We’re soon rolling out a new over-the-air software update for our fully electric Volvos. The software package also contains a new, in-house developed in-car app: the Range Assistant. 

It's a simple three-letter abbreviation, but thanks to OTA – over-the-air – we've entered a brave new world in product development. For a long time, we could only update our cars at set times. Often we'd do it only twice a year: once in the spring and once in the fall. But thanks to connectivity and OTA, we can now continuously improve and update our cars.
Our next OTA update includes a new feature: the Range Assistant in-car app. It will come as a beta version in the latest OTA update and improvements will be made continuously.
The Range Assistant is designed for pure electric cars and helps drivers in two ways: it gives them insight into what factors affect the range and to what extent; and it gives feedback that can help optimise the range of their Volvo.
The Range Assistant was developed in-house, by a cross-functional team of UX designers, energy efficiency buffs from our Safe Vehicle Automation (SVA) team, infotainment software developers and climate experts. Because driving an electric car efficiently requires a different approach than a combustion engine car, the Range Assistant aims to help make that transition easier. That was an important starting point when designing the app.
&quot;In an electric car, speed makes a huge impact on how much range you have,&quot; says Anna Arasa Gaspar, a UX manager in our Design department. &quot;So we saw the need for an app that could give you info on what your range is right now, how much it can vary, and how much you can achieve by changing behaviour. We deliberately chose to include only those things that mostly affect range and that the user can affect. The weather is also a big factor and cold affects the battery – people can't change the weather, but the climate system can be adjusted.&quot;
For example, with the Range Assistant app drivers can choose to turn down the climate system through the range optimiser feature. Using less energy this way is a big factor in optimising range. The app also indicates to what extent the current speed and the driver's use of the throttle affects the range. Drivers can then tweak their throttle control and adjust their speed, and see the effect this has on the range.

Another exciting feature of the Range Assistant is that it was designed in-house. It's a great example of our ambition to develop 50 per cent of all software in our cars within our own quarters. That's a big difference compared to how things used to be, says Fredrik Hulth, product manager for our infotainment system within Connected Experience:
&quot;It's a big shift. Looking at the previous system, we had a Tier 1 supplier doing all the work for us. We were only specifying things and purchasing things. Our people were largely function owners, system responsibles and testers. Now we are mainly software developers. Every six or eight weeks we have a new update, and we're pushing those out to all cars we have produced. So existing customers can also benefit from those updates.&quot;
We develop features and apps much faster by doing things in-house instead of via suppliers. The Range Assistant took approximately six months to create, from idea to deployment.
&quot;It's very exciting to be able to influence, iterate and see immediate results,&quot; Fredrik says.
Testing and trying is the new name of the game, says Fredrik: &quot;One of our mottos is 'fail fast.' We can now immediately try out an idea, and if it doesn't work, we change it. There's an overall plan of course, but if things don't turn out the way we want, we can quickly change the plan. We have a lot more possibilities and freedom. Plus we can deploy new features and get immediate responses from the people using it.&quot;
Anna is equally pleased with the move towards in-house software development and OTA updates. &quot;It gives us the opportunity to evolve things and get feedback from users directly,&quot; she says, adding that it also helps meet some of the challenges around the initial roll-out of our Android-powered infotainment system.
&quot;We had this goal of where we wanted the car to be, but the Android project started from scratch and it was a bit tight when we delivered it the first time. The OTA updates enabled us to quickly provide new features that we were not able to deliver at the time of launch.&quot;
Fredrik sees another upside to the new way of working. &quot;For me, this is a much more fun workplace,&quot; he laughs. &quot;To be able to continuously evolve our products, for new and existing customers, it's very exciting.&quot;
And he’s not the only one who thinks so, he adds. &quot;We attracted a lot of new people in recent years. Before, developers were not that interested in working at Volvo. But now they are interested because they can really apply their skills here.&quot;

In-house software: new Range Assistant app for electric cars

We’ve reached an agreement with Geely to take full ownership of our Luqiao manufacturing plant in China – which means that in a few years, we’ll own all plants producing our cars.

