Six new EVs by 2026 – and a design shift?

Volvo Cars has consistently stated it will launch a new electric vehicle annually for the next few years. Extending the EV range is central to ambitions of becoming an all-electric manufacturer by 2030 globally (2026 in Australia) and doubling output to 1.2 million cars by mid-decade.

But that plan may be accelerating. Reuters last month cited Volvo sources stating the carmaker intends to launch six new all-electric models by 2026. Reuters suggests the new EVs will follow Volvo’s “established, simple design cues”.

But other reports suggest there may be a significant aesthetic overhaul under incoming design chief, Jeremy Offer, who joins the carmaker in May from electric van startup Arrival.

Global CEO, Jim Rowan, acknowledged that Offer (pictured) is a leftfield choice. Though he has decades of industrial design experience, Offer has no track record at a major carmaker. But Rowan is equally unorthodox within automotive, taking the helm at Volvo Cars from Dyson, a company best known for making vacuum cleaners, and prior to that handset maker turned cyber security firm, Blackberry.

“You are absolutely right. It's not like we picked] a traditional automotive designer with 20, 30 years' experience," Rowan told [Automotive News Europe. "Quite frankly, we have so many people in our business who really understand automotive design, people with decades and decades of experience. What we want to bring in now is more of that industrial design."

The report states that Offer’s appointment likely signals a design shift, quoting unnamed company insiders who suggest differentiation between sister brand Polestar, now run by former Volvo design chief Thomas Ingenlath, is overdue.

Either way, Rowan is confident that the new models will lead to 100 per cent growth by mid-decade – or circa 1.2 million cars, up from 600,000 sold globally in 2022.

“We have forecast] a 1.2 million run rate by mid-decade. So what drives that? I think some of the narrative that is not picked up is that the new smaller SUV [set to launch later this year] will be [sold at] a lower price point than our current battery electric vehicle cars,” Rowan [last month told analysts that questioned whether Volvo can achieve its ambitious production targets.

“That will allow us to pick up a new demographic. It won't be in a major way cannibalistic to our existing sales. So that goes on top [of existing sales and production]. We have the [electric] C40 and the XC40 in play right now. We'll have the EX90 in play and we've said that we'll have one brand new, fully electric car release every year for the next three or four years,” per Rowan.

He said investments in production capacity already enable the carmaker to hit those targets, with plants now technically able to produce circa 100,000 cars per month.

“When we get to that mid-decade, we will have five or six fully electric cars, fully built on our new electric platforms all in play at the same time … When you add that together, then I think you have a very credible story towards getting to that 1.2 million run rate by mid-decade. And that's how those numbers add up.”