Volvo Plant near Kosice to Launch Trial Production Run after Summer (2)

Valaliky, 22 May (TASR) - The construction of the new Volvo car plant near Kosice is proceeding in line with the schedule, Volvo Cars Kosice director Marc Gombeer told a news conference in Kosice on Friday. A trial production run will begin after this summer, with full-scale production planned for 2027. The plant currently has more than 600 employees. A further 70 employees are due to join in June, and the company plans to hire an additional 700 workers by the end of the year, said Gombeer. "All the set deadlines have been met. After the summer, we'll smoothly move to the trial production stage. This step will perfectly prepare us for the planned ramp-up of full production in 2027, thus fulfilling our original commitment," stated Gombeer, who confirmed that all preparatory and construction stages are going exactly according to plan. The plant in Valaliky is currently carrying out functional testing of its key operations. As part of functional tests of the press shop, body shop and megacasting facility, more than 100 complete car bodies have already been manufactured and sent to Sweden. More than 600 robots have been installed in the body shop. As much as 36 percent of the volume of parts for each vehicle will come from suppliers based in Slovakia. Concerning recruitment, the company specified that English isn't a requirement for production operator posts, as training is conducted in Slovak. Slovaks currently make up 95 percent of the hired technicians and operators. At the same time, a new in-house training centre is now fully operational at the plant itself. It supplements the existing training centre at the Secondary Vocational School in Saca. Alongside production technologies, construction work has begun on a new Welcome Centre, which will serve as a representative gateway to the site. Gombeer emphasised the benefits of the plant for the region and for Slovakia as a whole, noting that the investment serves as a strong stimulus for the domestic economy. The director pointed out that even during the current stage of construction and the installation of technology, a large amount of the work is being carried out by Slovak suppliers. The company hasn't yet specified which Volvo electric vehicle model will be produced at the Valaliky industrial park. "It looks like we'll announce it in late September or early October," said Gombeer. According to plans announced by the company, the second model to be manufactured at the Slovak plant as of 2028 will be the Polestar 7 SUV. NOTE: This story has been updated in paragraphs 4 and 5 and extended to include the final two paragraphs. ko/df