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Volvo’s Monterrey Plant Builds First Batch of Test Vehicles
Production Lines Expected to Start Rolling in July
Key Takeaways:
- Volvo Group disclosed June 10 it has built initial test trucks at its Monterrey, Mexico, plant during its 2026 Capital Markets Day presentation.
- The $700 million, 1.7 million-square-foot plant expands North American production capacity and supports growth targets, including a 25% heavy-duty market share by 2030.
- Production is set to begin in July at low initial volumes, with output allocated across North and Latin America to boost flexibility and Mack’s export expansion.
A first batch of test vehicles has been built at Volvo Group’s Monterrey manufacturing plant in Mexico, the parent company of Volvo Trucks North America and Mack Trucks disclosed June 10.
Volvo Group provided the progress update during its 2026 Capital Markets Day, which included presentations by CEO Martin Lundstedt, Volvo Trucks President Roger Alm and Stephen Roy, Volvo Group’s head of North American truck operations.
The Monterrey facility — Volvo Group’s first truck manufacturing plant in Mexico — is set to build trucks for both VTNA and Mack, adding to the output of existing production sites in the U.S.
Volvo Group unveiled plans for a 1.7 million-square-foot plant in April 2024. The company said the following August that the $700 million facility would be located in Monterrey. Volvo Group is the last major North American truck manufacturer to begin building vehicles in Mexico, where it already builds buses.
In March, VTNA President Peter Voorhoeve told Transport Topics that production lines in Monterrey would begin rolling in July.
Initial Monterrey volume will be “very low,” Voorhoeve told TT during an interview at VTNA’s flagship New River Valley manufacturing site in Dublin, Va. Current U.S. and Canadian market demand does not require Monterrey production to ramp up quickly, the executive said.
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Voorhoeve. (Volvo Trucks North America)
VTNA’s share of the Monterrey plant’s output will be exported to the U.S. and Canada. Mack’s share will supply the Mexican and Latin American markets, as well as the U.S. and Canada.
VTNA currently has two U.S. manufacturing plants: New River Valley and a drivetrain plant in Hagerstown, Md., shared with Mack. Mack’s main U.S. production facility is the Lehigh Valley Operations plant in Macungie, Pa.
Volvo Group expects the Monterrey plant to offer flexibility to meet the divisions’ needs during freight market peaks, something its existing capacity is unable to do.
The expansion will also support plans to double Mack’s export business in Central America, South America and the Caribbean, according to the presentation.
Volvo Group added that Mack will focus on three key markets: Mexico, Chile and Colombia.
“These are really good, mature markets where you have strong fleets that are investing heavily in new technologies, sustainable technologies,” Roy told analysts and investors attending the 2026 Capital Markets Day.
Brian Antonellis of Fleet Advantage discusses how fleet leaders should be thinking about capital planning with the 2027 NOx emissions rules on the horizon. Tune in above or by going to RoadSigns.ttnews.com.
Roy, who will be replaced by Wilson Lirmann in August, added: “This is an area that we’re really excited to return to. We used to have a very strong presence when it came to the export market. We’ve selected about 18 countries that we’re really focused on.”
In addition, the output of the Monterrey facility will support Volvo Group’s plans to win a 25% share of the North American heavy-duty truck market by 2030, which the parent company revealed at its last Capital Markets Day in Dublin in November 2024. VTNA is expected to contribute 15% of that total and Mack 10%.
VTNA captured a 9.1% share of U.S. Class 8 retail sales in 2025, while Mack held an 8.7% share, according to Omdia Automotive.
But competitors in the North American Class 8 market are already ramping up manufacturing output as prospects improve for the freight market and, therefore, truck sales.
Daimler Truck North America’s Freightliner unit, International Motors and Paccar’s Kenworth division produced a combined 13,878 trucks in Mexico in May, accounting for 95.4% of all commercial vehicles built in the country that month, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography. The three truck makers’ Mexican plants produced a combined 11,755 vehicles in April.
North American Class 8 truck orders jumped 103% year over year in May to 26,500 trucks, according to preliminary ACT Research data, after soaring 201% in April.
