Volvo Cars cuts jobs and expenses in U.S., Canada to prep for EV era

Volvo Cars is restructuring its U.S. and Canadian operations as part of an $88 million global effort to tighten spending, drive efficiencies and update its work force for an all-electric future.

Volvo Car USA and Canada President Michael Cottone said the initiative, code-named CORE+, is “all-encompassing.”

“There’s not any area of the business that is not impacted,” Cottone told Automotive News. “We have [many] different reports and jobs, and we’re looking at them to make sure these are the ones that give us the biggest impact and put our resources toward them.”

The Swedish automaker is cutting more than 10 percent of its about 700 white-collar work force in the U.S. and Canada, a source briefed on the plan told Automotive News. Volvo will also trim its regional ranks through early retirement offers. The head count reduction is expected to take effect by early October.

Adam Clarke, Volvo’s head of retail network development and customer experience, was affected by the restructuring, said two sources familiar with the plans, who asked not to be identified. Clarke did not respond to a LinkedIn message sent Thursday.

Volvo is “turning over every rock they can to make themselves more efficient,” one of the sources said.

Volvo has downsized its Silicon Valley Tech Center and its Southern California design center as the automaker consolidates work elsewhere globally, another source said.

The tech hub’s roughly 80-employee workforce has been slashed at least 75 percent, a source said. Much of that work has been relocated to Volvo’s U.S. headquarters in Mahwah, N.J.

The company said Wednesday it will open a technology hub in Singapore to focus on data and analytics, software and advanced manufacturing development. Volvo also opened a tech center in Krakow, Poland, this year.

Volvo Car USA spokesperson Russell Datz declined to comment on the details of the restructuring, which will also affect contractors.

But Datz confirmed the scaling back of operations at the technical center, which has tripled in size since a 2018 expansion. The Sunnyvale hub, where Volvo does autonomous driving testing and verification, will maintain a “small presence,” he said.