Volvo is investing significantly into the future and is building a plant in South Carolina. Volvo Cars will produce the next-generation S60 compact sedan in Ridgeville, S.C., when the company’s new plant becomes operational there in 2018.
The plant, Volvo’s first in the U.S., is expected to produce 50,000 to 60,000 vehicles each year initially, but will be capable of churning out 100,000 vehicles at full capacity, says Lex Kerssemakers, CEO of Volvo Cars of North America. The first South Carolina-built S60s are expected to roll off the line in late 2018.
Volvo says the factory will be the global production home for the S60, which will be exported from the Port of Charleston — along with another model yet to be named.
The U.S. factory will be one of three Volvo plants producing vehicles based on Volvo’s new Scalable Product Architecture. The others are in Sweden and China. The XC90 crossover is the first vehicle to use the new architecture.
