Volvo launches battery assembly line in Belgium

In Next five years, Volvo Cars will unveil a fully electric car every year, as it seeks to make all-electric cars 50% of global sales by 2025, with the rest hybrids.

Volvo launches battery assembly line in Belgium

At its Belgian manufacturing facility in Ghent, Volvo Cars inaugurated a brand new battery assembly line on 9th March 2020, where it will start building its first full-electric car, the XC40 Recharge P8, later this year. The installation of the assembly line is aligned with the company's bold vision for electrification and its climate action program. Ghent is one of two automobile manufacturing facilities owned in Europe by Volvo Cars and has been making Volvos since 1965. It aims to reduce the lifecycle carbon footprint per vehicle by 40% from 2018 to 2025, as the first step towards its target of becoming a climate-neutral organization by the year 2040.

Each year, Volvo Cars will launch a full-electric car over the next five years as it seeks to make both-electric cars 50% of global sales by 2025, with the remaining hybrids. For all Volvos with a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain, the recharge will be the overarching name.

The XC40 recharge gets dual electric motors that are mounted on the front and rear axle that develop 402 bhp & 659 Nm.

The battery assembly line, which is larger than a football field, is situated where there used to be the employee parking lot. The line will be using nine stations to assemble the 78-kilowatt-hour battery pack for the XC40 EV. The assembly will take place over three work shifts, 24 hours a day.

According to Geert Bruyneel, head of global production operations, Ghent will play a leading role as the first of our plants get a battery assembly line, while we begin to ready our electrification production network.

The organization announced earlier this year that it plans to build a battery assembly line at its US factory outside Charleston, South Carolina. Building the assembly line is scheduled to begin shortly. The company will also develop electric battery vehicles built on the CMA architecture at a Volvo-operated manufacturing plant in Luqiao, China.

Last year Volvo Cars concluded long-term supply deals with two top global battery manufacturers, China's CATL and South Korea's LG Chem. The deals include battery supply for next-generation Volvo and Polestar vehicles over the coming decade, including the XC40 Recharge P8.