Volvo Doubles South Carolina Investment, Pours In Another $500 Million, Plans Two Production Lines

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

Volvo continues to look forward to real U.S. sales recovery, meeting the goal of record U.S. sales volume by 2020, and a fourth consecutive year of record global sales. To get there, Volvo is already altering plans at the Charleston, South Carolina, assembly plant where construction is already in full swing.

Altering? According to Reuters and Charleston’s Post and Courier, it’s more like deciding that the plant should be twice as large, build twice as many vehicles, house more than twice as many employees, and cost twice as much.

Volvo was already going in the process of investing $500 million to build a South Carolina plant that will likely be responsible for assembling the next-generation Volvo S60. (The second-gen S60 is entering its eighth model year.) It’s been more than two years since Volvo announced South Carolina as the designated spot for the Chinese-owned Swedish automaker’s first North American facility since Volvo left Nova Scotia in 1998.

But with the first S60 in line to kickstart actual production in the summer of 2018, Volvo is reportedly going to add a production line — at a cost of another $500 million, bolstered by $3.5 million in government incentives — in order to increase the workforce from 2,000 to 4,500. Theoretically, the design of Volvo’s new architecture means any of the brand’s models could be built on the new line. Volvo expects 60 percent of its South Carolina production to be exported, The Post and Courier reports.

South Carolina is also home to production of four BMW utility vehicles. Through the first eight months of 2017, according to Automotive News, BMW’s Spartanburg, South Carolina, production accounts for 3 percent of total U.S. auto production. Mercedes-Benz also re-builds Metris and Sprinter vans in Ladson, South Carolina, at a rate of roughly 3,700 units per month.

Volvo has not yet confirmed its intentions for a double-sized South Carolina investment, nor the second vehicle intended to consume factory space.

[Images: Volvo]

Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars and Instagram.

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  • Volvo Volvo on Sep 19, 2017

    Could someone explain why Volvo would choose to expand in South Carolina when there are equal subsidies and a more experienced workforce available in Ontario or Michigan?

    • See 2 previous
    • Thornmark Thornmark on Sep 20, 2017

      @haroldingpatrick California, w/ all its natural advantages, is being transformed into a poor state - it now has the highest poverty rate in the nation - but w/ a bubble housing market.

  • Threeer Threeer on Sep 20, 2017

    I'm conflicted on this one. I spent over a decade living just outside of Charleston (Summerville) and still consider that my "home" and where my wife and I intend on retiring, should that day ever come. While part of me loves the fact that more Charlestonians are getting the opportunity to find work, the Chinese connection irks me as we continue to stare down $300 billion+ deficits with them year over year over year. Maybe I should be happy that some of that money is being reinvested in the US and leave it at that...

    • Garrett Garrett on Sep 20, 2017

      By definition, the Chinese have been investing in the US as long as we've had trade deficits with them. The difference here, is that instead of buying Treasuries or Mortgage Backed Securities, they are investing in land and manufacturing. If there were no cross-border investing going on, and freely moving exchange rates, it would be mathematically impossible to have a trade deficit.

  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
  • Tassos Jong-iL Communist America Rises!
  • Merc190 A CB7 Accord with the 5 cylinder
  • MRF 95 T-Bird Daihatsu Copen- A fun Kei sized roadster. Equipped with a 660cc three, a five speed manual and a retractable roof it’s all you need. Subaru Levorg wagon-because not everyone needs a lifted Outback.
  • Merc190 I test drive one of these back in the day with an automatic, just to drive an Alfa, with a Busso no less. Didn't care for the dash design, would be a fun adventure to find some scrapped Lancia Themas or Saab 900's and do some swapping to make car even sweeter. But definitely lose the ground effects.
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