Last week, Volvo announced that will be building a factory in South Carolina that will go online in 2018 and build 100,000 vehicles per year. Quite ambitious considering the brand only sold 56,366 vehicles in the U.S. last year. But the plant is part of a new comeback plan for Volvo.

 

"We have reinvented ourselves and we believe it now makes sense to go on the attack again in the United States," said Lex Kerssemakers, CEO of Volvo Cars of North America.

 

Now you might be scratching your head, wondering how a plant that will build more cars than Volvo actually sells at the moment will help the automaker. Well there is precedent with this decision. Both BMW and Mercedes-Benz built plants in anticipation of future growth almost two decades ago and it has worked like a charm.

 

But for this happen, Volvo also needs some new products and tech to pull this off. Well the company is rolling out its brand new XC90 crossover and their Drive-E engine lineup.

 

"All the planets are aligning for Volvo right now. They have wanted a bigger U.S. manufacturing presence for a long time. Now they have the investment and the future product lineup, and the U.S. market is expanding to support it," said Michael Robinet, managing director of IHS Automotive.

 

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

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This will be interesting to watch and see what really happens. Right now things might seem to be aligning but with all things China Owned, I wonder if it will really work out. Range Rover buy out by India has not worked out yet for improving their quality and China is famous for cutting corners so gotta wonder if the quality will go up or down?

 

Definitively a wait and see moment.

It's simple.  If you want to save on shipping costs, build the plant on the continent you are targeting as your biggest growth market.   Volvo has no where to go in the U.S. but up, they already have a plant or two in China... so makes sense to build the next plant here.

I still remained lost on why anyone buys a Volvo. Even when it was Ford owned, I would have opted for a Saab for quirky Swedish, or gone over to BMW.  There car have been, since my childhood, the epitome of soccer mom cars.  The only one that ever appealed to me was this 1997 C70 from the movie the Saint:

 

I really really like the new XC90.  If Volvo can get people into the showroom to look at it, it could put some real hurt on the BMW X5 and Mercedes ML GLE

I really really like the new XC90.  If Volvo can get people into the showroom to look at it, it could put some real hurt on the BMW X5 and Mercedes ML GLE

And the XT5 will have a tough fight ahead; hope it's flawless.

I still remained lost on why anyone buys a Volvo. Even when it was Ford owned, I would have opted for a Saab for quirky Swedish, or gone over to BMW.  There car have been, since my childhood, the epitome of soccer mom cars.  The only one that ever appealed to me was this 1997 C70 from the movie the Saint:

 

 

Talkin $h!? I love my V50.

I still remained lost on why anyone buys a Volvo. Even when it was Ford owned, I would have opted for a Saab for quirky Swedish, or gone over to BMW.  There car have been, since my childhood, the epitome of soccer mom cars.  The only one that ever appealed to me was this 1997 C70 from the movie the Saint:

 

Here...a nicer pic of the C70

 

I liked this Volvo also...and I saw the movie when it first came out...movie sucked..I wanna say car rocked...but no...no it did not...the car really did nothing...it just sat there lookin' pretty...

 

I still remained lost on why anyone buys a Volvo. Even when it was Ford owned, I would have opted for a Saab for quirky Swedish, or gone over to BMW.  There car have been, since my childhood, the epitome of soccer mom cars.  The only one that ever appealed to me was this 1997 C70 from the movie the Saint:

 

 

Talkin $h!? I love my V50.

 

There is a reason why Everclear sang "Volvo Driving Soccer Mom" and not Chevy, Ford, Volkswagen, Saab, or any of many other options for that particular song.