The Volvo factory in Ghent is facing a difficult stretch ahead. Union representatives leaked to the newspaper De Tijd that production of the EX40 and EC40 is set to move to the new plant in Slovakia. Management is staying quiet, but the technological and economic logic leaves little room for doubt.

The news surfaced last weekend through union delegates at Volvo Car Gent: the two mid-size electric SUVs that have been rolling off the line in the Belgian port city for years – the EX40 and its sportier sibling EC40 – are expected to end production there from 2027 without a replacement. 

One in five

The successors, built on the new SPA3 platform, will most likely be manufactured at Volvo’s brand-new factory in Kosice, Slovakia. This would be the second announced model for the new factory, after Polestar confirmed it would build the compact 7 at the site.

There’s no official confirmation or denial of the report, but without a substitute model, this would be a serious blow for Belgium’s last car factory. The EX40 and EC40 together accounted for around 42,000 units last year.

That’s roughly one in five cars produced in Ghent. The news comes on top of the earlier decision to halt sales of the EX30, another model built in Belgium, in the US.

SPA3 points the way

The core of the problem is technological. The next-generation 40-series will be built on Volvo’s SPA3 architecture (the same platform underpinning the recently unveiled EX60). A defining feature of SPA3 is megacasting: large structural body components are die-cast in a single piece, dramatically reducing the number of welds required and cutting production costs. 

Volvo installed two of these costly 9,000-tonne megacasting presses at its Kosice plant. Another one was installed in Torslanda, Sweden, but Ghent missed out on the investment for the time being. That effectively puts the new EX40 and EC40 out of reach for the Belgian site.

Too many factories

The arrival of Kosice also creates a broader structural headache. Once the Slovak site is fully operational, scheduled for early 2027, Volvo will have a combined European production capacity of around 800,000 vehicles per year. Yet the brand sold only around 370,000 cars in Europe in 2025, out of a global total of 710,000. 

The ambitious growth targets set by the former CEO Jim Rowan (1.2 million sales by the end of 2025) proved wildly off the mark. His replacement, Volvo veteran Hakan Samuelsson, quickly abandoned the growth ambitions, but dropping the Slovak factory already under construction was no longer possible when he took tenure.

His adapted solution is to absorb Volvo’s overcapacity by sharing production lines with sister brands from the Geely group, including Polestar, Zeekr, Lynk & Co, Smart, and Lotus, while the Geely brand is also launching in Europe. Whether any of those end up in Ghent remains to be seen.

Brose closes its Ghent doors

The departure of the 40 Series is now more or less confirmed by supply chain adjustments. In the same week the union news broke, German automotive supplier Brose announced the intended closure of its adjacent facility in Ghent. The company produces complete door modules for the XC40, EX40, and EC40. 

Since the EX30 uses door modules produced largely in-house by Volvo, Brose has a shrinking foothold in the production line. The roughly 90 employees are now subject to Belgium’s mandatory information and consultation procedure.

Hybrid stays

However, the hybrid XC40 is staying in Ghent, which accounts for more than 100,000 units per year. With the arrival of the new electric series, this model will most likely be continued, in analogy with the EX90/XC90 and EX60/XC60, as many customers remain wary of battery-electric models. 

At this point, the factory’s future seems to hinge on the success of the EX30. But the model is facing increasing competition and has lost traction in the sales charts, after a strong initial peak last year.

As all Volvo factories will switch to a one-platform strategy, Ghent must adopt a version of SPA sooner or later. But the investment needs the wings of critical volume. The plant employs 6,500 people directly, with thousands more jobs tied to its supply chain.