Volvo Cars has announced that it will stop selling its electric EX30 and EX30 Cross Country models in the United States after model year. The decision means exports of the EX30 and EX model from its factory in the East Flanders Ghent.
Volvo’s decision to no longer sell the EX30 in the US will affect exports from its Ghent plant
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Volvo Cars says that the move is linked to “changing market conditions and financial factors”. These including the recent scrapping of a 7,500 USD government subsidy for electric vehicles sold in the United. The Trump administration’s withdrawl of incentives for those purchasing electric vehicles has contributed to a sharp drop in demand. At the same time, import tariffs have increased pressure on European carmakers, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, all of whom have struggled to pass on higher costs to consumers.
Since production of the EX30 began in Ghent in April 2025, around 4,500 vehicles have been built for the American market. Exports to the US have accounted for roughly 20% of the model’s output at the site so far. Volvo sold about 5,400 EX30s in the US last year, this is less than 5% of its overall sales in the United States.
Belgium’s last car factory
The decision is a setback for Volvo Car Ghent that is the only remaining car factory in Belgium. The plant employs between 6,000 and 7,000 people, and it remains unclear what impact the decision to halt sales of the EX30 in the States will have on production volumes and jobs.
The US is one of the factory’s key export markets, second only to the United Kingdom. Around a fifth of vehicles produced at Volvo Car Ghent is shipped across the Atlantic.
In 2025 212,177 cars were built at the Ghent plant. Of these, 21,845 were EX30 models. The factory’s core production remains the XC40 and EX40. These accounted for 156,977 vehicles last year.
Transition
The Ghent factory recently underwent a major transition to accommodate large-scale EX30 production, with output falling to 186,313 vehicles in 2024 during the conversion period. The ramp-up in 2025 initially delivered renewed growth.
However, the anticipated commercial success of the EX30 has not fully materialised. Globally, around 75,000 units were sold in 2025, compared with approximately 98,000 a year earlier, a fall of 23%.
Production of the EX30 had been moved from China to Europe to avoid EU import tariffs on Chinese-built electric vehicles.