The Uddevalla plant, located on the shores of the North Sea just a few kilometers from Göteborg, has a long and complex history behind it. Set up after the war to build ships, it started to construct cars only in 1996. Pininfarina contributed to completing the conversion of the “satellite” type system used previously to the assembly line approach. Today, it has a total surface area of more than 490,000 sq. m of which 95,300 sq. m of buildings, with a production capacity of 20,000 vehicles a year.
The various production phases of the Volvo C70 are carried out at Uddevalla: assembly and painting of the body and roof; installation of the mechanicals and trimming of the cabin; tests on the finished vehicle on an in-house track and release of the vehicle ready for delivery to the customer. The standard tooling of assembly line production is used, suitably adapted to the plant and with wide-scale use of laser welding when constructing the bodyshell. Carry-over components are furnished by the Ghent Belgium plant; Volvo Car and Body Components, around 400 km from Uddevalla, furnishes body-in-white parts and external panels; other minor suppliers operate in other European countries. Pininfarina Sverige is responsible for final quality.