Volvo Car Gent extends electric drive in North Sea Port
The automotive cluster within North Sea Port is driving resolutely towards the future. Volvo Car Gent assembled more than 183,000 cars last year. One in six was an all-electric XC40 Recharge or C40 Recharge, according to the company's release.
The global shortage of chips has put a damper on the number of cars coming off the line, but Volvo Car Gent remains on track to make half of its sales full electric by 2025 and to produce only 100% electric cars by 2030.
In October, the C40 Recharge joined the XC40 Recharge as the second all-electric model. Production capacity for electric cars will rise sharply again this year to 135,000 cars, a threefold increase.
The car plant itself will drastically reduce its carbon footprint from the second half of the year by switching to completely climate-neutral production, thanks to intensive use of green energy.
Automotive is a spearhead sector for North Sea Port. Both Volvo Car and Volvo Trucks have large assembly plants in the port. Volvo Trucks also has its biggest global parts distribution platform there. North Sea Port is Honda’s main logistics hub in Europe. As a car port, North Sea Port also sees numerous cars of other makes pass through Ghent and Vlissingen.
The impact on goods flows, value added and employment is extremely high. With 6,500 employees, Volvo Car Gent is the biggest industrial employer in the entire port area. And the car maker is currently recruiting a further 500 workers.
