VOLVO CE has announced a $40.5 million investment in new facilities at its plants in Changwon, South Korea and Braås, Sweden to support its strategy to offer more sustainable solutions.
In Changwon, an investment of $7.8 million has been used to build a new battery pack production facility for the benefit of the Volvo Group, while at the Braås plant in Sweden $32.7 million has been spent to expand production facilities to accelerate the phased shift to electromobility for articulated haulers.
Kamel Sid, head of operations at Volvo CE, said, “The investment in our facilities is an important part of our strategy to drive the transformation towards more sustainable solutions and to help us meet our Science Based Target commitments. We have an ambition to be fossil-free and for 35% of our machine sales to be electric by 2030, so investing in our facilities is another important step on our electrification roadmap.”
The new battery pack production facility in Changwon is now operational. The battery pack will be used in the EC230 Electric excavator, which begins mass production in Changwon from August 2024. Changwon is the largest excavator manufacturing site in Volvo CE, producing around 55% of its total excavator volumes.
In Braås, the investment has been used to expand the manufacturing facilities at the plant, which specialises in the production of articulated haulers. It will enable the factory to deliver a larger range of haulers with different types of powertrain.
Joakim Karlsson, head of global quality, safety and sustainability, operations at Volvo CE, said, “Our employees at Braås have been instrumental in this project to develop our facilities. As part of the process, we have evaluated our ways of working and introduced improvements that deliver health and safety and ergonomic benefits for our employees, as well as helping us increase productivity.
“With the new building, we’ve also added height to more easily accommodate production of our 60-ton A60H, the largest articulated hauler in the world.”
The new building will be used for Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) and final assembly, with work commencing from June 3.
