Models per location could then become:

Torslanda Sweden:
SPA XC90 facelift, SPA XC60 facelift, SPA V90 facelift OR SPA V60 facelift.

SPA-3 EX60

Capacity 300,000 units/year. Bit of a squeeze for capacity given the number of models and their volumes made there.

What was the plan for Torslanda for when the SPA cars weren't going to live on alongside the SPA-2 and SPA-3 models?

Would have added EX90 to Torslanda too? Plants to still do so? Plus further production of the SPA-2 3rd sibling?

Ghent Belgium:
EX30 and ?
Capacity 250,000 units/year

Charlestown USA:
EX90 and Polestar 3
Capacity 150,000.
If EX90 was (originally) to replace SPA XC90 then Charlestown as sole EX90 site looks like it would need more capacity. Originally EX90 also made in Torslanda (as above, before the SPA facelift plan). With slowing EV demand hence the SPA facelift plan in the end Charlestown has ok capacity since Torslanda keeps SPA XC90 going via the facelift model.

Kosice: EX40 II, EC40 II ? Polestar 7

Shah Alam Malaysia:
TBC what models but v low volume of a few thousand a year?

Daqing China:
SPA S90 facelift - move some production to Ghent? Torslanda? to avoid China-made tariffs?
ES90 - move to Ghent? Torslanda? to avoid China-made tariffs?
Capacity TBC

Chengdu China:
SPA XC60 facelift for Asian markets. Other models too?
Capacity TBC

Zhangjiakou:
SEA EX30
Capacity TBC
Shared Geely plant? Geely owned? Not solely for Volvo?

Luqiao / (renamed Taizhou when solely a Volvo plant):
What comes after the XC40 and Polestar 2? Their respective replacements of EX40 II and Polestar 7? Made in China for Asian markets

Seems likely there will be a continued reversal of a single plant producing for the global markets given the US, EU and China tariffs. Back to multiple models in a plant/s per global region it seems.

 

Charleston, SC (USA), not Charlestown. They're also producing the S60 there still, for the moment at least.

 

Thanks

I thought SPA S60 production ended at the end of June 2024?

Volvo S60 Sedan Will End Production in the U.S. after This Month

Charlestown is a town in the UK, noted it's Charleston. The latter sounding far more American

 

Thanks

I thought SPA S60 production ended at the end of June 2024?

Volvo S60 Sedan Will End Production in the U.S. after This Month

Charlestown is a town in the UK, noted it's Charleston. The latter sounding far more American

Production is ramping down, yes. But I'm not sure what the date for final production is yet. I'll have to confirm with a friend who works at the plant.

And Charleston was originally named Charles Towne when it was founded in 1670, in honor of King Charles II. So there is still plenty of connection to the UK for it's naming. But the modern name is Charleston.

Oh, and if we want to get REALLY picky about it, the plant isn't really even in Charleston. It's in Ridgeville, SC, in Berkley County. Not even in Charleston County. That's about 30 minutes north of Charleston. But Charleston is the closest major city, so it gets the credit in naming since more people know where that is, hahaha.

 

Good idea for a thread! Production is super interesting and can give many clues.

In the reddit thread I posted before where two workers in Charleston answered questions, they mentioned that they had three lines, so one line left for a mystery vehicle. I am guessing they will also do ES90 eventually.

Looking at ex30 sales numbers I am guessing Ghent will be SEA only going forward to supply US and Europe. Maybe it will become a Geely factory instead and also do zeekr? I am guessing that they will start shipping chassis from China to Ghent and have them just assemble the parts.

Overall I feel that Ghent is not getting the investment needed and is the odd one out.

 

Good idea for a thread! Production is super interesting and can give many clues.

In the reddit thread I posted before where two workers in Charleston answered questions, they mentioned that they had three lines, so one line left for a mystery vehicle. I am guessing they will also do ES90 eventually.

Looking at ex30 sales numbers I am guessing Ghent will be SEA only going forward to supply US and Europe. Maybe it will become a Geely factory instead and also do zeekr? I am guessing that they will start shipping chassis from China to Ghent and have them just assemble the parts.

Overall I feel that Ghent is not getting the investment needed and is the odd one out.

Thanks

Charleston makes more sense for non-China ES90 production since that's an SPA-2 car. More sense than squeezing it in Torslanda. I've heard from a few different sources that there's a 3rd SPA-2 sibling. I imagine that's a SUV-estate sort of thing. Charleston has an easier ability to add capacity should (optimistically) EX90, Polestar 3, the 3rd SPA-2 sibling and ES90 production volumes need it. Charleston's 150,000 total capacity is on the modest side for EX90 + Polestar 3 especially with the original plan for EX90 to replace XC90. With the EX90 and XC90 running in parallel the totals of each from Charleston and Torslanda mean it might be ok. I assume the original plan was all EX90s for the global market would be made in Charleston.

