CHARLESTON, SC—Volvo’s first U.S. manufacturing plant is now open for business.

The Charleston, South Carolina, facility joins two manufacturing plants and an engine plant in Europe, three car factories and an engine plant in China, and assembly plants in India and Malaysia that make Volvo’s expanding product lineup.

To celebrate the opening, Volvo, a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Ltd., debuted the 2019 Volvo S60. The sedan is built on the company’s Scalable Product Architecture platform, which also underpins the Volvo XC90. Both models will be produced at the Charleston plant for worldwide sales.

The Charleston plant establishes the US as our third home market,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars. “The sedan segment and the SPA platform’s proven ability to boost profitability offer significant growth opportunities for Volvo Cars in the US and globally.”

Volvo Cars is investing around $1.1 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations and will create around 4,000 new jobs at the Charleston site over the coming years. Approximately 1,500 staff will be employed by the end of this year.

The new Charleston facility includes an office building for up to 300 staff from R&D, purchasing, quality and sales. The plant can produce 150,000 cars per year at full capacity. The site occupies 1,600 acres and the building covers 2.3 million square feet. Construction on the facility began in 2015.