Volvo Cars to produce electric motors in Skövde

Volvo Cars will assemble electric motors at its powertrain plant in Skövde, Sweden.

It plans to establish complete in-house e-motor production by the mid-2020s and will invest 700 million Swedish krona (NZ$117 million) in it.

The company is committed to becoming a premium electric car company and aims for its global sales to comprise 50% fully electric cars by 2025, with the rest hybrids.

In the first stage, the Skövde facility will assemble e-motors with the intention to bring the full manufacturing process for e-motors in-house into a facility in Skövde.

“The very first Volvo from 1927 was powered by an engine built in Skövde,” industrial operations and quality senior vice president Javier Varela says.

“The team is highly skilled and committed to delivering on the highest quality standards. So it is only fitting that they will be a part of our exciting future.”

Bringing the development and production of e-motors in-house will allow Volvo Cars engineers to further optimise electric motors and the entire electric driveline in new Volvos.

This approach will allow engineers to make further gains in terms of energy efficiency and overall performance, Volvo Cars says.

Design and development of the company’s electric motors takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden and Shanghai, China.

Earlier this year, Volvo Cars opened a new electric motor lab in Shanghai, in addition to ongoing e-motor development in Gothenburg, Sweden and battery labs in China and Sweden.

Remaining activities at the Skövde engine plant, focusing on the production of internal combustion engines (ICE), will be transferred to a separate subsidiary of Volvo Cars, named Powertrain Engineering Sweden (PES).

PES is intended to be merged with Geely’s combustion engine operations.