Volvo Group to add plant in Mexico

The Sweden-based Volvo Group, which makes and manufactures trucks under the Volvo Trucks and Mack Trucks brands, will build a new heavy-duty truck manufacturing plant in Mexico.

The company says the third North American plant, joining others in Pennsylvania and Virginia, will supplement the group’s United States production, providing additional capacity to support the growth plans of both Volvo Trucks and Mack Trucks in the U.S. and Canadian markets, and support Mack truck sales in Mexico and Latin America.

Mack LVO plant in Pennsylvania and the NRV plant in Virginia will continue to be Volvo Group's main North American heavy truck production sites, with the company noting it has invested more than $73 million the last five years in Pennsylvania, and currently is investing an additional $80 million to prepare for future production.

In Virginia, meanwhile, that plant is completing a six-year, $400 million expansion and upgrade to prepare it for production of the new Volvo VNL model.

The Mack Trucks product line includes trucks designed for the collection of solid waste and recyclable materials.

The plant in Mexico is expected to be operational in 2026 and will be about 1.7 million square feet. It will focus on production of heavy-duty conventional vehicles for the Volvo and Mack brands and be a complete conventional vehicle assembly facility including cab body-in-white production and paint.

“Adding production in Mexico will deliver logistical efficiencies for supporting sales to the southwestern and western regions of the U.S., and to Mexico and Latin America," Volvo Group says. "It also provides a mature supply and production ecosystem that will complement the U.S. system and increase the resilience and flexibility of the Group’s North American industrial footprint.”

Last year, the Volvo Group and Mack Trucks engaged in lengthy contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW) regarding a new contract at the two plants in the U.S.. That process led to a weekslong strike.

The announcement of a Mexican plant has been met with suspicion by the UAW local representing the Volvo Group facility in Pennsylvania.

In a letter to members, Tim Hertzog, shop chair of UAW Local 677, writes, “We are extremely disappointed in Volvo’s decision to build [a] facility In Mexico as our local leadership have been working closely with local and state government officials to build a state-of-the-art plant in the Lehigh Valley. This is a slap in the face for all of us.”