The Uddevalla plant in Sweden which builds the Volvo C70 is to be shuttered in 2013. The facility, which is one of the world’s most idylically located car production plants, is operated by Pininfarina Sverage AB, a joint venture between Volvo Car Corporation (VCC) and Pininfarina.
According to Stefan Jacoby, the president and CEO of VCC, “The low volumes in the Uddevalla plant do not justify continued production”.
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All 600 workers at Uddevalla will be offered employment at Volvo’s main Torslanda plant in the suburbs of Gothenburg or in other VCC production units elsewhere in Sweden.
In March 2011, VCC and Pininfarina announced that they will end the JV in May 2013, at which time all shares would pass to VCC. In 2010, only 9,532 units of the C70 were built at Uddevalla, representing less than 65 percent of the plant’s capacity. Production of the closely related Ford Focus CC ended at Pininfarina’s own plant in Italy in July 2010.
Regarding a potential successor to the C70, Jacoby stated that, “We will now look into when a next generation Volvo convertible can be on the market and where it should be manufactured”.
Author: Glenn Brooks
