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2025 Volvo EX90 enters production after being delayed last year

After a delay of about eight months, Volvo's Ridgeville, South Carolina plant is now assembling the EX90 battery-electric SUV. Volvo's original plan was to get its new flagship in production toward the end of 2023 so that dealers might have models in showrooms early this year. There's also the reservation list, which filled so quickly that Volvo shut it down sooner than anticipated. However, after the car's November 2022 reveal, Volvo engineers confronted unexpected complexities with its software stack. In May 2023, the automaker officially delayed the start of production until the first half of this year. Part of the complexity was the brain in Volvo's EV push, the new VolvoCars.OS software platform running on a new "core computing" system developed with Nvidia and using the tech company's Drive Orin chips — the same chips Rivian uses for its new, streamlined electrical architecture in the Gen 2 R1 models. In Volvo's words, the core computing system "is made up of three main computers. These support each other in operating vision processing and artificial intelligence, general computing and infotainment respectively," this fundamental change in vehicle brain layout allowing the automaker "to gradually separate hardware from software. This means the company can introduce more frequent hardware cycles, so that new Volvo models can be equipped with the latest available hardware." Rowan said he believes the delay will ease the path for what's coming; the code written for the EX90 will see use elsewhere in the lineup, what the coders learning during this hiccup serving the automaker all the way through to an eventual transition to the Global Product Architecture that will succeed the EX90's SPA2 architecture. Back to the South Carolina plant, the first customer car off the line, done up in Denim Blue, will be delivered later this year. The plant's got more good news as well from the other vehicle it builds, the S60 sedan, with year-to-date sales up 255% compared to 2023. Related video: 2024 Volvo EX90 exterior and interior walkaround review

Trade war tactics: How Volvo will land a cheap Chinese EV on U.S. shores

A made-in-China electric vehicle will hit U.S. dealers this summer offering power and efficiency similar to the Tesla Model Y, the world's best-selling EV, but for about $8,000 less. The EX30 from Volvo Cars, the Swedish luxury brand owned by China's Geely, foreshadows the fierce competitive threat U.S. automakers could face from Chinese EV manufacturers that have surged far ahead of global rivals, especially on affordability. The $35,000 window sticker of Volvo's compact SUV hits a sweet spot in the U.S. market, where most buyers cannot afford most EVs. The competitive price reflects an unusual combination of Geely's China-specific cost advantages and Volvo's ability to skirt U.S. tariffs on Chinese cars because it also has U.S. manufacturing operations, according to interviews with four sources familiar with Volvo and Geely strategy and several U.S. trade policy experts. Chinese EV makers can undercut global competitors largely because of the nation's domination of battery minerals mining and refining, as well as its long-standing commitment to EV development, including heavy government subsidies. In addition, Geely has slashed manufacturing costs by merging supply chains and sharing platforms and parts with Volvo and other Geely brands, according to two senior Geely managers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly. Despite its aggressive price, Volvo is targeting hefty profit margins on the EX30 of between 15% and 20% globally, said a third Geely source. China's EV dominance will be on display this week at the nation's premier auto show in Beijing. In the China market, the world's largest, dozens of domestic EV brands are fighting it out in a price war while foreign automakers have steadily lost market share. The intense competition has driven China's biggest EV makers, led by BYD, to accelerate exporting of EVs that can capture higher prices and profits in less competitive overseas markets. The EX30 will be among only a handful of China-made cars sold in the United States, none of them from Chinese brands. Vehicles from China currently face a 27.5% tariff and increasingly strident calls for higher trade barriers from U.S. automakers and their political allies. But Volvo is eligible for tariff refunds under a law that awards them to firms with U.S. manufacturing operations — such as VolvoÂ’s South Carolina plant — that also export similar products, according to U.S.

Volvo to unveil permanent high-beam headlamp technology [w/video]

Volvo will be showing off its Active High Beam technology at the Geneva Motor Show next week. The system will allow drivers to use their high beams all the time and adds another responsibility to the cameras mounted by the rearview mirror, making them detect traffic ahead, whether it be another car or a truck or motorcycle and in the same lane or oncoming. When a vehicle is detected, a special projector in the Xenon lamps can block out only the portion of the high beam that would impair the other driver. Volvo says the system is accurate down to a 1.5-inch margin around another object.
Active High Beam will be fitted to the Volvo S60, V60 and XC60 and we have to assume they mean the non-US versions of those cars. Audi has a similar technology that it calls "matrix beam lighting," and due to the way the US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard code is written, such active control of high beams is verboten on cars sold here.
The Swedish brand also plans to present a collision-avoidance technology it's calling a "world-first." The press release below has more information and the accompanying video demonstrates the lighting tech.