Volvo Cars (www.volvogroup.com) started production of its award-winning XC40 in China earlier this month to meet ever-growing demand for itspopular compact premium SUV.

The XC40 was launched in late 2017 and was the first-ever Volvo to win the prestigious European Car of the Year award (in March 2018).

Until now, Volvo Cars’ Ghent plant in Belgium has been the sole production site for this model, but XC40s for the Chinese market are now being built at a manufacturing plant in Luqiao (south of Shanghai), which is owned by Geely and operated by Volvo Cars.

Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of VolvoCars, said: “Demand for the XC40 has exceeded our most optimistic expectations. Building the XC40 in Luqiao adds flexibility to our global manufacturing network and is a clear proof-point of our strategy to ‘build where you sell’.”

The Luqiao plant already builds the 01 SUV sold by Lynk & Co — Volvo’s sister brand, which it co-owns with Geely. Separately, Polestar — the electric ‘performance’ brand co-owned by Volvo Cars and Geely — will build the fully electric Polestar 2 fastback in Luqiao as of next year.

This means that the Luqiao plant will soon be building models from three different Volvo Car Group brands on a single production line.

Lynk & Co was launched as a new brand by Geely Holding — the owner of Volvo Cars — in 2016; Volvo Cars owns a 30% stake in Lynk & Co. It also owns 50% of Polestar, while Geely owns the other half.