Volvo Cars is building a large-scale factory in Slovakia, a member country of the European Union (EU), capable of producing 250,000 electric vehicles annually.
On the 8th (local time), the EU Commission announced that the Slovak government approved a plan to provide subsidies worth 267 million euros (approximately 400 billion KRW) for Volvo's new electric vehicle factory project.
EU member states must obtain approval from the Commission before granting subsidies for new domestic projects under the single market fair competition regulations. This Commission approval came 1 year and 9 months after Volvo announced its plan to build the Slovakia factory in July 2022. At that time, Volvo stated it would invest a total of 1.2 billion euros (approximately 1.8 trillion KRW).
The new electric vehicle factory will begin full operation from 2026, with an annual production capacity of about 250,000 units. The Commission expects the project to create at least 3,300 jobs.
Slovakia, with a population of about 5.43 million, is the country with the highest per capita automobile production in the world. More than 1 million vehicles were manufactured locally just last year. Automakers such as Kia from Korea, Volkswagen, Stellantis, and Jaguar Land Rover operate automobile production plants here.
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