Chinese-owned Volvo Car Group said on Thursday it would add 1,300 jobs and boost production at a plant in Sweden in the first quarter to meet rising demand for its new cars.
Gothenburg-based Volvo has already seen deliveries rise nearly 10 percent in the first nine months of the year and expects to sell about 470,000 cars for the whole year, representing a 10 percent increase over 2013 and an all-time sales record for the company.
"The all-new Volvo XC90 SUV is expected to further grow the company's sales volumes during 2015, creating a need for increased output from the Torslanda plant where the new car is to be produced," it said in a statement.
It said it would add a third working shift at the plant, which has the capacity to produce 300,000 cars annually and is located on Sweden's west coast. The total number of employees in Torslanda is expected to rise by almost 40 percent.
Volvo Cars aims to sell 800,000 cars by 2020 and make inroads in a premium market dominated by rivals such as Daimler's Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
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