Volvo Group said on Wednesday its truck plant in Ghent, Belgium would begin producing battery modules in 2025, replacing cells and modules provided by external suppliers.
“The investment decision to install battery module manufacturing capacity in Ghent is another important step for the group to shape its future value chain for battery systems,” the truck and construction equipment maker said in a statement.
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The Ghent battery module manufacturing line will be able to use battery cells both from [suppliers] and from [our] planned battery cell plant in Sweden.
The module building will occupy 12,000 square metres on the current Volvo site.
The new module factory will use an “almost fully automated process with robots”.
New workers with the necessary skills will be recruited, both externally and internally.
Initial investment is EUR75m.
Volvo’s Swedish truck assembly plant in Gothenburg is already building heavy duty electric trucks and, in the second half of 2023, Ghent will also start output.
Battery packs for these trucks are already built in Ghent.
Volvo wants at least 35% of its vehicles sold worldwide to be electric by 2030.
