SIX years ago Volvo had no production facilities in China, but through the expansion of its parent company Geely, it now plans to have one-third of its cars built there by 2020.

Volvo president and chief executive Hakan Samuelsson has also announced that its S60 flagship will not be the only model moved from Sweden, stating that the next generation 60-series will be made in the Chengdu plant in western China.

“With three plants – and the designation of one car line for each plant – Volvo creates an efficient production structure ensuring future capacity for growth,” he said in a statement. The three countries with Volvo plants are in Sweden, Belgium and China.

The next generation of 40-series compact vehicles will be made in a plant under construction in Luqiao, a coastal city 350 kilometres south of Shanghai.

The 40-series includes the V40 and V40 Cross Country. These will share the small-car CMA platform with the next-generation Geely small cars and the Geely spin-off, the Lynk & Co 01 (zero-one) due in late 2017.

But though it is likely Australia will receive the S90 from China when production ramps up from 2017, it is unclear if the sister wagon, the V90, will also be built there.

It is also not decided if the 40-series will be made for export from China.

Under Chinese parent company Geely, Volvo has increased its factories in China to three. It is on public record as wanting China sales to reach 200,000 by 2020 (it made almost 82,000 in 2015) and increase global sales to 800,000 by 2020, up from 503,000 in 2015.

About one-third of the global sales are planned to come out of China by 2020, equivalent to about 270,000 units.

By Neil Dowling