With the SPA facelift models plus EX60 on SPA-3, Torslanda looks like the factory with the greatest pressure for capacity. It's 300,000 is optimistically on the low side if it's to deliver:

 

Based on statements made in Davos last week, I think all production, for all future models, is now to be moved to the Charleston/Ridgeville plant. haha

 

Re EX30 and Ghent and this site not having a stamping shop. I suppose the EX30s will be imported as panels stamped in (name?) Volvo's stamping plant in China. Welded in Ghent and painted.

 

I'm doubting the ES90 will be made outside of China. In the Canadian website, there is no mention of the ES90 even as a future product, in most other parts of the world it's there. If it's made in China, it can't come here. If it's made anywhere else, it can. I'm afraid the writing is on the wall.

The third model is something like the Concept Recharge/V546. But I haven't heard about a release date yet.

 

Given EU and US tariffs on China made EVs it's probably worth making the ES90 somewhere else. Otherwise no ES90 for the EU or US. Doubt Volvo will do that. As an SPA-2 car it's very easy to add it to the EX90 and Polestar 3 production in Charleston. Don't need a new line for a new model. Torslanda and Ghent don't do that. Nedcar in Holland didn't do that and they had S40, V40 and two Mitsubishi models.

 

Charleston never ever produced the planned number's, so I don't think they have the capacity, esp. in number's of qualified worker's.
Even in Kosice they have better option's

 

Correct. They are nowhere near capacity.

 

This is a recent video of the Charleston plant, people are all smiling as if they are doing a hell of a job.
Walking around with long hair without protection, doing repair job's on the body, doing job's that should have been roboticed.

 

Pretty sure this is early prod units where they are getting their staff to be familiar with the build and fine tuning equipment/robotics too. You see S60s on the prod line behind the EX90, so that would be from BEFORE they stopped production of the S60 last summer.

 

This is a PR video so they show the picture they want to show.

 

Then the PR people don't no what matter's

 

To settle the suspension

 

Kosice : Polestar 7?
Košice emerges as a possible hub for Polestar manufacturing in Europe - The Slovak Spectator

 

Kosice : Polestar 7?
Košice emerges as a possible hub for Polestar manufacturing in Europe - The Slovak Spectator

"Volvo plans to build two small SUVs in Kosice"

EX40 and EC40?

Total capacity of Kosice is 250k so that's the same as Ghent and would, presumably, be pretty much used up by the EX40 volumes.

Capacity to easily expand Kosice to add Polestar 7 too then? Plus additional EX40 and "other small Volvo SUV" volumes if needed.

Wonder what else that second small Volvo SUV could be?

Or an error in the article?

 

The reason why they are so silent about the car,s in Kosice is that they have to tell that production in Ghent is not for ever.
New EX 40 and sibbling,s from Kosice.
XC 40 PHEV from Ghent and EX 30 for how long???

 

EX30 for the next 7 years I assume. As the entry level model and the highest volume model too? might it gobble up almost all of Ghent's 250k production capacity? XC40 is ~200k per year at the moment so it's quite plausible EX30 will be even higher volume. XC40/EX40 currently uses almost all of Ghent's capacity it seems.

If Polestar 7 is to be made in Kosice and since Polestar have said that all future products will be on one platform only and since the EX40 is presumably SPA-3 platform based that therefore means only one of the following must be true:

1) Polestar 7 and all future Polestars are on the SEA platform and with the EX40 on SPA-3 then Kosice will be able to build SEA and SPA-3 in the same plant

2) Polestar 7 and all future Polestars will be SPA-3 based as will EX40

3) Polestar 7 and all future Polestars will be SEA based as will EX40 too.

 

The naming of the platform,s make,s the thing,s difficult.
CMA, SPA, SEA all origin in Gothenborg.
And now we have CMA 2.0, SPA 1, 2 3 ??? And SEA 4 or 5 different ways.
What is a platform??, a bin of part,s used by as many product,s as possible.
So all these platform,s grow and evolve an finally come closer to one much bigger part,s bin.
That,s the main reason companies have to grow.

 

There are multiple lines at Ghent, at Kosice I assume multiple lines too because the capacity there will be as large as Ghent's.

So any of the above could be true, or a combination of them. Time will tell if the EC40 will continue long term.

 

More likely, ES 40 or better EV 40

 

I very much doubt we'll see any sedan variant, at least in the traditional sense. The EC40 was supposed to fill that void but ...

 

The V40 never existed here. We had the V50 which was a different vehicle, and had it I believe until 2010 and 2011.

 

V40 was a totally different kind of car than the V50. It was more of a hatchback, and Volvo rather saw the V60 as the replacement for the V50. However, the V60 was a step larger than the V50, but as a lifestyle wagon, it didn't offer more room.

