Volvo Increases Swedish Plant Production

Things are getting better under Chinese ownership. At least, this is what seems to happen to Volvo, the Swedish automaker that was bought by Geely a few months ago. Volvo yesterday announced that it will increase production of the Torslanda production plant and will also add 140 permanent jobs at the factory.

Volvo Cars' Torslanda plant currently manufactures XC90, XC70, V70, V60 and S80 models so, as a result of the increased demand, the Swedish company intends to boost production rate from 45 to 48 cars per hour. This will bring annual production to 155,000 cars from 145,000, as explained by Volvo.

"This is a positive and concrete demonstration that Volvo Cars is heading in the right direction," says Magnus Hellsten, Senior Vice President Manufacturing, Volvo Cars. "We estimate that we will manage a continued increase in demand for our cars during 2011 with this increased production output.”

Earlier this month, Volvo commenced production of the V60 station wagon at the Torslanda site, with 60 units to be rolled off the assembly lines every day.

The model will be offered with a choice of 5 petrol engines and 3 diesel ones. The first batches of the car will only be available with two petrol engines, 3.0l T6 (304 bhp/440 Nm) and 2.0T (203 bhp/300 Nm) and two diesel – 2.4 D5 (205 bhp/420 Nm) and 2.0 D3 (163 bhp/400 Nm).

"I'm totally convinced that our co-workers will perform brilliant and that the introduction will be one of the best - maybe the best - in the Torslanda plant history," said Magnus Hellsten in early September.