Miscellaneous Features
Gothenburg Travel Week Part III: Torslanda Factory Tour
By by: George Achorn
Dec 21, 2005, 10:26

With Volvo being the most successful player in the overseas delivery business these days, there’s no shortage of Americans heading to the company’s home town of Gothenburg, Sweden in order to take delivery of their new Volvos and enjoy a few days or even weeks in scenic Scandinavia. Whether you’re going over to pick up your new car through the Overseas Delivery Program or just traveling to the region, booking a tour at Volvo’s state-of-the-art Torslanda factory is well worth the effort.

If you’ve never toured a car factory before, you’ll no doubt find the full process of automotive production fascinating. The entire process will most likely wow even non-car enthusiasts, who will no doubt learn some things along the way. Torslanda is a complete factory, beginning with the stamping of steel for body components and onto paint and final assembly. You’ll see the whole process should you tour this flagship facility of Volvos.



The factory was first opened in 1964. Today, it produces over 181,000 cars per year, including S80, V70, XC70 and XC90 models, employing 5,300 of the local population.

Tours stage from an attractive reception building, where visitors congregate for a cup of coffee and await their appointed tour. We found a wide mix of nationalities on our particular tour, with plenty of Americans, most of which were also taking part in Volvo’s Overseas Delivery program.



The group is then shuffled into a small theater, where a short film about the Volvo Car Corporation and the local Torslanda plant is presented.

Following the film, the groups are loaded onto trams that cart them around the plant to the various areas where production can be fully viewed. It’s here that you get a new appreciation for how much goes into making something as common and everyday as your car.



Sheet steel is first stamped, making the basic bones of the car’s chassis, which are then spot welded together and moved off for paint. After that, components from sub-contractors, including everything from fan belts to seats, are delivered using a “just-in-time” delivery model, directed by computer to the specific car they are intended for. It is not uncommon to see a gold XC70 traveling down the assembly line behind a black XC90 or a red V70; this is no problem for the computer-controlled dispersion system.

Unmanned motorized robot carriers move Volvo chassis in various states of build around from section of assembly line to the next stage. Should a worker or a visitor wander into the path of the unmanned carrier, it stops until it can safely pass. The automation is quite impressive, and is far beyond the robot welding arms and the like you would typically expect to see in a car factory.



No photographs are allowed from the shuttle, which is to be expected. It’s doubtful though that you’ll see a new car that isn’t yet in production going down a line. Generally when a new product is being staged, these sections of the facility will not be part of a normal tour program.

Tours of Torslanda are generally booked ahead of time, so make sure to call ahead.

Visiting Address: Volvo Car Corporation, Torslanda, TK Gate

Phone: +46-31-59 00 00

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