Volvo considering more production in the United States
- Following the announcement of future 25% tariff (in addition to the existing tariffs) on car imports from Europe, the carmaker Volvo (a subsidiary of the Geely group) has announced that it is considering increasing production at its American plant in Ridgeville , South Carolina. Currently, this plant produces the S60 sedans (D-segment) as well as the EX90 SUVs (E-segment) and Polestar 3 (D segment), but in quantities too small to make the fully use the current capacities.
- In 2024, this plant produced 7,494 S60 sedans, 8,590 electric EX90 SUVs and 3,911 electric Polestar 3s, for a total of 19,995 vehicles, while the site's capacity was set by the carmaker at 150,000 vehicles per year. There is therefore plenty of room to produce one or more new models, as this plant is significantly oversized compared to demand, particularly due to the low demand for high-priced electric vehicles.
- On the other hand, Volvo imported 109,752 vehicles from Europe in 2024 out of the 125,243 sold in the USA, of which the largest sales volumes were recorded by the Volvo XC90 SUVs (39,492 units), Volvo XC60 (38,892 units) and Volvo XC40 (26,557 units).
- We may be tempted to think that these three highly demanded models could be produced in the Ridgeville plant for the American market, in addition to the existing models (S60, EX90, Polestar 3) and without increasing the plant's production capacity, since these three models together represent between 100,000 and 110,000 units per year, to which must be added between 20,000 and 40,000 units per year of the S60, EX90 and Polestar 3, or between 120,000 and 150,000 units per year in total.