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Volvo Cars, Northvolt to build battery plant with 3,000 jobs

Northvolt's new facility in Skelleftea, Sweden.   STOCKHOLM — Automaker Volvo Cars and battery manufacturer Northvolt will build their joint battery plant in Gothenburg, western Sweden, the two companies said on Friday. The new 50-gigawatt-hour (GWh) plant will create up to 3,000 jobs and make battery cells specifically developed for use in pure electric Volvo and Polestar cars, the Sweden-based companies said. Operations will begin in 2025. The two companies said last year they would form a joint venture to develop batteries, including setting up a gigafactory for production and a research and development centre, a total investment of about 30 billion crowns ($3.3 billion). Northvolt and Volvo said former Tesla executive Adrian Clarke had been appointed to lead the production company. "He comes with a long experience from Tesla as well as around how to build these type of factories," Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson, who also previously worked for Tesla, told Reuters. Volvo Cars head of engineering and operations, Javier Varela, said access to fossil-free energy, skills and infrastructure had been factors for choosing Gothenburg, Volvo's hometown. Competition for talent is fierce, with most battery engineers based in Asia. Tesla and Asian companies such as LG and Samsung SDI are also setting up factories in Europe. Northvolt's gigafactory in the Swedish town of Skelleftea assembled its first battery cell at the end of December, making it the first European company to design and manufacture a battery in Europe. Carlsson said it was running as planned, although he said global supply-chain problems, semiconductor shortages and the COVID-19 had made it more of a challenge. "It has not been the easiest of times," he said. Volvo Cars, majority owned by China's Geely Holding, aims to sell 50% pure electric cars by the middle of this decade and fully electric cars only by 2030. Northvolt, whose biggest shareholder is Volkswagen, has so far receive more than $30 billion worth of contracts from customers such as BMW, Fluence, Scania, Volkswagen, Volvo Cars and Polestar.  

2025 Volvo EX90 now $3,300 more expensive thanks to materials costs

Without any fanfare, and with sharp surprise to some dealerships and reservation holders, Automotive News reports Volvo upped the price on all EX90 trims by $3,300. The automaker told the outlet that it raised prices on May 1, a month before the EX90 entered production after almost a year of delays. Volvo said it told its dealer body and reservation holders about the increase on June 26, the same day it informed reservation holders that the electric SUV would miss certain features on delivery and be programmed with workarounds for some unsolved issues like battery drainage when parked. The omissions include at least one of the lidar-centric safety systems that Volvo touted as putting the EX90 ahead of the competition when the car launched. The company told one reservation holder the software gaps would be filled in sometime in the "early ownership" phase, the only rational kind of non-answer available to automakers working through EV bugs. We couldn't find any active EX90 forum threads about the price increase, a strange absence for an anticipated vehicle with more than 10,000 preorders. In a Reddit thread from June 27, a commenter writes, "Just got my [EX90] customization email and the price has indeed increased to $79,995 + $1,295 destination fee," making it sound like being surprised by the automaker instead of being informed, such surprise matching a story another potential buyer told AN. And now a note on the EX90 configurator warns shoppers that "Ventilated Nordico is expected to be delivered towards the latter part of the estimated delivery time above." Since there are no delivery times yet, that means no ventilated seats for U.S. buyers for an unknown amount of time.  The new MSRPs figures for EX90 in base Twin Motor form after the $1,295 destination charge are:  Plus 7-seater: $81,290  Plus 6-seater: $81,790  Ultra 7-seater: $85,640  Ultra 6-seater: $86,140  Add $5,000 to these prices to for the Twin Motor Performance drivetrain. Both versions run off a 111-kWh battery from CATL. The first provides a total of 402 horsepower and 568 pound-feet of torque, and a 0-60 time of 5.7 seconds. The performance version is good for 496 horsepower and 671 pound-feet of torque, shrinking the 0-60 time to 4.7 seconds. A company spokesperson named rising materials costs as the culprit.

Volvo to convert all SUVs and sedans into EVs, develop electric luxury van

Volvo Cars is gearing up for an electric blitz to convert all its mainstay models — three SUVs and two sedans — into electric vehicles and to introduce a luxury electric van aimed at boosting sales in Asia, two people with knowledge of the plans said. The Swedish carmaker, 82%-owned by ChinaÂ’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is expected to launch at least six new battery electric vehicles through 2026, the two people told Reuters. Volvo has announced an objective to make its entire lineup fully electric by 2030. The companyÂ’s Australia unit has said it plans to sell only EVs in that market by 2026. The previously unreported product plans amount to the largest revamp of VolvoÂ’s model line-up since Geely acquired the brand from Ford in 2010. Under Geely, Volvo initially started to share technologies such as car platforms with Geely. The makeover for Volvo, a Swedish brand that built a reputation for safety and utilitarian design, follows from a greater focus on customer trends in Asia and a push to win sales there, the people said. The two people with knowledge of VolvoÂ’s planning asked not to be named because details have not been announced by the company. Geely declined to comment. Among the new battery electric cars being planned for the next four years is a Volvo-branded MPV or van that would be based on a vehicle GeelyÂ’s Zeekr brand sells in China. Called the Zeekr 009, the hulking, battery-electric van pictured above, which starts at about 500,000 yuan ($74,179), offers three rows of seating. The vehicle competes against the likes of the Toyota Alphard, a business or family van, with airplane business class-like seats for passengers that has proven popular in Asian markets such as China and Japan as a limousine alternative. Volvo has moved development work on sedans and the coming people-mover model to its Shanghai research and development hub, they said. That center, which has tripled its design staff to about 60 people, has recently moved to a new and larger building in Shanghai, one of the sources said. The first of VolvoÂ’s new planned electric models, the EX90 sport-utility crossover, was unveiled late last year. It is expected to hit showrooms in early 2024. Other battery electric cars in the pipeline include electric versions of VolvoÂ’s mainline products – the XC90, XC60 and XC40 crossover vehicles and the S60 and S90 sedans, the sources said.