Volvo Selects South Carolina as Location for First U.S. Plant, Breaks Ground this Fall

A former timber plantation in a sleepy southern town will be place back to operate constructing new Volvos. In the initial Swedish-Chinese-South Carolinian collaboration of its kind, Volvo is scheduled to break ground on a $ 500-million factory this fall.

Because late March, when Volvo announced it would construct an American plant with capacity for 25,000 cars a year—nearly double what it sold right here in 2014—the automaker turned down a proposal near Savannah, Georgia, and turned its focus to the Palmetto State, which agreed to offer you incentives worth up to $ 120 million. Volvo has not announced which models would roll down the line when construction finishes in 2018 or what percentage will be exported. (There’s also no word as to whether or not this deal will bring South Carolina its first IKEA store.)

Volvo plans to employ up to 2000 personnel, and you can bet your sweet tea that the UAW will not come knocking. Throughout Volkswagen’s union debates in neighboring Tennessee last winter, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley mentioned she wore high heels to stomp unions out of her state. “You’ve heard me say a lot of times I put on heels. It is not for a style statement,” she stated. “It’s simply because we’re kicking them every single day, and we’ll continue to kick them.” In the lengthy term, Volvo expects to employ 4000 individuals. The plant will be Volvo’s fifth following its 2 Swedish and 2 Chinese factories.

Volvo says it will use a large chunk of the 6800-acre Camp Hall Plantation, situated about 40 miles northwest of Charleston (exactly where one of 2 main ports is situated) and closer nonetheless to Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van plant. According to The Columbia State, Volvo filed an environmental permit for 575 acres with an additional 322 acres accessible for expansion.

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Offered Volvo’s languishing volume amongst an industry that has noticed nearly every brand bounce back from the recession, the South Carolina plant will probably export half, if not a lot more, of the vehicles it builds. A planned lineup expansion into compact crossovers and upscale S90s will assist fill the factory floor. But far more telling is what Geely, Volvo’s owner since 2010, may do with a large car-assembly plant sitting on inexpensive land and a state willing to do whatever it requires to boost employment. Could this be the very first step to American-made, Chinese-branded automobiles? If Volvo wanted to export vehicles cheaply, it could have constructed a plant in Mexico, a nation that is tariff-free to most European and Latin American countries. More than shiny XC90s, we’re betting Geely desires to win in America.

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Volvo Selects South Carolina as Location for First U.S. Plant, Breaks Ground this Fall