- Five new all-electric Volvos will launch this decade, built on SPA2 and next-generation SPA3 platforms.
- Volvo is building out "core compute" technology to advance the connectivity and ADAS systems.
- Tesla Model Y-rivaling EX60 electric SUV will debut the next-generation SPA3 platform. ES90 electric sedan will be unveiled soon.
At the Volvo Capital Markets Day presentation in Sweden today, the company made several new technology announcements, including a broader collaboration with Nvidia, a new in-house developed software stack, a brand new SPA3 platform and as many as five new electric cars that will launch worldwide by the end of the decade.
Volvo's EV growth has stalled in the U.S. unlike in Europe where it's taking off. Now it posits as a technology company that aims to master AI, electrification and safety. The company isn't racing against time to develop AI-based software but indicated it was doing it to achieve its goal of "zero collisions."
Five New EVs And Long-Range PHEV Coming This Decade
The newly launched EX90 electric SUV that InsideEVs recently reviewed will serve as a springboard for its next gen EVs.
Bear with me, because it can take a while to wrap your head around these alphanumeric names. Volvo said learnings from the EX90 will help it build the ES90 electric sedan, that is set for a March 2025 reveal.
Gallery: Volvo Capital Markets Day
The ES90 will ride on the same SPA2 architecture as the EX90. "It will be for global audiences, including the EU, U.S. and Asia. But China may be its biggest market,” Chief Product and Strategy Officer Erik Severinson said.
Overtime, learnings from the EX90 SUV and ES90 sedan will help Volvo develop the Tesla Model Y-rivaling EX60 mid-size electric SUV. The EX60 will be based on the next-generation SPA3 platform and feature Tesla-like mega castings plus Volvo's most advance software.
It will be followed by three more unnamed EVs, which will feature similar software and electrical architectures.
There's also a "long range PHEV" under development. After pushing back plans to go fully electric by 2030, Volvo said it would continue to improve PHEV tech after internal data showed its customers were using the electric-only mode nearly half the time.
SPA3 Platform
Volvo said the SPA3 platform will feature its third-generation electric motors, which will have 93% efficiency, up from 91% and 85% on previous motors. The average thermal efficiency of internal combustion engines is about 35%, Volvo said. To simply put, e-motors consume a lot less energy to go further.
The SPA3 platform will also feature structural battery packs—something Tesla did years ago—and they will be equipped with new high energy density cells. The scalability of this platform would allow Volvo to make cars that are larger than the EX90 and smaller than the EX30, at least in theory.
"Superset" Tech Stack
Among the biggest announcements today was what Volvo called its “Superset” tech stack. It's basically a standardized set of modules, software and hardware that all future Volvos will come equipped with.
“Like a set of building blocks, it can be configured in many different ways. Each of our new cars will be a selection, or a subset, of building blocks from the Superset tech stack and we will continuously improve and grow the tech stack,” the company said.
“The EX60 will be the next key volume driver for Volvo Cars. It will be the first car to be based on the SPA3 architecture, made in Gothenburg for global markets,” Severinson said. “Three more cars remain in active development and all five will feature our Superset tech stack."
Part of this technology platform is the Nvidia Drive Orin system on a chip (SoC) that the EX90 is equipped with. It is capable of 250 trillions of operations per second (TOPS). All of this helps cars improve their ADAS features and gather data for future autonomous driving capabilities.
Volvo said it was expanding its partnership with Nvidia to include the Drive Thor SoC on its future models. It didn’t say which car would feature that, but the EX60 seems like a possibility. Nvidia Drive Thor would be capable of a whopping 1,000 trillions of operations per second.
“By 2025, 50-60% of all global sales will be electrified. By 2030, we aim to be 90-100% electrified,” CEO Jim Rowan said. This includes plug-in hybrids and fully electric models. Although he admitted that he doesn’t expect the transition to be linear. Different markets will see varied phases of growth.
At a separate roundtable with reporters, Rowan doubled down on his commitment towards EVs. He said EVs were a no-brainer when it comes to efficiency. “At the end of the day, technology will win. Electric is the future.”
However, Volvo didn't say much about how it was planning to improve the driving range and charging experience of its EVs—two aspects that remain central to the EV transition. It sounded a lot like Tesla in being a tech-forward company, minus the shenanigans and the baggage, but certainly late to the EV transition compared to its American and Chinese rivals.
But above all, some really high-tech, fully electric and PHEV Volvos are coming this decade to the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world. That's great for the EV transition.
