South Carolina Ping 
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Posted on 09/18/2017 7:10:16 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Volvo Cars hasn’t yet produced its first automobile in Berkeley County, but it is already looking to double its investment there to $1 billion and hire a total of 4,500 workers, sources close to the negotiations said Monday.
The Swedish carmaker is looking to spend an additional $500 million to add a second production line at its site off Interstate 26 near Ridgeville, the sources said. The expansion will add 2,500 workers in addition to the 2,000 people Volvo currently is hiring.
Volvo officials have said the Ridgeville auto plant remains on schedule for a late 2018 opening.
Berkeley County Council on Monday agreed to give $3.5 million in economic incentives for the project, although the public discussion did not include the amount of Volvo’s investment.
“There are terms that other parties are agreeing to related to this economic announcement that we don’t think it’s our business to announce,” Councilman Josh Whitley said after council returned from a 20-minute closed session. He and Councilman Jack Schurlknight both said they wanted to discuss the agreement in open session, but county attorney John O. Williams advised otherwise.
The expansion is worth "not less than $24 million" and will create at least 300 new jobs, according to an incentive agreement Council passed on Aug. 28.
“We are respecting the company’s wishes not to announce the amount yet but it’s substantially more than that,” Whitley said after the meeting. “I wouldn’t vote for these types of incentives based on that amount.”
The agreement approved Monday night calls for the county to provide $2.5 million for a waterline tie-in to Lake Marion, $1 million to widen the road to Volvo, and a tax break known as a fee in lieu of taxes.
Volvo will hold a press conference on Sept. 25, but spokeswoman Stephanie Mangini declined to give further details. Adrienne Fairwell, spokeswoman for the state’s Commerce Department, also declined to comment.
County Council voted unanimously to have Supervisor Bill Peagler execute the document for “Project Iona, a substantial economic development project.”
Economic development projects are often given code names while they are in negotiations, but at a special meeting on Friday, council members identified “Project Iona” as a Volvo expansion.
Council tabled discussion of the issue after some council members said the meeting at 3 p.m Friday in the Supervisor's Conference Room was not transparent.
"I don’t like how it looks,” said Whitley, who attended the meeting via phone.
In addition, Whitley and Councilman Kevin Cox, who also called in, questioned a provision that said the county would provide up to $1 million for a fire station. Berkeley does not have a countywide fire department and the councilmen objected to using taxpayers’ money for the building, especially when residents of Cane Bay have for years asked for a station.
“It’s not incumbent upon incorporated parts of the county to provide a fire house for the rural parts of the county,” Cox said. “I just don’t think you take money out of the general fund for a rural fire department.”
Williams said Monday he didn’t realize Friday's discussion was being held in open session. No one from the public attended.
A video of the 28-minute meeting was posted on the county's website Monday morning but removed a few hours later.
Volvo has previously said that it plans to double its workforce in coming years depending on market conditions.
The facility will make a newly redesigned S60 sedan and a second vehicle, to be announced at a later date. The first S60 is scheduled to roll off the assembly line next summer. Volvo plans to build roughly 60,000 cars per year, with about 60 percent of those vehicles exported to foreign countries through the Port of Charleston.
Volvo announced this year that it plans to transition to building only hybrids or all-electric vehicles beginning with new models introduced in 2019. It will also offer hybrid versions of existing models by that time.
Volvo plans to introduce three new all-electric vehicles between 2019 and 2021, including one with a 250-mile range on a full charge that would compete with Tesla, according to a report in Automotive News.
The local plant, first announced in 2015, would be capable of producing any vehicle made on Volvo’s new automobile platform that debuted with its redesigned XC90 SUV. The Berkeley County site also could build hybrids and autonomous versions of any vehicle produced there as the technology becomes available.
its a shame so many of the productive jobs like this were chased out of USA, including Berkeley/Oakland/Richmond/Vallejo/San Fransicko, California. There are thousands of people who could use good, honest work...including most of the SorosNazi $15/hour street thugs that routinely disrupt normal civilized life, block traffic, intimidate and threaten innocent human beings, and yell threatening or racist or defamatory “political demands” at passers-by
SOME (not all) of them might take $25/hour real jobs instead
ps: yes, i understand Volvo is not hiring in Berkeley,CA.
but rather in a Berkeley county elsewhere.
.
There are good reasons why any sensible employer would avoid Berkeley, Oakland, or SF, Californication
and that is why most of the potential employers DO avoid such high-risk zones, alas
it is tragic because the jobs are needed in such cities, whether we are discussing Oakland or Newark or Detroit, or Saint Louis or Chicago or or or or or......the jobs are
so very much needed
Corporations pay slave wages in Mexico and import back to the USA duty free, charge first world prices and all the while the US taxpayer subsidizes the un/underemployed. Yeah, this is efficiency I tell ya.
I thought Subaru cornered the lesbo/gay car market.
yup!
and when corporations DO invest and create jobs in USA,
they want ..
1. employees that will at least do 3 or 4 hours work for a day’s wages
2. reasonable tax and utility rates and rents
3. relative safety from crazy insane political crap
they can’t get those things in CA or NY or Illinois even anymore, so they mostly invest and create jobs in TX and rural communities in the south, etc.
where things are saner, at least (sociologically, legally, politically, COL, etc. ). thusly, there is strong
disincentive to ANY serious investment in USA generally (due to federal policies and taxes) but when some investment and jobs DO get created in USA, there is strong disincentive to it going into the big cities and states like CA, NY, etc.
(where, as elsewhere too of course, there is real need of jobs)
I’ve had a couple of recruiters touch base with me about Volvo.
It’s a bit of a hike but I’d visit and hear the sales pitch.
I rented one on a recent trip to SC. One of the nicest cars I’ve ever driven.
How many jobs did the Kenyan create? When people are asked in polls what are the most important concerns in the country, it’s jobs and the economy. The two when handled turn the country in a great direction. It’s a shame that so many are trying to destroy this administration.
Non-union of course.
You might be a redneck if:
You think a Volvo is a part of a woman’s body.:)
Jeff Foxworthy
Volvo, like Subaru, no longer builds vehicles that are easy to spot. Their styling has become more generic and they have lost their counter-culture appeal.
Volvos have become luxury cars. New Volvos are very upscale with luxurious and practical interiors. There are even models with enhanced performance.
The Swedish automaker? Not really, Geeley Automotive owns them, which is Chinese. Geeley or Cherry might be the first auto brands from China, thou Buick imports Chinese made autos.
Berkeley County, South Carolina
Hybrids? Electric cars...no thanks unless it can pull a boat...
I have absolutely no problem with the infrastructure improvements.
I’ve got a bloody big problem with the “targeted tax cut” which is, in essence, a bribe.
How do? Handling, ride, comfort.
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