How Sweden's Volvo is winning the global EV trade war

Swedish-Chinese automaker Volvo is breaking records in the electric vehicle market. A closer look at its Belgian plant — the company’s second largest in Europe, where it recently relocated a large line-up to from China — reveals why the trusted brand may be better positioned than its competitors to weather an escalating global trade war.

In the vast factory hall in Ghent, the past and future of the automobile move side by side on the same conveyor belt. The German publication Die Zeit, which was granted an inside look at the Swedish manufacturer’s operations and innovation strategy, describes a striking image: the chassis of a combustion engine model in front, followed closely by one for an electric car.

Benjamin Van Landuyt, Head of Final Assembly in Ghent, told the reporters that Volvo’s ability to produce all its models — traditional and electric — on the same line is what truly sets it apart.

Among the line-up is the EX30, Volvo’s best-selling electric vehicle. On the market for just over a year, it ranked third among Europe’s top-selling EVs by 2024, trailing only Tesla models. This makes it the most successful electric car from any European brand so far — surpassing VW, Audi, and BMW, all of which are facing declining sales and growing uncertainty about their future.

What are the Swedes doing better?

Volvo, owned by Chinese auto group Geely since 2010, has long been a pioneer in hybrid technology. A name long synonymous with European craftsmanship, Scandinavian design, and family-oriented safety, the brand now stands as an example of an effective global partnership.

That the EX30 is currently being built in Zhangjiakou, a city in northeastern China, may seem at odds with Volvo’s traditional image. But the Swedish-Chinese collaboration illustrates how complex the global car industry has become — and the challenges automakers face as trade tensions and new tariffs reshape international markets.

Volvo’s headquarters remain in Gothenburg, Sweden, where its largest plant and design center are located. Yet, the influence of its Chinese ownership has been pivotal to its recent success.

During Die Zeit’s tour of the Ghent facility, one detail stood out: how few people were visible along the production line. In the body shop, robots perform a precise ballet — their mechanical arms whirring as they screw and weld car bodies together within seconds. For the EX30, this stage is still in testing.

"The robots are still being fine-tuned," said Marnix Vincke, who oversees body production. In several sections of the factory, Chinese technicians with laptops can be seen calibrating machines and training their European colleagues. Production plans are written out on whiteboards, often annotated with Chinese characters.

European tariffs pushed Volvo to think outside the box

The EX30 production line was recently relocated from China to Belgium following new EU tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. Since last November, Volvo has been required to pay roughly 19% of each car’s value in customs duties for imports into the European Union.

According to the article, Volvo had always intended to produce the model in Europe, given its main customer base there. However, the new tariffs accelerated those plans. The company said it managed to shift production from Zhangjiakou to Ghent in just over a year, with full-scale manufacturing of the EX30 set to begin in April.

"This is a clear example of how tariff policies can shape the global auto market. In that case, it is not Donald Trump and the United States behind the trade barriers, but the EU Commission in nearby Brussels. Its goal is to keep Chinese electric vehicles from undercutting European competitors by selling at artificially low prices. It argues that state subsidies give Chinese firms an unfair edge," the article states.

Volvo outperforms German automakers in EV sales

Volvo now boasts one of the highest shares of electric vehicles among major European brands. Of the approximately 760,000 cars it sold in 2024, nearly a quarter were fully electric. By comparison, Volkswagen’s EV share stood below 10%, and BMW’s at 13.5%.

According to Die Zeit, the EX30’s success is largely due to its pricing strategy. Starting at €39,000, the base model is costlier than some mass-market competitors but still below the premium offerings of Audi, BMW, or Mercedes.

Last year, about 100,000 EX30s were sold — roughly 80% of them in Europe. This year, 30,000 units are expected to roll off the Ghent production line, with Volvo confident that prices can remain stable despite the relocation. If demand for the electric model dips, the flexible line can seamlessly revert to producing combustion engine vehicles instead.

By Nazrin Sadigova