Volvo To Produce Lynk & Co Vehicles Starting Next Year In Belgium

Lynk & Co shares more with Volvo than a common parent company. Now, the two will be tied together even more closely with the announcement that the established Scandinavian automaker will produce the startup brand’s vehicles at its plant in Belgium.

Though Volvos have historically been made in Sweden, the Ghent facility in western Belgium has been producing them since 1965.

At this point, it’s the most prolific of Volvo’s plants worldwide. Its current workforce of 5,000 already produces the new XC40, the old V40 and S60, and will soon start building the new V60 as well.

The company’s global manufacturing footprint has grown to include plants as far away as China and Malaysia, and soon manufacturing will start at a new plant in South Carolina as well. Of course, there are several in Sweden too, while previous sites in eastern Canada, Thailand, and the Netherlands have since been abandoned.

“Our Ghent plant is one of the most efficient car manufacturing plants in Europe with a highly skilled workforce,” said Javier Varela, senior vice president for manufacturing and logistics at Volvo Cars. “Lynk & Co’s decision to pick Ghent for their European production demonstrates the high levels of quality control that underpin Volvo’s global manufacturing strategy.”

Production of the new Lynk & Co models won’t begin until late next year. But when it does, manufacturing won’t be the only thing the two brands will share, since Lynk’s new models will be based on the same Compact Modular Architecture as the new Volvo XC40.

After Geely launched Lynk & Co in 2015, Volvo took over 30 percent of the new brand last year. Geely Auto retains 50 percent and parent company Zhejiang Geely Holding the remaining 20.