Volvo will have two multi-brand factories, keeping five focused on their own platforms. It is the way the builder rents his production capacities, opening the door to other brands inside and outside the Geely group.
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18/09/2026
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ANDon thursday (17 september) Volvo made the presentation of the update of its strategy for the coming years – which includes a repositioning of its factories.
Francesca Gamboni, director of acquisitions and supply chain, explained that five of the factories will be 100% Volvo, while two will have industrial capacity sharing by means of an external trade mark contract or by the Geely group itself. These are the facilities of Ghent (Belgium) and Chengdu (China).
On the other hand, one platform will be allocated to each of Volvo's five exclusive factories, which according to the responsible allows to reduce the complexity from 50 to 30 percent – complexity that has an impact on production costs.
The manufacturer still invests in optimization by regions, producing where to sell to be close to the customer with agility, flexibility, less waiting time and even reduced costs with logistics.
During the presentation, Francesca Gamboni commented: “Yes, we have overcapacityIndeed, and that is why we have a challenge of capacity utilisation. And that is why we worked in Ghent, for example, to improve the competitiveness of this plant. Because no one comes to the factory, no one comes as a hired manufacturer – whether inside or outside the group – if the costs are not competitive. Sharing capabilities is very common in industry. The key is cost competitiveness. Now that we have cost competitiveness in Ghent compared to Eastern Europe, which is our reference, we also have an infrastructure that is extremely interesting because it is in the middle of Europe and is close to the sea, and we have a highly skilled factory.”.
The factory, a target of strong interest, is open not only to other brands of the Geely group, but also to “any contracted manufacturer”. And he said: “Obviously this will help us increase our use in the future. The same is true for Chengdu factory“.
The person responsible shot: “These two factories, which will be multi-brand, which will be shared platforms, will be production by contract, so we can have the other five factories – which are focused on the unique Volvo platforms. And it will be a platform per factory, which will make them even more competitive.”.