Sweden’s Volvo Cars, owned by China’s Geely, will increase its production of vehicles in the United States and probably produce an additional model there, following US President Donald’s Trump’s introduction of tariffs, its CEO told media Thursday.
As of Thursday, cars manufactured outside the United States are subject to a 25-percent tariff, while a tariff on spare parts is also set to gradually come into effect.
“We will have to increase the number of cars we build in the US, and surely move another model to that factory,” CEO Hakan Samuelsson told Bloomberg.
Volvo Cars assembles its EX90 electric model at its plant near Ridgeville in South Carolina as well as Volvo spinoff Polestar’s Polestar 3.
The carmaker “will have to look closely” at which model to add to its production lines, Samuelsson added.
Volvo Cars declined to provide any further details about its plans, when contacted by AFP.
Samuelsson, 74, who led the company from 2012 to 2022, once again took over Volvo Cars on April 1, following the dismissal of Jim Rowan.
The carmaker warned in February that it expected a challenging year in 2025, notably due to the threat of tariffs and the slowing pace of electrification.
Volvo Cars, which has moved towards specialising in electric vehicles, gave up last September its goal of selling only electric vehicles by 2030, and has now set its target to between 90 percent and 100 percent by the same year.