Ever since the Luqiao, China plant was inaugurated in 2017, it's been owned by Geely, while we've been supporting on the operational side. We now have an agreement with our parent company and we'll take full ownership of the plant and its manufacturing capacity will be fully available to our Volvo Car Group.
A lot will stay the same after the agreement: the plant will continue to produce the XC40, the fully electric XC40 and the Polestar 2 models; and there'll be no changes in its operations. Changes that will happen include the transfer of all the plant's 2,600 employees, including manufacturing and supporting functions, from Geely Holding to Volvo Cars, as well as a name change.
To be in line with our naming convention for our other plants in China, the Luqiao plant will from now on be referred to as the Taizhou plant, reflecting the name of its home city instead of its home district. Apart from creating a clearer ownership structure within both our Group and Geely, this move boosts our position in China – which is our largest market.
&quot;The transfer of the Taizhou plant is a sound and logical move for both parties, as the plant is now fully dedicated to produce Volvo Car Group's cars,&quot; said Javier Varela, head of Engineering and Operations. &quot;It is symbolic that the plant that produced the first unit of our first fully electric car, the Polestar 2, will continue to help us grow in our aim to become a global leader in the premium electric car segment.&quot;
Together with Geely, we're always looking at how to improve collaboration and the operational structure within our wider group, and this agreement comes just after another similarly themed agreement during the past summer.

Oskar Falk, Plant Manager in Taizhou, said: &quot;After four successful years producing cars for Volvo, Polestar and Lynk &amp; Co, I'm looking forward to preparing the Taizhou plant for all our future programmes and challenges, now under Volvo Car Group's ownership. We are already well under way in the shift to 100 per cent electric cars, supporting Volvo Cars' long-term strategy.&quot;
In July, we agreed with Geely to acquire their stake in our joint ventures in China, which includes the manufacturing plants in Chengdu and Daqing. These transactions are expected to be formally completed in 2023.
With Taizhou now being added to our list of manufacturing plants – already consisting of Charleston, USA; Torslanda, Sweden; and Ghent, Belgium – it means that we'll own all plants producing our cars once the transfer of Chengdu and Daqing goes through.

We’re the new owners of the Luqiao plant

It's electric, leather free and turning heads – better still, the first customer-bound C40 rolls off the line today.

Our all-new C40 Recharge starts to realise its potential today as we begin to answer the order books and kick off production of our second fully electric Volvo model. This happy feat took place in our Ghent plant, one of our largest manufacturing facilities and a trailblazer in our move towards all-out electrification. Our colleagues there also produce XC40 Recharge, our first fully electric Volvo car.
And that’s not the end of it, because Ghent is busily expanding its capacity for producing fully electric cars. Within a year from now, the plant should be able to build 135,000 pure electric Volvo cars per year, representing more than half of the plant's existing production capacity.
&quot;The C40 Recharge represents our future,&quot; said Javier Varela, our head of Engineering and Operations. &quot;Our manufacturing operations and a close collaboration with our suppliers are key in achieving our future ambitions, in terms of electrification and climate neutrality. Our Ghent plant is ready for an all-electric future and will be an important part of our global industrial network for the years to come.&quot;

Our Ghent plant also had a special visitor today to celebrate the occasion: the Belgian prime minster, Alexander de Croo, attended the festivities and drove the first C40 Recharge car off the production line as a large delegation of local media representatives looked on.
&quot;Electric cars are the future,&quot; Mr. De Croo said. &quot;The production of this new model and the assembly of batteries at Volvo Car Ghent are good for the climate and demonstrate that Belgium is at the forefront of new technology. It's also good news for employment. A new model means a lot of new jobs, showing that the shift to a green and sustainable economy can bring a lot of gains.&quot;
The C40 Recharge is the latest in a series of new pure electric cars that we will launch in the coming years. By 2030, we aim to sell only fully electric cars. It’s one of the most ambitious electrification strategies in the car industry. We’re also aiming to be a climate neutral company by 2040.

C40 Recharge now on the street

As we’re rapidly moving towards becoming a fully electric car company, we’re bringing both development and production of batteries closer to home. 

On our road towards full electrification, we focus on integrating every step throughout the entire battery supply chain into our own operations to make it as smart and efficient as possible. This involves the in-house design, development and production of batteries, e-motors and relevant software, and collaborating with strategic partners where it makes sense.
We have ambitious plans for our next generation of fully electric cars, and we want our future batteries to be tailored to the needs of our customers, having longer range and faster charging times.
To get going, we’ll improve the lithium-ion battery technology on our upcoming second generation of electric cars, starting with our first SUV built from the ground up as an electric-only car.
In June, we announced a planned collaboration with leading Swedish battery company Northvolt to develop and produce sustainable batteries. In the near future, we plan to work with Northvolt to increase the energy density (meaning the amount of energy a battery contains in comparison to its volume/mass) in our batteries by 50 per cent.
By the mid-2020s, we expect to introduce our third generation of electric cars, where we look to both increase range and integrate the battery pack into the floor of the car – the latter will not only save space but improve efficiency as well.
Around the same time, current charging times are expected to be cut almost in half, thanks to better battery technology and continuous improvements to software and fast-charging technology. And to round off our plans for the 2020s, we want to achieve 1,000 kilometres of real driving range later this decade.
“We want to constantly increase the customer benefits of driving a pure electric Volvo car,” said Henrik Green, chief technology officer. “By simplifying the design and integration of our battery cells, we can reduce weight and maximise space, allowing for considerable improvements in battery capacity, range and charging times.”

