Another automaker plans to move production to a U.S. plant in an apparent effort to skirt U.S. trade tariffs.
Volvo said it’s Polestar division will consolidate production at its South Carolina factory when it shifts Polestar 3 electric SUV manufacturing there from China.
The Swedish EV concern is majority owned by Volvo Cars, Chinese automotive conglomerate Geely Holding, and Chinese billionaire Li Shufu’s PSD Investment.
In announcing the production change, Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson said the U.S. “is a very important market for Volvo Cars, both to support our growth ambitions as well as a strategic production site to meet regional and export demands."
“Volvo Cars’ balanced and flexible global manufacturing footprint, with locations in China, Europe and the US, enables it to optimise its plants for the highest efficiency,” the EV maker said in a press release.
The Charleston-area plant, with a production capacity of 150,000 cars a year, already makes the electric Volvo EX90 SUV on the same architecture as the Polestar 3.
Volvo earlier announced it will add production of its XC60 midsize SUV to the factory. And it said it now also plans to start production of a new hybrid model there before the end of the decade.
Though the moves come as automakers around the world respond to a string of U.S. trade tariff rounds that have impacted their bottom lines, Volvo couched the production changes as part of a focus on “regional tailoring of products.”