Volvo Cars May Build Plant in U.S.

Volvo Car Corp. is studying a plan to open an assembly plant in the U.S., unnamed sources tell Reuters. They offered no other details.

The sources also say Volvo, which is owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., may export a new flagship sedan perhaps called the S90 from China to the U.S. The company announced in late 2013 that it intended to build a large premium sedan in Daqing, China.

Reuters says the new car would be in addition to the stretched midsize S60L model Volvo has said it will introduce to the American market this year. The company plans to ship about 1,500 of the cars to the U.S. in 2015 and is unveiling the Americanized version of the vehicle at the Detroit auto show today.

The larger model described by Reuter's sources would ride on Volvo's new scalable platform architecture, which debuted last summer in the seven-passenger XC90 crossover vehicle. The XC90 will be introduced in the American market later this year.

Volvo tells Reuters it plans to introduce seven new models by 2018. The company hopes to hike its annual sales in the U.S. to 100,000 within a few years from 56,400 in 2014. Last year China became the brand's largest market when sales there jumped by one-third to 81,200 units.