While we’ll increase the battery energy in our cars over the coming decade, we’ll also work to continuously reduce the carbon impact of our batteries. In our planned collaboration with Northvolt, we aim to produce battery cells using 100 per cent renewable energy, and we’re working with our other battery suppliers to do the same by 2025.
Reducing the carbon impact of batteries also includes making better use of the valuable material contained in them. Whenever we can, we want to remanufacture or reuse batteries, and we’re also investigating potential second-life applications, such as energy storage.
Where possible, batteries that have reached the end of their lifespan will be recycled at authorised recyclers that are able to offer closed loop recycling of critical materials for use in future batteries. We’ll also continue to zero in on the responsible sourcing of batteries by working more closely with our partners and suppliers, as well as through a wider use of blockchain technology.

Starting with the successor to the XC90, we’ll offer bi-directional charging, allowing customers to offload surplus electricity in their car battery to the power grid. This means electric Volvo drivers can provide energy to the grid when prices and CO2 emissions related to electricity production are at their daily peak, while charging their car when emissions fall.
“We want to offer our customers sustainable pure electric cars that make their lives easier and more enjoyable,” said Henrik Green, chief technology officer. “Through smart innovation and collaboration with key partners, we can give customers what they want – more range, faster charging and lower costs – and further boost widespread adoption of electric mobility.”
Please note: Described features might be optional and the exact customer offer may vary from one country to another, or not (yet) be available in all markets. Contact your local market representative for more detail.

Better range and charging for next-gen electric Volvos

We’re expanding our popular fully electric XC40 Recharge line-up with a new, single electric motor variant. 

Our ambition is to sell only fully electric cars by 2030, so one of our focus areas is to help more people make the switch to battery power. We want a snowball effect: the more people feel comfortable driving (and can afford) a fully electric car, the faster the market share will grow. Then there’s a boost to charging infrastructure and electric car sales. You get the gist.
To support that ambition, we’re expanding our all-electric XC40 Recharge line-up. The all-wheel drive XC40 Recharge Twin has been a big success. Now we’re adding a variant that has only one electric motor, powering the front wheels.
So what do you get in the front-wheel drive XC40 Recharge? The powertrain is responsive and powerful, delivering 231hp from a 69kWh battery. The anticipated range is around 400km on a single charge under the WLTP drive cycle (preliminary figures). The battery can charge from 10 to 80 per cent of capacity in around 32 minutes on a fast-charging system.
“With the addition of a single-motor XC40 Recharge, we broaden the appeal of our fully electric line-up,” said Henrik Green, our chief technology officer. “Customers can now choose between two distinct variants of XC40 Recharge, as well as the recently launched Volvo C40 Recharge.”

We’re expecting a big response. Especially in the EMEA region, where Recharge cars account for almost half of our sales, the new single-motor XC40 Recharge can make some waves.
“We’re committed to being leaders in the premium electric car market,” said Arek Nowinski, our head of EMEA. “In EMEA we’ve set ourselves the ambition that by 2025, two-thirds of sales should come from pure electric cars. The all new single-motor XC40 Recharge will play a crucial role towards meeting that high ambition as it allows us to enter a new segment at a competitive price point.”
As we introduce the single-motor XC40 Recharge, we also make some changes and updates to the XC40 Recharge Twin. Both variants of the XC40 Recharge have undergone a variety of changes to the software and drivetrain since the initial introduction last year, improving efficiency and range. These changes will also be rolled out to existing XC40 Recharge customers via over-the-air updates.
The new, single-motor XC40 Recharge will go on sale in the coming weeks and, will first be introduced in Netherlands, Norway, UK, Sweden and Germany.

