Volvo plant in Chengdu, China uses 100% renewable power

MANILA: Volvo Cars’ largest manufacturing plant in Chengdu, China, maker of the S60L, XC60, and Polestar units, is now using 100% renewable electricity.

The Chengdu plant takes 65% of its electricity from hydropower and the remaining 35% from a combination of solar, wind, and other renewable sources of energy.

It has resulted in the reduction of the plant’s CO²emissions by more than 11,000 tons per year and partly fulfills its plans in China to reduce carbon emissions from industry and reduce the carbon footprint resulting from energy generation.

This latest development brings the Swedish automaker’s global renewable electricity mix in its manufacturing network to 80% and is in line with their goal of making their manufacturing climate-neutral by 2025. By 2040, Volvo Cars aims to be a wholly climate-neutral company.

“Our ambition is to reduce our carbon footprint through concrete, tangible actions. Securing a fully renewable electricity supply for our largest plant in China is a significant milestone and underlines our commitment to taking concrete, meaningful action,” said Javier Varela, head of industrial operations and quality at Volvo Cars.

It’s not just in manufacturing where Volvo is making efforts in reducing its carbon footprint. All its European plants have had a climate-neutral electricity supply since 2008, while the engine plant in Skövde, Sweden, was the first in the company’s network to become completely climate neutral in 2018.

At the Ghent plant in Belgium, Volvo Cars installed 15,000 solar panels in 2018, the first large-scale introduction of solar energy in its global manufacturing network.

These initiatives complete Volvo Cars’ very ambitious climate plan whose centerpiece is the goal of generating 50% of global sales from fully electric cars by 2025, with the rest hybrids.

Photos from Volvo Cars

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