Volvo spends $A11 million on battery pack production

Volvo Group has announced it is investing SEK 80 million (around $A11 million) into a new production facility and equipment at its existing plant in Changwon, South Korea, to produce a wide range of battery packs for Volvo Group and become a core competence centre for electric excavators.

Currently, the Changwon plant is Volvo Construction Equipment’s (CE) largest excavator production site at 1.1 million square metres, and produces around 55 per cent of its total excavator volumes.

“The investment is an important milestone in our electrification roadmap and supports our recent investments in production facilities for electric excavators,” said Volvo Group Korea’s Head of Operations Excavator and Managing Director, Andy Knight.

“Changwon is ideally located close to battery module supply partners and other key suppliers in South Korea to meet the needs of customers in the future.

“We are also home to a highly skilled and motivated workforce who are fully committed to meeting our future environmental targets.”

The new battery pack production facility will be built inside the current component workshop at Changwon – without disruption to existing operations, Volvo CE said.

Once complete, the facility will be approximately 2500sqm including assembly and logistics areas.

Building work for the new production facility will begin in April 2023, with battery pack production expected to commence in June 2024.

Investing in the battery pack production facility is one of a series of moves by Volvo Group and Volvo CE in recent years to ensure it meets its goal of becoming completely fossil free by 2040. Already, the company has introduced a range of compact electric excavators to the global market, and is currently investing in the production of electric wheel loaders at its plant in Arvika, Sweden.

It has also recently unveiled its first electric machine for the road-making industry – the DD25 Electric road compactor.

Some other ‘green’ machines Volvo CE has released as prototypes include a fuel cell hauler and an innovative modular electric loader capable of making decisions and working on its own.