Both XC40 Recharge variants come with a Care offer and, in selected markets, Recharge tyres. The Care offer includes items such as service, warranty, roadside assistance, as well as insurance and home charging options where available. This makes it more attractive to get an electric car and provides convenience, regardless of whether you subscribe, lease, or pay cash. Customers can check with local retailers for availability.
Recharge tyres come as standard in Northern and Central European markets. A single set of tyres removes the bi-annual hassle of tyre changes and reduces CO2 emissions compared to winter tyres – and Recharge tyres are capable of safely handling a wider range of weather and road conditions than summer or winter tyres.

More battery power to the people

Our next generation of cars should be the safest cars we’ve ever made and will introduce our first fully autonomous feature. One key element to make that happen are standard LiDAR sensors and a powerful AD supercomputer.

One phrase you’ve heard a lot in recent times is that sustainability is as important as safety for Volvo. Obviously, that means we care a lot about our environment, but it also implies that we won’t forget about our safety credentials either when developing our next generation of cars. In fact, we aim to set a new benchmark for automotive safety.
How we do that, you wonder? Starting with the fully electric successor to our XC90 flagship, which will be revealed in 2022, our future cars will come with state-of-the-art sensors, including LiDAR technology and an autonomous driving (AD) computer, as standard.
These features are developed by two of our technology partners in California. Those LiDAR sensors come courtesy of our friends at Luminar, while the big brains at NVIDIA provides us with their NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip technology to power that AD computer.
LiDAR is an ideal basis for safe decision-making in complex environments at high speeds, as it’s a type of laser-based technology that measures distances to targets hundreds of metres ahead. The super computing technology from NVIDIA can make A LOT of calculations per second, making sure that our cars can process the numerous, constant inputs from the LiDAR and other sensors.
Merge all that shiny hardware with software made by our in-house developers, our sister company Zenseact and Luminar, as well as the next generation of our collision avoidance technology, and you have a world-beating combination.
We anticipate that this new safety package will reduce fatalities and accidents as a whole. In fact, by applying over-the-air software updates we can roll out new technologies and further improve our safety package over time.
“Volvo Cars is and always has been a leader in safety. We’ll now define the next level of car safety,” says Håkan Samuelsson, our chief executive. “By having this hardware as standard, we can continuously improve safety features over the air and introduce advanced autonomous drive systems, reinforcing our leadership in safety.”

Once these technologies are on our cars, we expect them to get better over time. The car will become increasingly capable to support the driver in safety critical situations and even intervene when absolutely needed. All this takes us ever closer to our vision of a zero-collision future. 
&ldquo;In our ambition to deliver ever safer cars, our long-term aim is to achieve zero collisions and avoid crashes altogether,&rdquo; explains Henrik Green, our chief technology officer. &ldquo;As we improve our safety technology continuously through updates over the air, we expect collisions to become increasingly rare and hope to save more lives.&rdquo; 
Apart from those high-end sensors and AD computer, the pure electric successor to the XC90 will also come with back-up systems for key functions such as steering and braking. These make the car hardware-ready for safe, unsupervised autonomous driving once available. 
Our first (optional) autonomous driving feature is called Highway Pilot and has been developed in-house together with our AD software development company Zenseact. On roads and locations that are verified to be safe for driving in autonomous mode, you will be able to lean back and allow the car to take care of all the driving.
Our new safety technology package is a good illustration of our overall approach to technology development. Rather than trying to do everything ourselves, we team up with the best companies in their respective fields to try and build the best cars we can make. It also gives us a technology base that allows us to be one of the fastest-moving car makers in a rapidly transforming industry. 
See all the content from our recent <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.volvocars.com/intl/v/innovation/tech-moment" target="_blank">Tech Moment</a>, that explains how we&rsquo;ll achieve our all-electric future.

A new safety standard comes to the next generation of Volvos

Our next generation of cars should be the safest cars we’ve ever made and will introduce our first fully autonomous feature.

If we are to become a fully electric car maker, we’re going to need a lot of high-quality batteries. Which is why we’re now teaming up with fellow Swedish innovators Northvolt.

By now you all know this: we are heading full speed towards an all-electric future. By 2025, half of our global sales volume will be fully electric Volvos, and by 2030 we aim to offer only pure electric cars to our customers. One crucial component we need to reach those ambitions? Battery cells – which is why today's announcement is so important for our future.
We're teaming up with Northvolt, a leading battery firm from Sweden, to develop and produce high-quality sustainable batteries for the next generation of pure electric Volvo and Polestar cars. An all-Swedish battery powerhouse, if you will, with collaboration that contains several elements.
For example, as part of the plans we'll establish a 50/50 joint venture company, which will include an R&amp;D centre in Sweden that is scheduled to kick off operations next year. Here, we intend to develop state-of-the-art battery cells and related technologies, to make sure that the battery technology is tailor-made and can be seamlessly integrated into those shiny new Volvos and Polestars.

