Volvo Invests $118 Million In South Carolina To Produce New EVs

Volvo Cars will invest an additional $118 million into its Ridgeville, South Carolina plant to build the recently announced Polestar 3.

According to Volvo, the Polestar 3 will be produced under contract for its affiliate, Polestar Cars.

Currently, the Ridgeville plant (built just a few years ago) produces the S60 model (including PHEV) for the U.S. (since August 2018) and for export (since March 2019) and is scheduled to start production of the new electrified XC90 in 2022.

The Polestar 3 SUV will join as a third model (also in 2022) and will be built on Volvo Car Group’s next generation electric architecture.

We guess that the Polestar 3 and Volvo XC90 might be closely related if they will be built on the same platform, just like the Polestar 2 and XC40 Recharge BEV. We would not be surprised if both models will be produced together also in China.

According to Volvo, the cumulative investment in the Ridgeville to be over $1.2 billion. There is also room for future growth at the site so let's keep fingers crossed for more EVs.

Javier Varela, Senior Vice President Industrial Operations & Quality, Volvo Car Group said:

“Our South Carolina team has done a remarkable job producing the award-winning S60 and readying the plant for the next generation of electrified Volvo cars. Now, with the contract to produce the fully electric Polestar 3, we continue to expand our manufacturing operations for electrified vehicles.”

Anders Gustafsson, Senior Vice President, Volvo Car Americas and President and CEO, Volvo Car USA said:

“We are proud to bring these new growth opportunities to Ridgeville and continue to grow our presence in the United States,”.