Volvo Car’s Taizhou manufacturing plant has switched to biogas, the Geely-owned brand says.

It is now the firm’s first plant in China to achieve climate-neutral status and will reportedly result in a reduction of more than 7,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

It is Volvo Car’s second car plant globally to become climate-neutral after, its Torslanda facility in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Varela, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO at Volvo Cars said: “The switch to biogas at our Taizhou plant demonstrates how each of our manufacturing locations across the globe is developing its own climate-neutral energy mix, based on what’s available in the region.”

The Taizhou plant’s energy supply comprises of electricity and heating. It produces around 40% of its electricity needs from on-site solar panels.

The remaining 60%, which comes from the grid, is also climate-neutral electricity from solar. Its heating need is, with this latest switch, met by using climate-neutral biogas.

Volvo Cars recently expanded its sustainability strategy with new ambitious goals for the coming years. Its aim to reach zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 builds on our previous ambition of being climate neutral by 2040.