Volvo CEO Jim Rowan stated in an interview with Nikkei that the new pure electric vehicle (EV) to be launched in the second half of this year will be produced in China and planned to be exported to Europe and Japan.
Reportedly, the new car will be a subcompact sports multi-purpose vehicle, smaller than the company’s other models, or roughly the same size as the Toyota Corolla Cross. He did not disclose the price of this pure electric SUV, only stating that it will be cheaper than the XC40 crossover.
The new strategic electric vehicle will target a “brand-new segment”, “a new group of people, young customers, and more online sales”.
He said that the turning point when pure electric vehicles in the luxury car market surpass gasoline vehicles will be “2025-2026”, and the small new pure electric vehicle after price reduction will be positioned as a strategic vehicle to develop new customers.
Rowan said, “We will expand to newer groups and younger customers and sell more products online.” He revealed that this new car will be “cheaper than existing models” by using Geely’s common pure electric vehicle chassis and reducing costs by producing it in Chinese factories.
Volvo previously stated that it plans to completely switch to pure electric vehicles by 2030, striving to sell 600,000 pure electric vehicles per year before 2025, which is 9 times the number in 2022. It is expected that most of the sales will be contributed by this new car.
Including this model and the large SUV “EX90” released in November 2022, Volvo is preparing to launch a total of 6 new pure electric models before 2025.
The Volvo CEO emphasized that having a global supply chain will bring cost benefits, although he seeks to achieve infrastructure modernization. “One thing I actually invest in now is digitalization, and the higher the degree of digitalization of the supply chain, the more visibility we can get.”
