According to foreign media reports, on June 17, Volvo Cars broke ground on a new electric vehicle technology center at its headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey.

The 12,800-square-foot (1,189-square-meter) technical center is expected to open in March next year and will be used to train dealer technicians from the United States, Canada and South America. The new facility will be Volvo Cars' sixth technical training center in North America.

Anders Gustafsson, senior vice president of Volvo Cars Americas and president of Volvo Cars America, declined to disclose the company's investment in the new training center, but said it was an important project. The center will be located on a 20-acre site with 50 charging stations, some of which may eventually be open to the public.

Image credit: Volvo Cars

Gustafsson said in a video interview that the training center is critical to Volvo's plans to transition to pure electric vehicles. He said Volvo Cars is short of about 200 technicians at its 280 U.S. dealerships. "The industry is struggling and we've made a decision that it's time to deal with everything related to customer service," he said.

Gustafsson said: “As a manufacturer, if we don’t invest in where our technicians work, our dealers certainly won’t. So it’s a cultural practice. Our distribution partners have done a great job. Okay, but we're seeing some people falling behind and it's time to do something about it."

Last summer, Volvo also announced it would invest $118 million in an assembly plant in Ridgeville, South Carolina, to build electric vehicles, including vehicles from performance brand Polestar and an electric version of the XC90 crossover. The company plans to go fully electrified by 2030.