Volvo Cars, the Swedish automaker controlled by Chinese company Geely, will require up to two years to scale up its U.S. production in response to U.S. import tariffs, CEO Hakan Samuelsson told the daily Dagens Nyheter (DN) on Friday.
Volvo Cars, one of the automakers most affected by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported vehicles, currently imports most of its hybrid and electric models from Europe. The company is particularly vulnerable to the 27.5% tariff imposed on European-made cars.
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Samuelsson explained that continuing to sell European-made cars in the U.S. under such tariffs was not sustainable in the long term. “Importing from our Chinese plants is impossible,” he said, citing the significantly higher tariffs on vehicles from China.
“In the short term, within one to two years, it will be about selling the cars we have,” Samuelsson added. While this will put pressure on profit margins, he acknowledged that customers will also have to bear the higher costs.
Last week, Samuelsson confirmed that Volvo was working toward increasing its U.S. production to mitigate the impact of the tariffs, though details of the production ramp-up timeline remain unclear.
