Volvo Building U.S. Battery Plant To Support Local Production Of XC90 EV

Volvo plans to build its own battery assembly plant in the United States to support its electric vehicle expansion in North America.

The battery plant will be completed by the end of 2021, a Volvo spokeswoman told Autonews. The facility is part of a previously announced $600 million expansion project at its existing vehicle assembly plant in Ridgeville, South Carolina, where the carmaker is also adding a second production line and building a Volvo Car University.

The battery plant will supply the vehicle factory which will start building the next-generation Volvo XC90 in late 2022, including in pure electric guise. Currently, the factory employs 1,500 people building the S60 sedan but will become the global production center for the third-generation XC90 crossover.

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Volvo S60 on the assembly line in Ridgeville, South Carolina

At the future battery plant, employees will put together and test the lithium ion battery packs that will power the electric SUV. Volvo expects to cut shipping costs significantly by assembling the batteries on campus.

For now, Volvo remains quiet about the planned production capacity for the battery assembly plant or the number of jobs it will create. It is also unclear how much of the next-generation Volvo XC90 production will be dedicated to the all-electric version. In total, the planned XC90 production line is expected to create about 1,000 jobs.

Volvo’s first EV, the XC40 Recharge, will arrive in the U.S. in Q4 2020

The next-generation Volvo XC90 will be based on a future version of Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture platform, known as SPA2. By the time it arrives on the market, the XC90 will become Volvo’s third battery-powered model. Volvo has already unveiled its first such vehicle in October, the XC40 Recharge EV. The carmaker will start delivering it to U.S. customers in the fourth quarter of 2020.

By 2025, Volvo wants EVs to account for half of its global sales. To reach this ambitious goal, the company aims to launch a fully electric vehicle every year over the next five years.

Note: Volvo XC40 Recharge pictured