its largest sales region – complementing the Ghent plant (Belgium) in western Europe and the Torslanda plant (Sweden) in northern Europe.
The new facility represents an investment of around 1.2 billion euros. It will be located close to Kosice, in the eastern part of Slovakia, where it will benefit from a well-established automotive supply chain as it becomes the fifth car plant in the country.
Volvo Cars has the ambition to move towards annual sales of 1.2 million cars by mid-decade, which it aims to meet with a global manufacturing footprint spanning Europe, the US and Asia.
“We have a clear focus on becoming a pure electric mobility brand by 2030, which is in line with our purpose,” said Jim Rowan, chief executive at Volvo Cars. “Expansion in Europe, our largest sales region, is crucial to our shift to electrification and continued growth. I am very pleased to expand our Volvo Cars production footprint into Slovakia and look forward to welcoming new colleagues and partners on the journey ahead.”
“I appreciate that Volvo Cars has decided to build its new plant in Slovakia,” added the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Eduard Heger. “The new Volvo Cars plant is important for us since it will improve the social and economic situation in the region and produce only electric cars, which provides the Slovak automotive industry with a competitive perspective in the new ecological era.”
Construction of the Kosice plant is planned to start in 2023, with equipment and production lines installed during 2024. Series production of next-generation, pure electric Volvo cars is scheduled to start in 2026.
Photos: Volvo Car Group.
