Volvo Cars has inaugurated its first US manufacturing plant in Charleston, South Carolina. The new factory follows Volvo’s ‘Build where you sell’ strategy and complements its two manufacturing plants and an engine plant in Europe, three car factories and an engine plant in China, and assembly plants in India and Malaysia.
The Charleston plant starts production of the just-unveiled Volvo S60, which is based on the company’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) platform, this autumn. From 2021, the US factory will also build the next generation Volvo XC90 SUV. Cars built at the plant are destined both for the domestic US market and exports.
“The Charleston plant establishes the US as our third home market. The saloon segment and the SPA platform’s proven ability to boost profitability offer significant growth opportunities for Volvo Cars in the US and globally,” said Hakan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo Cars.
Volvo is investing around US$1.1 billion (RM4.4 billion) in its US manufacturing operations and will create around 4,000 new jobs at the Charleston site over the coming years. Approximately 1,500 staff will be employed by the end of this year.
The facility includes an office building for up to 300 staff from R&D, purchasing, quality and sales. The plant can produce 150,000 cars per year at full capacity. The site occupies 1,600 acres and the building space covers 2.3 million square feet. Construction started in 2015.
The new S60, which looks like a smaller and sportier version of the S90, is the first Volvo not to be offered with a diesel engine, which means it’s petrol or hybrid only. All four powertrains feature a 2.0 litre Drive-E engine and an Aisin eight-speed auto. The turbocharged T5 makes 254 hp/350 Nm, the twincharged T6 AWD does 310 hp/400 Nm and the T6 Twin Engine AWD hybrid produces 340 hp/590 Nm.
The S60 T8 Twin Engine AWD with 390 hp/640 Nm can be enhanced to deliver 405 hp/670 Nm with the optional Polestar Engineered upgrade exclusive to the range topping T8. The Polestar pack also brings new wheels, upgraded brakes and suspension, plus a revised ECU.
As with most Volvo models, one can choose from Momentum, Inscription and R-Design trim packages. The new S60 will also be available via the brand’s Care by Volvo subscription service, where customers pay a flat monthly fee that covers insurance and maintenance. Click here for more on the new S60.
GALLERY: 2019 Volvo S60 R-Design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-Design exterior
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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- New Volvo S60 R-design
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In the heat of the ongoing trade war between US-China, credits must go to Geely China Volvo in forging ahead their ‘Build where you sell’ strategy.
The truth is the Volvo plant Construction started in 2015 hence there was no trade war between US-China back then. Just saying bro.
Where is Malaysia version?
VCMM, Shah Alam
Habisla! USA dah jual to China!
Betul ke john?! Volvo baru buka 1st factory dah jual to China! Ini john memang original Fake News supplier.
Confederate state loves Scandinavian blonde
No more Confederacy, flag got taken down. huhuhu. Now its under Federal Terran Dominion.
With Europe now slowly turning into Europestan, thanks to stupidity of leftist EU, and Sweden becoming rape capital of Europe , I see no wrong with what you said, if it’s true.
No different than South African whites now moving en masse to Australia to escape black racism.
It’ll be interesting to see how they are going to price the S60. Surely it cannot be more expensive than the C class, 3 series, or the Audi A4…
average Muricans can simply buy a Volvo S60 with their average annual pay. Lucky average folks hihih
But the average Murican prefers to by Chevys or Fords since Trump told them Volvo is China.
Wellsaid bru.
sebijik mcm the average Msian prefers to by P1s or P2s
Is Trump paying for every USA car buyers
cars neww cars? No one listens to u unless u are the paymaster.
So shoddy USA made cars ,do not know which stupid buyers outside USA will buy USA GM , FORD and Chrysler vehicles
Shoddy? Not in USA. Ford & Chevy ranked 5th & 6th best quality
https://paultan.org/2018/06/21/genesis-kia-and-hyundai-top-j-d-power-quality-study/
Hopefully S60 will be on sale here before Tax Holiday is over
LOL dream on