&quot;Developing the next generation of battery cell technology in-house, together with Northvolt, allows us to design batteries specifically for Volvo and Polestar drivers,&quot; explains Henrik Green, our chief technology officer. &quot;With cells developed in-house for our electric cars we can focus on giving Volvo and Polestar customers what they want, such as range and short charging times.&quot;
But that's not all. Together with Northvolt, we also look to establish a new, Europe-based gigafactory with a potential production capacity of 50 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year. We've yet to determine where exactly this plant will be based, but production is scheduled to start in 2026 and the plant will employ around 3,000 people. Even better: it is planned to be powered 100 per cent by clean energy!
Finally, our collaboration with Northvolt also means that from 2024, Volvo Car Group will source 15 GWh of battery cells per year from the existing Northvolt Ett battery plant in Skellefteå, Sweden. Alongside previously announced battery supply agreements, that means we've now secured the European battery cell needs that will drive our ambitious electrification plans.

&quot;By working with Northvolt we secure a supply of the highest quality, sustainable battery cells for our pure electric cars,&quot; said Håkan Samuelsson, our chief executive. &quot;Working closely with Northvolt also allows us to strengthen our in-house development capabilities.&quot;
Our partnership with Northvolt also supports our wider sustainability ambitions as a company. Today, the production of batteries for our fully electric cars represents a large part of the total lifecycle carbon emissions of those cars. By working with Northvolt and producing batteries near our car manufacturing plants in Europe, we can reduce the environmental footprint related to battery sourcing and production.
See all the content from our recent Tech Moment, that explains how we’ll achieve our all-electric future.

Batteries of the future

As Torslanda, Sweden becomes our first climate neutral car plant, meet the woman in charge of the team coordinating our efforts to have climate neutral manufacturing by 2025.

It’s a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to reduce our carbon footprint: today, our car plant in Torslanda, Sweden has officially become fully climate neutral. Torslanda is the first of our car plants to reach this status and it’s the latest important step towards our ambition to have climate neutral manufacturing around the globe by 2025.
The woman in charge of the team coordinating that effort is Annika Fredgren. A chemical engineer by education, Annika’s been working on sustainability issues around our manufacturing operations for a long time. It’s a proud day.
“It’s a big step,” Annika says with a smile. “It does take quite a lot of effort to get to this point for our biggest plant. It was really good when we managed this with our engine factory in Skövde, Sweden a few years ago, but reaching this milestone with a car plant is a really big moment.”
Even though there are no externally established definitions, we regard a manufacturing plant as climate neutral when there’s no net increase in the emission of greenhouse gases due to the energy and heating used by the plant. That means our 2025 target hinges on the availability of CO2-neutral heating and electricity, which isn’t a given everywhere we operate.

“There’s an increasing availability of climate neutral electricity,” Annika explains, noting that this helped some of our Chinese plants to switch to zero-net-emission power. “But with heating, we may need technical solutions that are less easy to put in place. For example, in Torslanda we now switched to biogas for the remaining heating that wasn’t yet waste heating. That option is not available in China today, so there we need to find other solutions.”
450 Swedish villas
Targeted improvements to our Torslanda operations during 2020 resulted in annualised energy savings of almost 7,000 megawatt-hours (MWh). That’s the same amount of energy used every year by over 450 Swedish family villas. In coming years, we’re planning further efficiency upgrades to Torslanda which should save another 20,000 MWh by 2023.
Now the focus of Annika and her team switches to our other car plants.
“Quite a few of our plants already have climate neutral electricity, so we’re now looking into doing that everywhere,” Annika says.
After that the next big challenge is heating.
“Our challenges will mainly be around the availability of other energy sources and technical solutions for heating the paint shops. Waste heat is a big thing in Belgium and Sweden, but there’s still limited availability in other countries.”

Ah yes, waste heat. It’s something of a contentious source of heating because, as Annika points out, not all waste heat is climate neutral and definitions vary. But Annika says the focus is on moving forward.
“We make our evaluations and look into what we think is good. We could be challenged by others, but we need to take a position. I think that whatever we call it, the important thing is that we improve all the time by moving to better solutions and keep moving forward.”

The road to climate neutral manufacturing

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