Volvo is trying to put its electric car’s stumbles in the rearview

Volvo once aspired to this Complete exit from the gas car business. It is now trying to maintain its fragile foothold in the electric car market.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Volvo’s electric vehicle journey has been bumpy. The compact EX40 model has always been a winner, but the Swedish brand’s other electric cars have had problems. It was supposed to be the EX90 A bold statement for the futurebut Constant programming errors Volvo was forced to replace expensive hardware. The small EX30 fared no better, as tariffs changed the launch of the brand’s first affordable mass-market electric car, Which eventually led to its discontinuation in the United States.

But now with EX60 compact SUVVolvo is hoping to get its EV groove back. Volvo’s top executives gathered in New York City this week to mark the U.S. debut of the new compact SUV and to celebrate the opening of customer deliveries later this summer. Starting at $59,795, the next-generation EX60 will be more expensive than the regular gas-powered XC60 crossover, which recently became Volvo’s best-selling model ever. But it will be less expensive than the XC60 Hybrid, which is saying a lot given the popularity of hybrids these days.

But the EX60 will arrive in what is arguably the most hostile environment for EVs since its inception, thanks to the elimination of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, policy changes, and tariffs that make vehicles of all types more expensive. As EV sales grow globally, the US market is clearly stagnating. But Volvo believes the EX60’s impressive attributes — 400 miles of range, 10-80 percent fast charging in 18 minutes, and a steady stream of OTA software updates — will be enough to weather the headwinds.

“Is this the right time to introduce an electric car with everything you hear on the market?” Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson said. “I would say yes, because we believe this car will not become electric with subsidies or incentives. It will be electric… because we can offer something better to consumers.”

However, Volvo’s previous plans are aimed at just that Phasing out the sale of gas consumables He is Still evolving. Slowing demand for electric vehicles and concerns about charging infrastructure have some manufacturers reconsidering how quickly to transition away from gas-powered vehicles. Volvo had previously said it would stop selling vehicles with internal combustion engines by 2030, but does not now have a firm date. The automaker also said it would expand its range to include… Plug-in hybrids and long-range electric vehiclesechoing a position across the industry.

The EX60 represents a new beginning. Volvo started with a clean slate, deliberately removing legacy combustion engine assumptions from the engineering process, said Anders Bell, Volvo’s CTO. To achieve this, the automaker rebuilt its development process around a more modern software-defined architecture.

“So all the lessons, all the polishing, all the infrastructure, all the learning stuff that was so painful over the last few years has now gone into the whole machine and the whole software,” Bell said.

Access to a regular cadence of software updates will be another regular feature of the EX60. Bell said Volvo will release major updates to customers every three months, arguing that quality improves when multiple vehicles share the same digital architecture. Bell said the EX60 already felt noticeably more stable in testing than previous Volvo electric cars at the same stage of development.

When it launches, the EX60 will find itself competing with the Tesla Model Y, one of the most popular cars on the planet, as well as a host of promising electric cars like the Rivian R2 and BMW iX3.

However, Samuelson said the EX60 is not intended to be a “global” car, noting that it will be sold primarily in the United States and Europe. He described the global auto industry as increasingly divided into two separate markets: one centered around China and the other around Europe and North America. While Volvo has access to Chinese technology through its relationship with its parent company Geely, the automaker will remain focused on Western consumers.

Samuelson also praised the company’s future hybrid models, which he said would upend the current hybrid formula to produce vehicles with combustion engines supplemented by relatively small batteries for short-distance electric driving. Volvo’s new hybrid cars will operate primarily like electric cars, keeping the combustion engine as a backup for longer trips. These EREVs could strongly appeal to American consumers who are not yet ready to fully transition to battery electric vehicles, he said.

Volvo’s use of Android Automotive as its primary vehicle operating system will also give the company an edge over its competitors when it comes to incorporating more AI features, Bell said. Volvo made the announcement this week at Google I/O The EX60 will give Gemini access to the vehicle’s external cameras So an AI-powered chatbot can help drivers interpret lane markings and road signs. Volvo is also preparing to deploy Gemini in approximately 2.5 million vehicles dating back to the 2020 model year through over-the-air software updates, he said.

“We had no idea when these cars would come out six years ago,” Bell said. “We would be updating something called conversational AI to those cars in six years.” “We had no idea. This is what we do now.”

However, Volvo executives agreed that launching the company’s electric vehicles has been complicated, with Bell admitting it has been a “bumpy” ride. The EX90 continues to receive software updates to help iron out bugs, with the latest version addressing more than 20 separate issues while making significant improvements to the driving experience. In addition to the EX60, Volvo is working on producing a new electric car that will achieve this goal Replace the affordable EX30 in our lineup. But overall, the company is trying to get a loud message across that it has learned its lessons and is ready to take on its competition.

“The EX60 will be more rigid,” Volvo Commercial Director Erik Severinsson said. “But also with the number of cars we will sell, the EX60 will be much larger by that time. So more experience, more vehicles, more consumers.”