STOCKHOLM — A key to serving to Volvo Vehicles’ EVs obtain value parity with comparable combustion-powered fashions shall be an reasonably priced small SUV the automaker plans to disclose in 2023.
Volvo confirmed a teaser picture of the car on the finish of its introduction of the brand new EX90 flagship electrical massive SUV right here Wednesday.
The EV shall be a “metropolis automotive geared toward a youthful demographic who can subscribe to it and make it their first Volvo,” CEO Jim Rowan informed Automotive Information Europe.
“If we are able to get them in as first-time Volvo house owners then we are able to attempt to keep them as clients” as they marry and begin households and require larger autos, such because the EX90, Rowan mentioned. However the flagship SUV just isn’t an possibility for first-time automotive house owners with beginning costs within the 100,000-euro vary.
In Europe, Volvo sibling model Lynk & CO sells its 01 plug-in hybrid, which is a by-product of the Volvo XC40, through a subscription plan that prices 550 euros a month in Germany.
Volvo’s subsequent EV can also be poised to be a key contributor to the automaker reaching a aim of promoting 600,000 battery-powered autos by 2025, up from about 40,500 via 10 months of this 12 months.
Volvo has had current success shifting into decrease segments. The XC40 grew to become its No. 2-seller globally in 2019, two years after its debut, offering the model with the enhance it wanted to succeed in its highest world gross sales whole ever that 12 months at 705,452. In the present day, the XC40 accounts for 26 p.c of the model’s worldwide quantity.
Volvo beforehand introduced plans for the small SUV, which is able to slot in under its XC40 compact SUV and C40 compact crossover, that it mentioned would share the Sustainable Expertise Structure (SEA) that the Swedish automaker helped mum or dad Zhejiang Geely Holding develop.
Good’s #1, the primary automotive from the model’s new standing as an electric-only three way partnership between Geely and Mercedes-Benz, is on monitor to hitch Europe’s nascent small premium crossover section in early 2023. The one different mannequin within the area of interest is the DS 3 E-Tense.
The #1 marks the primary look of Geely’s SEA electrical car structure in Europe. The scalable platform could be tailored for practically each section measurement. Finally, it should underpin autos from six or seven Geely manufacturers, the automaker says.
The #1 is in-built Good’s manufacturing facility in Xi’an, China, and shall be exported to Europe.
Together with the cash it should save by sharing a platform, Volvo has indicated that it’s taking a look at cheaper battery chemistries than the lithium ion used within the EX90, naming lithium iron phosphate (LFP) as a candidate.
Rowan mentioned different components that ought to assist convey down EV prices are improved power density, sooner charging speeds “and the addition of LFP on sure automobiles.” He declined to say whether or not that would come with the small SUV.
Volvo cell supplier CATL has already had success making LFP packs extra reasonably priced.
A current teardown of the Chinese language firm’s LFP pack utilized in Shanghai-built variations of the Tesla Mannequin 3 overseen by analysts from UBS financial institution revealed that CATL’s resolution was the worldwide chief in affordability at $131 per kilowatt hour.
Volvo mentioned throughout its Capital Markets Day shows in Stockholm on Thursday that it goals to have its battery pack prices right down to lower than $100 per kWh by 2025-26.
“We have to get value parity between BEV (battery-electric car) and ICE (inside combustion engines) as shortly as potential,” Rowan mentioned. “We expect we’ll get there by mid-decade, round 2025.”
The small SUV, which was initially dubbed the XC20, is now broadly anticipated to be referred to as the EX30. That is in step with a nomenclature change that coincided with the EX90’s arrival, with the E being for electrical and the X for crossover.
Whereas Rowan stopped in need of committing to utilizing EX sooner or later, he mentioned the brand new title did very effectively when Volvo examined it with clients. He mentioned the mix of letters was instantly comprehensible to them.
“It is fairly easy,” he mentioned, including that it helps that Volvo has spent many years getting individuals acquainted with XC for cross nation. “They get that it is an electrical cross nation.”
He mentioned that one of many issues he favored about Volvo when he joined the corporate was the simplicity of the nomenclature, as a result of “a variety of firms can get {that a} bit combined up.”
The small SUV will be a part of Volvo’s first EV, the battery-powered model of the XC40, the C40 compact crossover and the EX90. Volvo plans to proceed its annual debut of a brand new EV for the subsequent 4 to 5 years, Rowan mentioned.