Volvo EX30 Will Finally See Some Tariff Relief

The Volvo EX30 is a compelling little EV, as it offers lots of power and style, all for a rather reasonable price. It even got the attention of the World Car of the Year jurors, who made it a finalist for the award. Unfortunately, one key aspect of the car has proven to be a major hurdle: its production location. Since the launch of the car, all EX30s have been built in China, and that has led to the car being subject to massive tariffs from both the Biden and Trump administrations and subsequent delays. That will be changing now that Volvo has finally started production of the little EV at its factory in Ghent, Belgium.

Details On The Factory

Volvo’s factory in Ghent has been around for a long time. It opened back in 1965. It has been producing a variety of other Volvo models that currently include the XC40 and its electric counterparts the EX40 and EC40. It also builds the V60 hybrid wagon, and last year, the factory produced more than 186,000 cars. Since the introduction of the EX30, Volvo has planned on adding the model to the factory’s output to supplement the Chinese manufacturing. The company says it invested the equivalent of $227.7 million in updating the plant, in part to build the EV. The added production also apparently added about 350 jobs.

Ghent Provides Some Tariff Relief

As was announced a while back, the EX30s that Volvo imports to the US will come from Ghent. They may not start arriving immediately, since Volvo is ramping up production, but they should be showing up in the near future. The regular EX30 will come from there, as will the EX30 Cross Country, which is set to start production later this year. A Volvo representative declined to comment whether this new production would mean that the more affordable single-motor EX30 might join the line-up.

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Tariffs on Chinese-built cars didn’t stop Volvo from bringing some examples to the US anyway. It delivered some to reservation holders late last year, and there are examples at dealers right now, all of which are Chinese examples. Volvo wouldn’t say anything about profitability or how it was handling the large tariffs on Chinese-built cars, but someone had to pay them, and it wasn’t customers, since the MSRP hadn’t, and still hasn’t, changed on the EX30. A Volvo representative also said that the company doesn’t have anything to say about any price changes right now, so expect them to stay where they are for the time being. Now the European cars won’t be completely immune to tariffs, as the Trump administration imposed a 25% tariff on imported cars from anywhere other than the US, but that will be far more manageable than the more than 100% tariff on Chinese-built vehicles.