Volvo Chooses South Carolina for U.S. Car Plant

Volvo Car Group has selected a site near Charleston, S.C., to erect a $500 million factory able to build 100,000 cars per year.

The company will begin construction later this year and plans to open the facility in 2018. The plant will make multiple unspecified models and eventually could double its output. Some output will be exported.

Volvo says employment at the factory will reach about 2,000 in a decade and twice that by 2030. The facility, part of a global expansion by owner Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Ltd., will join Volvo factories in Belgium, Sweden and China.

Volvo's sales in the U.S. shrank 8% to 56,400 units in 2014, down from a peak of about 140,000 vehicles in 2004, according to Autodata Corp. The carmaker said previously it hopes to achieve annual sales in the U.S. of 100,000 units by 2020.