Volvo Cars adds a third shift and 1,300 new jobs in the Torslanda plant

Volvo Cars will add a third working shift in its Torslanda, Gothenburg plant to meet the increasing customer demand for the company’s new cars. The expansion, planned for the first quarter of 2015, will be made in connection with the start of production for the all-new Volvo XC90 SUV.

Adding the third shift means the company will create approximately 1,300 new jobs and follows the opening of an entirely new body shop which lifted the production capacity in the Torslanda plant to 300,000 cars annually. This also means the total number of employees at Torslanda increases by close to 40 per cent.

The all-new Volvo XC90 SUV marks the first car from the new in-house developed Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which will form the base for a range of upcoming new Volvo models. The new platform as well as the expansion of the Torslanda plant are part of Volvo’s ongoing USD 11 billion investment program in new products and production capacity.

Volvo Cars global retail deliveries were up by 9.2 per cent during the first nine months of the year while the outlook for the full year is a total sales volume of approximately 470,000 cars representing a 10 per cent growth and an all-time high sales result for the company. The all-new Volvo XC90 SUV is expected to further grow the company’s sales volumes during 2015, creating a need for increased output from the Torslanda plant where the new car is to be produced. Deliveries from the Torslanda plant are expected to reach another all-time high in 2015.

In addition to introducing a third shift, the Torslanda plant will also implement a revised working agreement to further support higher production volumes. The new agreement increases the flexibility in production to meet customer demand.

The new working agreement will also be introduced in the first quarter of 2015 and when fully implemented, the Torslanda plant will employ 4,600 people. The plant, which earlier this year celebrated 50 years of car making, currently produces the Volvo S60, S80, V60, V70, XC70 and XC90 models.