On Friday, Swedish car manufacturer Volvo announced that it had selected the state of Nuevo León as the site for its new North American heavy-duty truck factory, with an estimated investment of US $700 million.
The new 160,000 square-meter facility will be located in Ciénega de Flores, about 30 kilometers northeast of the state capital of Monterrey. Volvo plans for operations to begin in 2026 and expects the site to create 2,500 jobs.
BIENVENIDO @volvocars
Esta empresa se suma al boom económico de Nuevo León con una inversión de 700 MILLONES DE DÓLARES para construir su NUEVA PLANTA, que será la MÁS GRANDE DEL MUNDO.
Sin duda, Nuevo León es el mejor lugar para invertir y hacer negocios… Y VAMOS POR MÁS. pic.twitter.com/BySrOjWmY0
— Samuel García (@samuel_garcias) August 23, 2024
Volvo, which has targeted growth in North America as a strategic priority, says the new manufacturing plant will support production in the United States, supplying Volvo Trucks and Mack Trucks for the U.S. and Canadian markets. The factory will also produce Mack Trucks for the Mexican and Latin American markets.
“Monterrey provides significant logistical efficiencies for supporting sales to the southwestern and western regions of the U.S., and to Mexico and Latin America,” Volvo said in a statement issued from its headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Nuevo León Governor Samuel García had announced Volvo’s plans in a video posted on social media on Monday. In a statement released Friday, García said he was pleased with the decision.
“Welcome to the best state for investment, which is Nuevo León,” he said. “This will be among the biggest investments of [my term in office].”
Nuevo León was also chosen as the site for a new multi-billion dollar Tesla “gigafactory,” announced in March 2023, but which CEO Elon Musk recently said is on hold pending the outcome of the U.S. elections in November.
Manuel Montoya Ortega, local director of the automotive industry association Clúster Automotriz, told the newspaper Milenio that the arrival of Volvo will attract European automotive suppliers to the state.
“This will stimulate job growth for local businesses,” Montoya said, pointing out that the region is also home to the two biggest truck manufacturing plants in North America — Navistar is based in the Monterrey suburb of Escobedo and Freightliner is located in Madero, in the neighboring state of Coahuila.
The Ciénega de Flores site was chosen after months of deliberation, with Volvo considering various locations in Nuevo León and Coahuila, according to the newspaper Reforma.
Volvo also operates a smaller factory in Tultitlán, México state, where the company has been manufacturing buses for 26 years.
With reports from Telediario, El Financiero and Reforma
Huge investment. Great news for MTY given the recent decision by Tesla to “pause” its plant.