According to available information, this does not mean a loss for Valaliky. At Thursday's strategy presentation for investors, Volvo announced, according to the Belgian portal Newmobility.news, that it will build exclusively new-SPA3-platform models in Swedish Torslanda and in Košice, while Ghent will remain on older platforms. According to the American magazine Automotive News, the first car from Valaliky is expected to be the new electric SUV EX50, which will replace the EX40 in the US. Volvo has not yet announced the model for Košice. "It looks like we'll announce it at the end of September, beginning of October," Volvo Car Košice director Marc Gombeer said in May. Newmobility.news ↗ Autoevolution (podľa Automotive News) ↗ Pravda ↗
Trial production at Valaliky begins on Monday, September 21, when the first shift starts in the morning. Slovak and Czech media monitored by HotInfo have written about Volvo's new strategy mainly in connection with upcoming models. As of Saturday noon, they had not picked up the decision on Ghent or the division of platforms between the plants. STVR ↗
Key actors — tap for context
Volvo Cars
Swedish automaker headquartered in Gothenburg, owned since 2010 by the Chinese Geely Group. It builds cars for Europe mainly in Swedish Torslanda and Belgian Ghent, and is finishing a third European plant near Košice.
Why here: It is keeping the modernized EX40 and EC40 in Ghent, while sending only new-SPA3-platform models to Torslanda and Košice.
More info →
Ghent
Port city in Flanders in northwestern Belgium. Volvo has been building cars there since 1965.
Why here: Home to Volvo Car Gent, the last car factory in Belgium, with around 6,500 employees.
More info →
Valaliky
Village in the Košice-okolie district, near which the state has prepared a strategic industrial park.
Why here: The new Volvo Car Košice plant stands next to it, which, according to Volvo, will build only cars on the new SPA3 platform.
More info →Marc Gombeer
Director of the Volvo Car Košice plant.
Why here: In May he said Volvo would announce the model for the Košice plant at the end of September or the beginning of October.
Geely
Chinese automotive group that owns Volvo Cars and the brands Polestar, Zeekr, and Lynk & Co.
Why here: According to the Belgian portal Newmobility.news, its brands are the most likely candidate for production in Ghent; Volvo has not yet named the brand.
More info →Polestar
Swedish electric-car brand within the Geely Group, closely linked to Volvo.
Why here: Its Polestar 7 SUV is due to be built in Valaliky starting in 2028.
More info →Francesca Gamboni
Head of manufacturing and supply chain at Volvo Cars.
Why here: At the strategy presentation she acknowledged overcapacity and announced that Ghent would also produce for another brand.
Håkan Samuelsson
Swedish executive, CEO of Volvo Cars from 2012 to 2022 and again since April 2025.
Why here: Under his leadership, Volvo is opening Ghent to production for other brands.
More info →Jim Rowan
British executive, CEO of Volvo Cars from 2022 to 2025.
Why here: Under his leadership, Volvo announced the plant near Košice, at a time when it was still projecting sales growth to 1.2 million cars a year.
Bart De Wever
Belgian prime minister since February 2025, chairman of the Flemish N-VA party from 2004 to 2025.
Why here: He leads the government task force on the future of the Ghent plant and declared in July that its future is secure.
More info →
Matthias Diependaele
Flemish N-VA politician, head of the Flemish government since 2024.
Why here: He is closely involved in the task force's talks on the future of the Ghent plant.
More info →Roel Gevaers
Belgian transport economist, professor at the University of Antwerp.
Why here: He explained to VRT why, without new production technology, Ghent's future hangs in the balance.
Denisa Saková
Slovak politician from the Hlas party, minister of economy.
Why here: According to her, the state has earmarked around €550 million for infrastructure for Volvo's Košice investment.
More info →
De Standaard
Flemish daily published by Mediahuis.
Why here: It broke the news that the 40 series is staying in Ghent, and on Saturday asked whether the plant was ever really at risk in the first place.
