Volvo U.S. Plant Impacted Partly Due To Poor S60 Demand

Demand for Volvo sedan models is far from great, with the likes of the S60 and S90 accounting for just 14% of the carmaker’s volume across the globe, while SUVs accounted for nearly 70% of its sales.

Volvo expects to have its Ridgeville, South Carolina plant (near Charleston) up and running again “within some weeks”, said CEO Hakan Samuelsson, who attributes this long shutdown to two main factors.

“First is the disturbances in the supply of parts from Mexico. But it’s also a supply-and-demand issue for the S60. There is definitely a market trend toward SUVs,” the Volvo boss told Autonews Europe.

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Aside from the previously-mentioned global sales numbers, Volvo S60 sales specifically are down 25% in the U.S. to just 6,738 units for the first half of this year, although the Swedish brand says the S60 is doing better globally, with numbers up 55% to 16,389 units.

As for the Charleston plant, Volvo closed that facility down back in March and restarted production on May 11. The plant was then closed again in June due to supply disruptions.

“Charleston really needs an SUV, which we are planning to introduce in the second step in 2022 with the XC90,” said Samuelsson. “Then the factory will be fully utilized.”

Last October, the Volvo CEO said that his company would eventually produce the fully electric version of its third-gen XC90 SUV in the U.S. – which would then become the first fully electric Volvo model to be made in America.