Volvo may be struggling in the States, but it’s had a strong year globally. And now that its best-selling XC60 is going to be built in its largest market, next year is bound to be better.
The Volvo XC60 is now being produced at the company’s new Chengdu plant in central China, where it joins the long-wheelbase S60L sedan (its second-best seller in China), Volvo announced Sunday.
China has already passed the U.S. as Volvo’s largest market in 2014, up 36 percent over last year to nearly 66,000 cars sold. The XC60’s sales are up more than 32 percent, to nearly 25,000 vehicles through September. Volvo says it can build up to 120,000 cars per year at its Chengdu factory, though, so there’s plenty of room for growth.
The company insists cars built at this Chinese plant are on par quality-wise with its European-made vehicles.
“Chinese customers do not have lower expectations than Europeans. They expect premium quality products,” Lars Danielson, CEO of Volvo Car China, said in the news release. “Customers also have plenty of choice in the highly competitive market in China. That is why we make sure to deliver high-quality Volvo cars out of Chengdu which are at least as good as the cars we build in our European plants.”
Volvo has also just started building a locally marketed version of the first-generation XC90, called the XC Classic, at another plant in Daqing. But aside from the S60L that’s coming to the U.S. sometime next year, there’s no word if Chinese-built XC60s are bound for other markets – yet.
By Zac Estrada
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