Volvo To Move Some XC60 Production to South Carolina Factory

by Chris Teague

Published: July 18th, 2025

volvo to move some xc60 production to south carolina factory

Volvo plans to move production of one of its most popular vehicles to the United States. The XC60 SUV is built in China and other markets for local sales, and the decision to move some production here would help Volvo overcome the worst of the tariff situation.

The XC60 is primarily built in Sweden, putting it at risk with the Trump Administration’s most recent 30-percent tariff on imported European autos. Volvo isn’t in a position to absorb increased costs, seeing a 60 percent tumble in profit in the first quarter of this year.

Volvo’s factory in South Carolina will pick up XC60 production. The automaker already builds the electric EX90 and Polestar 3 at the facility, but the plant has excess capacity as the company sees middling demand for the models built there. Moving XC60 production to the plant would help keep jobs in addition to avoiding tariff costs.

Software issues plagued the EX90, which Volvo noted as being part of its financial issues, but the good news for the XC60 is that it features different underpinnings and should not experience the same problems. Software and other issues caused significant delays in the EX30’s launch, and it has yet to reach the affordable prices Volvo promised at its launch.

[Images: Volvo]

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Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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8 of 23 comments

MaintenanceCosts on Jul 18, 2025

What will happen to the XC60's price when production shifts to the US? I bet it goes up.

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- Jeff on Jul 18, 2025
  
  Probably will go up but most new vehicle prices have gone up.
  
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- Grandmaster T on Jul 18, 2025
  
  Jeff as a finance guy you shouldn't be speculating as to direction, you should be able to provide a clear forecast of direction as well as an estimate of magnitude. You want some help?
  How many labor hours are in an XC60? Will the labor hours change between Sweden and USA? (differing levels of automation/etc.) What is the difference in Volvo's fully loaded labor cost per hour between Sweden and USA? Are there any other significant cost deltas (besides labor) with the production allocation change?
  
  1
- MaintenanceCosts on Jul 18, 2025
  
  The reason it will go up has nothing to do with the cost of manufacture in the US. It is because the car is now competing with artificially increased prices on imported cars thanks to tariffs.
  
  1
- Ajla on Jul 19, 2025
  
  I think the tariff supporters are okay with higher price levels if it also results in enough reshoring for people to notice.
  However, I also don't think that group is a huge portion of the electorate in the first place
  
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- Grandmaster T on Jul 19, 2025
  
  What is Volvo's cost of shipping finished vehicles from Sweden to dealerships in the U.S.? What will be Volvo's cost of shipping finished vehicles from Ridgeville to dealerships in the U.S.?
  
  Like
- Bd2 on Jul 20, 2025
  
  Duplicating or triplicating tooling increases costs, particularly if a region doesn't have the sales volume to support the added cost.
  At annual sales around 40k in the US, cutting it pretty close as to whether sales of the XC60 can justify the cost.
  
  Like
- Grandmaster T on Jul 21, 2025
  
  Why would you double tool when you can ship parts? [Case by case basis, you can ship the tooling once, then ship the parts to the final assembly location(s). The spreadsheet doesn't lie.]
  
  Like
Grandmaster T on Jul 18, 2025

These changes take a long, long time.

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