Halifax-Dartmouth and Bayer's Lake Operations
The Halifax plant was unlike any other assembly plant Volvo was operating at the time. This was mainly due to the plants' trademark team system that assembled the entire vehicle at one station, which was extensively used later at Volvo Torslanda Assembly and then Volvo Kalmar Assembly. In 1966, annual production totaled over 3,700 cars. Volvo 122 S, 123 GT and 122 B18s were assembled in Halifax initially, the Volvo PV544 was introduced a year later. Halifax built 123 GT models like the 122 S were rebadged as "Canadian GT"s. Units produced at the plant typically came without auxiliary lights and had only one side view mirror, but came with a limited-slip differential and hazard flashers. Halifax built Canadian GTs were available in colours such as light green (91), light blue (95), and dark blue (96) and are often seen with identification codes 5145 or 5324. For three years the plant operated out of a harbourfront facility (an old sugar processing plant) located on Halifax Harbour's Eastern Passage.
In 1967, the plant was moved to a newer 30,000-square-foot (2,787 m2) facility in Clayton Park, Nova Scotia (Bayer’s Lake) which enabled production to exceed 8,000 cars per year. Cars were shipped from Sweden in CKD form, then assembled at the facility. Production on average at the Dartmouth Plant was about 15 cars per day. At the new facility, production increased to over 36 cars a day. And, in 1974, production at the plant increased to more than 12,000 vehicles a year. In 1993, the plant celebrated its 30th anniversary. To mark the occasion 940s built at the facility were affixed with a special roundel affixed to the rear quarter window.
While the plant was very successful, on September 9, 1998 Volvo decided to close the Halifax plant and end its 225 jobs, citing globalization and NAFTA as two of the reasons. The last Volvo was built in Canada on 18 December 1998. The Bayer's Lake plant building at 115 Chain Lake Drive still stands.
Read more about this topic: Volvo Halifax Assembly
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