Volvo Cuts Workforce in South Carolina Plant

On Wednesday, Volvo Cars announced plans to reduce its workforce by 5% at its plant in South Carolina, citing economic uncertainty linked to President Trump’s tariffs.

This move will affect around 125 of the 2,500 employees working at the Charleston facility, as confirmed by a company spokesperson.

Despite these cuts, Volvo has reaffirmed its commitment to creating 4,000 new jobs in the state.

The automaker also expressed intentions to ramp up production at its Charleston plant in the future.

Volvo Cars did not provide immediate comments following the announcement.

In a recent quarterly revenue report, Volvo outlined plans to cut costs by $1.888 billion, a figure that doesn’t account for the newly announced layoffs.

Similar to others in the automotive sector, Volvo, which is owned by the Chinese conglomerate Geely Holding, has felt significant impacts from Trump’s tariffs.

While its largest manufacturing facility is located in Sweden, the company operates three major plants in China as well.

Earlier in April, Trump imposed a 25% tax on foreign vehicle imports and extended the same rate to auto parts last week.

A few days before the auto parts tax took effect, Trump mentioned “a little help” for the automaker, indicating that car tariffs wouldn’t add on top of other existing obligations like steel and aluminum tariffs, or high fees related to trade with Canada and Mexico.

However, the existing 145% tariff on Chinese imports remains in place, in addition to the car tariffs.

Regardless of these challenges, Volvo reiterated that the U.S. remains a critical component of its long-term strategy.

The Charleston plant has a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles annually, though it currently produces only the EX90 Electric SUV and Polestar Model 3; most of its models are imported from Europe.

As of April, the company reported having sold 1,316 EX90s in the U.S. this year.

According to its 2024 annual report, Volvo has approximately 43,000 employees globally.