Waymo and Volvo this week announced an exclusive partnership to build a new self-driving electric vehicle for use in a ride-hailing service. Few details were provided other than the goal of working together to develop a Level 4 vehicle capable of autonomy in a wide range of locations and road conditions.
Volvo is looking more like a serious contender for EV leadership. Its executives are taking the right stance on legislation, battery supply, and a swift transition to electric cars. And a new video walkaround of the XC40 Recharge, its first of many EVs, reveals a highly capable and handsome electric crossover.
Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson said that the coronavirus will accelerate the pace of change in the auto industry. He said the shift to EVs will be among the major changes that occur due to the pandemic.
The electric Volvo XC40 Recharge crossover goes on sale in the US later this year. Now we’re learning that the all-electric Volvo XC100, a full-size SUV, will follow – although perhaps not until late 2023.
The Volvo brand is all about safety. Today the company announced that it will equip its next-generation vehicles with lidar, an expensive sensor that has almost entirely been reserved for fleet-based robotaxis — not passenger cars. Tesla rejected lidar entirely. But Volvo believes lidar’s robust capabilities can be applied to millions of vehicles for hands-off highway driving.
The economic downturn due to the pandemic is causing automakers to delay launches and slash R&D projects. Volvo’s CEO Hakan Samuelsson said that his company, like others, is searching for where to cut budgets. But expenses related to the company’s efforts on EVs, as well as self-driving tech, will not be touched.
Donald Trump last week gutted fuel economy standards, a direct attack on electric vehicles. The move further separates federal emissions standards from California’s strong zero-emission rules. Thank goodness, BMW, Ford, Honda, and Volkswagen sided with California by striking individual deals with the state for higher efficiency. Now Volvo joins those four automakers by directly negotiating with California about emissions.
Volvo last week formally inaugurated a brand-new EV battery assembly line at its Belgian manufacturing plant in Ghent. That’s where it will start building the XC40 Recharge, its first pure electric car, later this year.
After weeks of teasing, Volvo has now unveiled the all-electric version of its XC40 SUV, the Volvo XC40 Recharge.
The electric SUV is equipped with a dual-motor powertrain, a range of ‘over 250 miles (400 km)’, and more.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Ahead of the launch of the electric version of the XC40 later today, Volvo announced the launch of its new “Recharge” brand for its electric vehicles and a plan to reduce emissions across the board.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Volvo has been gradually unveiling details about its new electric XC40 ahead of the unveiling next week, and today, the automaker unveils its infotainment system, which is powered by Google’s Android.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Volvo has confirmed the Polestar 2 price in Europe for their upcoming Tesla Model 3 competitor. The markets announced were Norway, Sweden, Germany, UK, Netherlands and Belgium.
Pricing in each market hovered around €59k Euro or equivalent. Norway gets a better deal with a price of 469k NOK, which converts to €46k, as does the UK, at £49.9k which converts to €56k.
Volvo is launching an all-electric version of the XC40 later this month, and it started teasing the vehicle last week, starting with safety. Now the automaker is showing some design images of the XC40 electric, and confirms some features like a frunk and more.
Expand
Expanding
Close
The Volvo XC40 SUV has become the Swedish automaker’s second best-selling vehicle and now they are bringing an all-electric version of the XC40 next month.
Volvo started teasing ahead of a launch next month.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Volvo Group and Samsung SDI have entered a new strategic alliance that focuses on the development and supply of batteries for Volvo’s electric trucks.
Volvo, both through Polestar and its own brand, plans to bring several new all-electric vehicles to market and in order to do that, it needs significant battery supply.
The automaker now says that it has secured ‘multi-billion dollar battery supply deals’ with CATL and LG Chem.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Electric car maker Polestar will qualify for the $7,500 federal tax credit, and the company says it will do so separately from parent company Volvo. This would ensure both Polestar and Volvo could both sell 200,000 EVs before the credit begins to phase out. Let’s see how this works…
Volvo’s all-electric XC40 compact SUV will debut later this year, and should be on the road by 2020, according to a new report.
The Volvo Group announced that it is investing in Momentum Dynamics, “a Philadelphia-based company developing and commercializing high power inductive charging for the automotive and transportation industries, especially suitable for commercial electric, autonomous and connected vehicles.”
Expand
Expanding
Close
Volvo is dipping its toes into electric vehicle infrastructure with an investment in FreeWire, a manufacturer of mobile rapid charging systems for electric vehicles. The investment comes as Volvo ramps up its electrification effort.
Expand
Expanding
Close
The Tesla Model 3 is having a major impact on the automotive market. Some established automakers are taking it very seriously and getting their hands on the vehicle for benchmarking and reverse-engineering.
Volvo is apparently adding itself to the list as it was spotted with a Model 3 in Sweden.
Expand
Expanding
Close
China’s protectionist laws are currently being relaxed when it comes to electric vehicles, but there are still some rigorous restrictions. For example, Chinese electric vehicles need to be powered by Chinese batteries.
A new report now shows that Geely found a workaround for Volvo’s electric vehicles by using Korean batteries made in China and the competition isn’t happy about it.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Last year, Volvo announced that it was going “all electric“ by 2019, but it was actually only adding electric motors to each model.
Now, the company is clarifying its electrification plans with an announcement that they aim for 50% of sales to be ‘fully electric’ by 2025.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Volvo’s recently unveiled Polestar 1 plug-in hybrid just got one step closer to reality, as they started taking pre-orders today and posted an online configurator allowing interested customers to check out the various color and wheel options available on the car.
We don’t yet know much about the buying process, as Volvo recently said cars from the Polestar brand would primarily be available as a “subscription service” (similar to a lease). When pressed, Volvo stated that the Polestar 1 would target a price of “130-150,000 Euros” ($160k-$185k).
The deposit is $2,500/€2,500/20,000RMB and is fully refundable. Pre-orders are available in 18 countries: China, United States, Sweden, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Portugal, Poland, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada.