Four million Volvo cars built in Ghent plant

On 8 August, the four millionth car was built at Volvo Cars Ghent. It was a sporty Volvo V50 R-DESIGN, ordered by a customer from Breda in the Netherlands who works for VDL, parent company of Steelweld, one of Volvo Cars Ghent's main suppliers of production installations for the Volvo XC60.
Volvo has been building cars in Belgium since 1965. Initially the Ghent plant was set up to avoid the country's high import taxes on finished cars but over the years Volvo Cars Ghent has, together with Volvo Cars Torslanda, become one of the two main Volvo Cars factories.

The first model assembled in Ghent was the Volvo 120, better known as the Amazon. Other models followed: the Volvo 140 and 240-series, the Volvo 740 and 940, the Volvo 850, the Volvo S70 and V70, and today the Volvo C30, S40, V50 and S60. In a few weeks Volvo will start assembly of the XC60 in Ghent.

Volvo Cars Ghent has more than 4,000 employees. The milestone of one million cars was reached in Ghent as recently as 1988, and it was not until 1997 that the two million mark was passed. In 2004, the third millionth car was built in Ghent and there was a capacity to build 250,000 cars a year. Earlier this year, Volvo Cars built its 15 millionth car.

Source: Volvo