Volvo Cars inaugurated a brand new battery assembly line at its Belgian manufacturing plant in Ghent, where it will start building its first fully electric car, the XC40 Recharge P8, later this year. The inauguration of the assembly line is in line with the company’s ambitious electrification strategy and its climate action plan. Ghent is one of two car manufacturing plants operated by Volvo Cars in Europe and has produced Volvos since 1965. It aims to reduce its lifecycle carbon footprint per car by 40 percent between 2018 and 2025, as the first step towards its goal of becoming a climate-neutral company by 2040.
Over the next five years, Volvo Cars will launch a fully electric car every year, as it seeks to make all-electric cars 50 percent of global sales by 2025, with the rest hybrids. Recharge will be the overarching name for all chargeable Volvos with a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain.
The XC40 Recharge gets dual electric motors which are mounted on the front and rear axle that develop 402 bhp & 659 Nm
Geert Bruyneel, head of global production operations, said “As the first of our plants to get a battery assembly line, Ghent plays a pioneering role as we continue to prepare our manufacturing network for electrification.”
Earlier this year the company announced the planned construction of a battery assembly line at its US plant outside Charleston, South Carolina. Construction of that assembly line is expected to start soon. The company will also build battery electric vehicles at a Volvo-operated manufacturing plant in Luqiao, China, based on the CMA platform.
Last year, Volvo Cars signed long-term supply agreements with two leading global battery suppliers, CATL of China and LG Chem of South Korea. The agreements cover the supply of batteries over the coming decade for next-generation Volvo and Polestar models, including the XC40 Recharge P8.