New Volvo XC40 could come from China

Overseas demand for the new Volvo XC40 is strong and the same appears true in Australia, where local demand is already outstripping supplies.

Volvo Cars Australia's PR director Greg Bosnich told motoring.com.au during the national XC40 launch in Adelaide this week that it could take up to four months to deliver vehicles with certain colours and options.

"Global demand for this is significant. We had over 4500 expressions of interest," he said, adding that VCA will take as much stock as it can get its hands on.

As it stands, Australian Volvo XC40 vehicles are sourced from Volvo's Belgian plant in Ghent, where other vehicles based on the XC40's CMA (Compact Modular Architecture) underpinnings — including from sister brands such as Lynk & Co — will also be manufactured.

But Bosnich didn't rule out the possibility of Australian XC40s being sourced from Volvo’s Chinese factories.

"Look, we don't know what will happen. We never say never to anything in the world. But for now the only plan is that they come from Europe."

Volvo's global design boss Robin Page said build quality would not be an issue for Chinese-made Volvos.

"What we're finding is that the quality of the cars are actually better in China than they are in Europe," he said.

"Everyone was worried about quality, but as soon as they started the quality was even higher on score than in Europe.

"To be honest, talk to manufacturing guys that put so much automation in the system, you don't have that manual adjust. It's within tolerance.

"The Chinese set themselves targets to get tighter on the tolerances and they spend the time doing fine adjustments. It's not a massive difference but if you do scores and averages China's pretty damn good.

"We're not so worried about that now."