[RechargeHard]

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.

What’s that pile of rocks they drive over at the end? Like to shake off anything loose? Or exercise the suspension?

 

[VolvoGoteborg]

To settle the suspension

 

[medels]

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

 

[Divaria]

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???

 

[VolvoGoteborg]

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.

 

[VolvoGoteborg]

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?

 

[Divaria]

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.

 

[Mjoelnir]

"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?

Suggestions:

• EX40 and XC40
• EX40 and Polestar 7 (if they count them as 2 Volvos)

Is the EC40 successful enough to get a successor?

 

[thecanadaman]

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.

 

[Divaria]

More likely, ES 40 or better EV 40

 

[thecanadaman]

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 ...

 

[VolvoGoteborg]

Suggestions:

• EX40 and XC40
• EX40 and Polestar 7 (if they count them as 2 Volvos)

Is the EC40 successful enough to get a successor?

What would be the difference between the XC40 and the EX40 here? The new SPA-3 one.

XC40 being the ICE version I assume? I don't think Volvo plans to introduce any new ICE models. Just facelift and continue the ones they have.

Then again the XC50 is a ICE / PHEV and that's a new model so maybe things have changed

 

[VolvoGoteborg]

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 ...

C40 / EC40 was a new segment though. A tall coupe-SUV. There was meant to be a new S40 but that became the Polestar 2. At a "long hatchback" it would probably have been called V40 and tried to cover the S40 and V40 (second gen, hatchback) market.

 

[thecanadaman]

C40 / EC40 was a new segment though. A tall coupe-SUV. There was meant to be a new S40 but that became the Polestar 2. At a "long hatchback" it would probably have been called V40 and tried to cover the S40 and V40 (second gen, hatchback) market.

The old V50 was never a good seller though, at least in North America. I know in Europe you had what I believe was a V40 but how well did it sell? Volvo under Geely ownership is run autonomous from them but they do run lean.

 

[Dalsim007]

The old V50 was never a good seller though, at least in North America. I know in Europe you had what I believe was a V40 but how well did it sell? Volvo under Geely ownership is run autonomous from them but they do run lean.

I certainly disagree to the statement that the V50 wasn't a good seller. Here in Quebec, this car was everywhere in its time! Probably more common than the S40 too.

US is something else for sure though. US buyers seem to only buy ginormous vehicles for some reason. Overcompensating maybe , or just something to do with too frequent McDonald's trips . What do I know.

 

[VolvoGoteborg]

The old V50 was never a good seller though, at least in North America. I know in Europe you had what I believe was a V40 but how well did it sell? Volvo under Geely ownership is run autonomous from them but they do run lean.

Volvo V40 II global production volumes

V40 II​	2012​	22,202​
V40 II​	2013​	78,307​
V40 II​	2014​	84,771​
V40 II​	2015​	83,357​
V40 II​	2016​	80,099​
V40 II​	2017​	73,824​
V40 II​	2018​	60,461​
V40 II​	2019​	39,561​
V40 II​	2020​	2,831​

V40 total = 525413

V40 CC​	2012​	244​
V40 CC​	2013​	21,604​
V40 CC​	2014​	26,093​
V40 CC​	2015​	23,274​
V40 CC​	2016​	21,281​
V40 CC​	2017​	21,546​
V40 CC​	2018​	17,126​
V40 CC​	2019​	11,981​
V40 CC​	2020​	563​
V40 CC​	Jan-September 2021​	6​

V40 CC total = 143712

If you count V40 and V40 CC as the same model then numbers are:

2012​	22,446​
2013​	99,911​
2014​	110,864​
2015​	106,631​
2016​	101,380​
2017​	95,370​
2018​	77,587​
2019​	51,542​
2020​	3,394​
2021​	12​
2022​	3​

 

[VolvoGoteborg]

Volvo V40 II global production volumes

V40 II​	2012​	22,202​
V40 II​	2013​	78,307​
V40 II​	2014​	84,771​
V40 II​	2015​	83,357​
V40 II​	2016​	80,099​
V40 II​	2017​	73,824​
V40 II​	2018​	60,461​
V40 II​	2019​	39,561​
V40 II​	2020​	2,831​

V40 total = 525413

V40 CC​	2012​	244​
V40 CC​	2013​	21,604​
V40 CC​	2014​	26,093​
V40 CC​	2015​	23,274​
V40 CC​	2016​	21,281​
V40 CC​	2017​	21,546​
V40 CC​	2018​	17,126​
V40 CC​	2019​	11,981​
V40 CC​	2020​	563​
V40 CC​	Jan-September 2021​	6​

V40 CC total = 143712

If you count V40 and V40 CC as the same model then numbers are:

2012​	22,446​
2013​	99,911​
2014​	110,864​
2015​	106,631​
2016​	101,380​
2017​	95,370​
2018​	77,587​
2019​	51,542​
2020​	3,394​
2021​	12​
2022​	3​

V40 + V40 CC total production volume = 669,140

So pretty good

 

[thecanadaman]

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

 

[Mjoelnir]

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...

 

[thecanadaman]

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.