More info →What the unions claimed in March
In March, the business daily De Tijd, citing union representatives from Ghent, reported that production of the EX40 and EC40 there would end in 2027 and that Volvo would build their successors in Košice. According to the Belga news agency, plant management would neither confirm nor deny this. The combustion-engine XC40 was to stay in Belgium in any case — more than 100,000 units were built in Ghent in 2025. La Libre (Belga) ↗ Newmobility.news ↗The reports were based on the assumption that the successors to the EX40 and EC40 would use the SPA3 platform, which Volvo introduced with the EX60 and under which large sections of the body are cast in a single piece at once. According to Newmobility.news, Volvo has two so-called megacasting presses in Košice and one in Swedish Torslanda, but none in Ghent. In April, Roel Gevaers, a professor of transport economics at the University of Antwerp, told VRT that, based on information he had received, such a new line could cost €750 million to €1 billion, and questioned whether Volvo would even install one in Ghent given its excess capacity. Newmobility.news ↗ VRT NWS ↗
Ghent stays on the old platform
According to the Dutch portal Autointernationaal.nl, the 40 series will not switch to the SPA3 platform. It will remain on the older CMA platform, which Ghent already uses today and which does not require megacasting. On September 10, Volvo unveiled the modernized EX40 and EC40 and announced that production would begin in Ghent this autumn. Autointernationaal.nl ↗ Volvo Car Danmark ↗Money helped Ghent too. In July, the Flemish and federal governments signed a memorandum with Volvo on support worth up to €119 million for training, greening, and research. It will only be paid out, however, if the automaker actually makes the promised investments. "The future of the plant is secure," Prime Minister Bart De Wever said at the time. The Slovak agency TASR also reported on the subsidies in August. VRT NWS ↗ TASR ↗
On Thursday, a day before the news about the 40 series, Volvo announced at its strategy presentation that of its seven plants, five would be reserved for the Volvo brand and two — Ghent and China's Chengdu — would be opened to contract manufacturing for other brands. Ghent will thus be Volvo's only European plant designated for contract manufacturing and, as an exception to the one-platform-per-plant rule, will get two. How Polestar 7, due to be built in Košice from 2028 on SPA3-related technology, fits into this division is not clear from the reports. "Yes, we are facing overcapacity," the Belga agency quoted Francesca Gamboni, head of manufacturing and supply chain, as saying. According to her, Ghent's costs have been brought down, with help from the Belgian government, to a level comparable to plants in Eastern Europe. She did not name the new brand; according to Newmobility.news, it will most likely be one of the Geely Group's brands. La Libre (Belga) ↗ Newmobility.news ↗ Newmobility.news ↗
Where the overcapacity comes from
Once the Slovak plant is running at full capacity, Volvo will have European production capacity of around 800,000 cars a year, according to an estimate by Newmobility.news. In 2025, however, according to its own figures, Volvo sold just under 333,000 cars in Europe. Volvo announced the plant near Košice in 2022, shortly after Jim Rowan took over as CEO, when it was still projecting sales growth to 1.2 million cars a year. The automaker later backed away from that target, but according to the portal, it could no longer halt construction. Newmobility.news ↗ Volvo Cars ↗ VRT NWS ↗In addition to the Volvo model, which the automaker has not yet announced, the Polestar 7 SUV from the sister brand within the Geely Group is due to be built in Valaliky from 2028. Volvo is investing roughly €1.2 billion in the plant, and, according to Economy Minister Denisa Saková, the state has earmarked around €550 million for infrastructure. By 2028 the plant is expected to employ 3,300 people. Pravda ↗ Štandard ↗
In June, CEO Håkan Samuelsson acknowledged that Volvo's European plants could also build cars for sister brands Geely, Zeekr, and Lynk & Co, and the weekly Trend saw this as an opportunity for Košice too. Thursday's plan, however, assigns contract manufacturing for other brands in Europe only to Ghent, with Košice, according to the plan, sticking exclusively to the SPA3 platform. Trend ↗ Newmobility.news ↗
Was the plant ever really at risk?
In its Saturday edition, De Standaard asks whether the transfer of the 40 series ever really threatened Ghent. Volvo did not publicly confirm the March reports at the time. In April it emerged that a government task force led by Prime Minister Bart De Wever had been quietly working on the plant's future since January, with Flemish premier Matthias Diependaele also closely involved. De Standaard ↗ VRT NWS ↗If the Automotive News report is confirmed, the unions were partly right back in March. The electric successor to the EX40 on the new platform would indeed go to Košice, just under a different name, while the modernized 40 series on the old platform stays in Ghent. Volvo has not yet officially unveiled the EX50; according to Newmobility.news, it had the name registered with the European Union Intellectual Property Office in July. Autoevolution (podľa Automotive News) ↗ Newmobility.news ↗
The certainty surrounding the plant does not extend to everyone around it. Axle-parts supplier Benteler in Ghent will close its plant after its contract with Volvo ends in April 2027, putting 48 people out of work; ten years ago it employed more than 200 there. The future is also in question for bumper maker Plasman, with more than 300 employees, which, according to the unions, has lost orders from both Volvo and BMW. VRT NWS ↗
Also read: Dacia's chief: Romania's auto industry could lose up to a quarter of its output and workforce. Slovenia and Turkey got the brand's new models
*Illustrative photo: Volvo C40, sold today as the EC40, at a car show in Leonberg in 2022. Author: Alexander Migl / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.*
