Volvo Cars is expanding production of XC40 small SUV in Europe and China in order to meet increasing demand.
The company said that it has received nearly 80,000 orders for the SUV and will expand production at its Ghent manufacturing facility.
The XC40 production capacity will be added at the company’s Luqiao plant in China in the first half of 2019.
Volvo Cars president and CEO Håkan Samuelsson said the XC40’s success has surpassed even the company’s highest expectations.
The XC40, which was launched in late 2017, is the initial model on Volvo Cars’ new Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) vehicle architecture.
The company has also announced that it will capitalise on the popularity of its new smaller models with the introduction of new models on its CMA, replacing the existing V40.
Samuelsson said: “The small SUV segment is the fastest-growing segment in the industry now, and with these additional CMA-based models we expect to benefit further from that growth.”
Volvo Cars’ new models based on CMA will include fully electric vehicles and will be sold globally in all major regions. The company noted that it will disclose additional product details at a later stage.
The company co-developed CMA with Geely to offer it with the required economies of scale for this segment.
In March, Volvo Cars announced it will manufacture cars for its new sister brand Lynk & Co at the Ghent facility. Similar to the XC40, the initial Lynk & Co model is based on CMA.
Since 2010, Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China.
The company formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when it was acquired by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Geely Holding purchased Volvo Cars.
