European customers to get China-made Volvo XC60

It may be ‘Made by Sweden’, but the Volvo XC60 will be made in China for European consumption. Volvo has announced the start of exports of the SUV from China to Europe, marked by the arrival of the first batch of cars from its plant in Chengdu. The cars travelled to Ghent, Belgium by train as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The Chengdu-assembled Volvo XC60s arrived earlier this month, and will be on their way to 25 European countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy.

Prior to this, the European market received XC60s from Volvo’s plant in Torslanda, Sweden. According to reports, Volvo plans to divert Swedish-made XC60s to the US, which previously got its stock from China. This is to avoid the 25% tariff imposed by US president Donald Trump on China-made vehicles, which is part of the current US-China trade war.

Volvo has a new US plant in South Carolina, and it makes the S60 sedan there for global consumption. The XC90 SUV will soon be made in America as well.

Trade is a two-way street, and the trains that take the XC60 from China to Europe will return to the world’s largest auto market with Swedish-made XC90s and Belgian-made V40 hatchbacks. China, which is home to Volvo’s owner Geely, is the carmaker’s biggest market – it sold 67,741 units in China in the first half of 2019, up 10% year-on-year. This latest development follows the 2017 export of the S90 sedan from Daqing, China to Europe.

Launched in Malaysia in January 2018, our XC60 is CKD assembled in Shah Alam, Selangor.

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