What's also strange in Volvo's storytelling:
The first V40 (wagon version of S40) was the smaller Volvo wagon next to the 850/V70. The V40 was then succeeded by V50 and then V60. When Volvo released the next V60 in 2018, they marketed it as the spiritual successor to the 850...

 

It did kind of morph that way. The V60 was touted as a tweener and they wanted to get XC70 buyers to go with the Cross Country and also take from the other side. The V60s on the P3 chassis were great, but they didn't capture the real utility that people wanted from them. Probably why they carried the XC70 for so long.

The current V60 does a better job of filling that niche. I think something like an S40 or V40 now would only work in certain markets that quite frankly wouldn't be that lucrative.

I'd be curious to see how the EX30 Cross Country does because it follows the same niche as the original V40 maybe. The EX30 is called an SUV but really it's just a hatchback with some ground clearance.

 

Correction:

Makes sense as the SPA V60 was a larger product and was more akin to the 850 in size

I think it was you who said previously that Volvo rarely replaces one product like for like in the next cycle. Usually they offer something a bit different, bit larger or a different offering.

I suppose at the larger end of the market there's a progression of say 240/260 sedans, 740/760 sedans, 940/960 sedans to the S80, S80 II and S90.

Also XC90 to SPA XC90 II and EX90.

But for the estates the 240/260 estate, 740/760 estate, 940/960 estate then became the smaller P2 V70 II which also replaced the V70 which was a deep facelift or 2nd gen based on the same platform 850 and was smaller than the 2/7/9 series estate. V70 II / P3 replaced that but was a bit larger (and more akin to a 2/7/9 estate) and then the SPA V90 II after that. P2 V70 sits between the 850 estate and the 2/7/9 estates in size and as the sole estate offering.

V60 I adds a replacement the V50 in approx size but larger and more expensive. Smaller than but similar is ethos to the 850 as a sportier smaller estate.

P2 S60 gets P3 S60 II then SPA S60. Mid-size sedan being a replacement for the 850 sedan and S70 I suppose.

XC60 then SPA XC60


But the smaller cars have more change product cycle to cycle

Start with the 340 hatch and 360 saloon, replaced by the 440 hatch and 460 saloon albeit a bit pricier. S40 saloon and V40 estate, no hatchback next. S40 II and V50 offer a like for like replacement.

C30 3 door hatch/coupe existed for one cycle (same lead designer who started work on the V40 the year after the C30 was launched. Answering, albeit 6 years later the question "will there be a C30 5 door?". Well kinda, but almost a product cycle later but on the same P1 / C1 platform.

S40 II and V50 are replaced by a single V40 II hatchback. No saloon and no estate.

V40 II isn't replaced

New XC40, new coupe-SUV C40 (kinda a V40 II replacement)

Then two cycles of a C70.

Not a consistent lineup cycle to cycle especially on the smaller car side.

 

The XC60 from P3 to SPA didn't change much in size - but the configuration changed. Much better back seat, less trunk when the seats are up. I don't think XC90 changed much in size either. Don't count width because every car seems to get wider over time.

The model plan has to change over time in many cases. But because models are planned well in advance, there is a risk ... sometimes they get them right and sometimes not. I'm not talking about whether the car is good or not ... I mean how it is received in the market.

 

I am really wondering what Volvo will do with the plan they are building in Košice, Slovakia.
With the new import tariffs, Volvo will have an production overcapacity in Europe.

 

I am really wondering what Volvo will do with the plan they are building in Košice, Slovakia.
With the new import tariffs, Volvo will have an production overcapacity in Europe.

build the Polestar 7.

 

Who knows what any manufacturers will do in the short-term in our current tariff uncertainties. Car manufacturing and sales strategies are years in the making and cannot be intelligently based on tariffs which can be gone tomorrow or dramatically increased. Strategic planning requires political and economic stability, which at least for America is currently in short supply.

 

It's certainly a challenging time. Product planning works up to 10 years ahead. Production plans go in step with that too

 

Volvo plans to grow so that annual sales in units would grow to over 1 million per year by 2030. It is likely that they will end up adding more capacity in SC, they own a lot of land there and can expand on its footprint. The facility in Kosice will still serve the US for a few years but it's likely Volvo will invest in expanding production in SC.

Nobody knows for sure how this will shake out long term because he still says it's open to negotiation.

 

While the SC plant is in play, I doubt Volvo will make all or most of the car components in America. Importing them to America for final assembly, based on current tariffs, will not make economic sense IMO. Volvo would have to inflate the cost of their USA manufactured vehicles to cover the tariff cost, making their already expensive vehicles more expensive.

 

You may be right. But when Volvo bought the site to develop, they specifically chose Charleston because of the port that is more and more pivotal for automotive trade. The tariffs throw a bit of a loop into it for sure because they also apply to components.