Volvo EX60, ES90 Will Be Among Five New EVs Built On Next-Gen Platforms

Volvo Capital Markets Day4

Volvo claims its the only European car company to have successfully harnessed “core compute” technology.

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.

The announcements sounded a lot like what Tesla has been doing for years, but minus the baggage and shenanigans, but still seemingly a few years late to the party compared to its American and Chinese rivals. Still, the company said it wasn't racing against time to develop its AI and software but was committed to doing it the right way—no matter how long it takes—to help it achieve its goal of "zero collisions."

Five New EVs This Decade

The newly launched EX90 electric SUV that InsideEVs recently reviewed will serve as a springboard for the company’s next gen EVs.

Volvo said its learnings from the EX90 will help it build the ES90 electric sedan that’s set to be unveil in a few months. “It is our first low electric car that's in a class of its own," Volvo’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer Erik Severinson said during the Capital Markets Day presentation.

The ES90 will ride on the same SPA2 architecture as the EX90, but "it will be for global audiences, including the EU, U.S. and Asia. But China may be its biggest market,” Severinson said.

Overtime, learnings from the EX90 SUV and ES90 sedan will help Volvo develop the mass market EX60 mid-size electric SUV. The EX60 will be based on the next-generation SPA3 platform. It will be followed by three more unnamed EVs, which will feature similar software and electrical architectures.

There's also a "long range PHEV" that's under development, but it wasn't immediately clear if it was part of the five EVs that are planned for this decade.

SPA3 Platform

Volvo said the SPA3 platform will feature Volvo's third generation electric motors. The current SPA2 platform motors have a 91% efficiency. SPA3 motors will be 93% efficient, Volvo said. Some of Volvo's older e-motors were 85% efficient. For perspective, the average thermal efficiency of internal combustion engines is about 35%.

It will also feature structural battery packs—something Tesla did years ago—and they will be equipped with new high energy density cells. Interestingly, Volvo said the scalability of this platform would allow it to make cars that are larger than the EX90 and smaller than the EX30.

"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, meaning the same modules, hardware, software, and platform.”

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. We are committed to EVs. Electric is the future.”

However, it was a shame that 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. 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 and that's a great thing for the EV transition.

More Volvo News

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• Volvo ES90 Teased: Range Topping Electric Sedan Coming Soon
• 2025 Volvo XC90 PHEV Has Sharper Looks, New Tech
• Next-Gen Volvo Electric Semi Truck To Deliver Up To 373 Miles Of Range