Volvo Automobiles has achieved an necessary milestone with the beginning of manufacturing for its totally electrical EX30 small SUV at its Ghent manufacturing facility in Belgium. This automobile was considered one of Europe’s top-selling electrical automobiles in 2024 and has attracted vital buyer curiosity since its launch in late 2023. The Ghent plant is ready to broaden manufacturing additional with the EX30 Cross Nation mannequin later this yr, as Volvo continues to diversify its manufacturing capabilities to fulfill native demand.
The addition of the EX30 to the manufacturing line will create roughly 350 new jobs, growing whole employment on the plant to just about 6,600. Francesca Gamboni, Volvo’s chief manufacturing and provide chain officer, emphasised the EX30’s significance in bolstering the corporate’s presence within the premium electrical automobile market in Europe. She famous that the funding within the Ghent facility is aligned with Volvo’s technique to manufacture automobiles near their markets.
Current investments totaling round EUR 200 million have been made to allow EX30 manufacturing, involving the introduction of a brand new automotive platform, practically 600 new or refurbished robots, in addition to vital expansions to the battery corridor and the set up of latest manufacturing traces for doorways and battery packs.
The manufacturing of the EX30 in Ghent helps the European Union’s sustainability targets and enhances competitiveness whereas producing jobs and fostering innovation. With crops in Ghent and Torslanda, Sweden, Volvo now manufactures ten totally different electrical and hybrid fashions in Europe.
Stefan Fesser, supervisor of the Ghent plant, expressed delight within the swift industrialization of the EX30, which was achieved in document time via the dedication of all the group, successfully halving the everyday time for such processes.
Volvo’s Ghent manufacturing unit, established in 1965, is the one totally operational automotive manufacturing facility left in Belgium. It additionally produces different electrified fashions, together with the totally electrical EX40 and EC40, together with hybrid variations of the XC40 and V60. In 2024, the plant assembled over 186,000 automobiles.
In broader phrases, Volvo Automotive Group reported a document core working revenue of SEK 27 billion and income of SEK 400.2 billion in 2024, with world automotive gross sales reaching an unprecedented 763,389 models. Based in 1927, Volvo is acknowledged globally as a number one automotive model, listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm alternate.
The corporate’s mission emphasizes sustainable and protected mobility, aiming to transition utterly to electrical automobiles and scale back its carbon footprint, with a purpose of attaining net-zero greenhouse gasoline emissions by 2040. As of December 2024, Volvo employed roughly 42,600 workers throughout its world operations, together with services in Gothenburg, South Carolina, and a number of other places in China.
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