Volvo Cars triples electric car capacity in Ghent

Volvo is increasingly going electric: in 2020, the share of Recharge models in global total sales more than doubled compared to the previous year. Therefore, the Swedes are adjusting their capacities: according to Volvo Cars, by 2022, the capacity for pure electric vehicles built in Ghent will more than triple and will then make up about 60 percent of local production. The Belgian site is currently preparing for the production of a second all-electric Volvo model based on the modular vehicle architecture CMA, which will start later this year. The first all-electric vehicle, the Volvo XC40 Recharge P8 AWD, and its plug-in hybrid variants are already rolling off the assembly line in Ghent. Ghent was the world's first Volvo car plant to start production of all-electric Volvo models. In addition, there are plans to expand production capacities for electric cars in other manufacturing facilities around the world. Javier Varela, Head of Global Industrial Operations and Quality, comments:

“Ghent plays a central role within the global production network as we expand our model portfolio and production capacities.”

The all-electric Volvo range is also set to grow rapidly: in the coming years, the company will launch various all-electric vehicles. By 2025, electric models are expected to account for 50 percent of global sales, with the rest being hybrids. In December 2020, Volvo Cars also announced that it would start assembling electric motors at its engine plant in Skövde, Sweden, and build a fully in-house e-motor production by the middle of the decade. For this, the company will invest a total of 700 million Swedish kronor (about 68.3 million euros) over the next few years. Previously, Volvo had already announced significant investment in the in-house development of electric motors for the next generation of Volvo vehicles.

What does this mean?

After a strong start mainly with plug-in hybrids, investments are now increasingly shifting to purely electric models, which are likely to become much more important for Volvo in the future, especially as they can tap into the entire Geely network here.