Volvo Cars has announced that its Taizhou factory in China has become carbon neutral after switching to natural gas, which has allowed for a reduction of over 7000 tons of CO2 per year.
This is the company’s second factory to become climate neutral, following the Torslanda plant in Sweden taking that step in 2021.
The Swedish brand mentioned that unlike the other Volvo Cars factories worldwide, the Taizhou factory was already using climate neutral electricity, and the newly announced measure ensures that it also has neutral heating.
This facility generates about 40% of its electricity needs from on-site solar panels – a percentage that is expected to increase in the coming years. The remaining 60%, sourced from the grid, is also climate neutral solar electricity.
As heating needs are now met through the use of climate-neutral biogas. “The switch to natural gas at our Taizhou factory demonstrates how each of our production sites around the world is developing its own climate-neutral energy mix, based on what is available in the region,” highlighted in a statement, Javier Varela, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO of Volvo Cars.
It is worth noting that Volvo aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2040.
