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Volvo, Polestar reportedly planning twin city-friendly electric SUVs

Volvo is nearly ready to unveil the next generation of the XC90, its flagship model, but it's not forgetting about the other end of its range. It's reportedly planning to launch an entry-level model that will take the form of a pocket-sized crossover powered by an electric drivetrain. Without citing sources, British magazine Autocar reported that the model will ride on a modular platform developed by Volvo parent company Geely and called SEA internally. This architecture already underpins the 001 sold by Zeekr, which is another brand in the Geely empire. No technical specifications are available at this point, but the report sketches the outline of a high-riding model with a sleek-looking silhouette. This isn't the first time we've heard about Volvo's city-friendly SUV; earlier rumors claimed it would be called XC20 or C20, names that would have clearly signaled the model's positioning as being below the 40-badged cars. Volvo is moving away from this naming system, however, and the cars it will launch in the coming years will receive actual names. With that said, both the XC20 and the C20 names are off the table. Polestar's take on the concept of an electric entry-level crossover will be positioned between the 2 and the 3, though it will somewhat confusingly be called 4. It sounds like the model will be bigger and more expensive than Volvo's, and Autocar learned that it could be closely related to the C40 Recharge (pictured) underneath the sheetmetal. If that's accurate, it will share its CMA architecture with the 2, among other models, and it will be offered with either a single electric motor that zaps the front wheels or dual-motor all-wheel-drive. Both EVs will have at least one thing in common: a mission to boost sales. For Volvo, launching a battery-powered car pegged near the bottom of its range will increase the percentage of EVs in its global sales mix. It's planning to cross the 50% mark by 2025. For Polestar, entering cheaper segments will allow it to boost its annual sales by reaching less affluent buyers, though it will remain a premium brand. Polestar 4 is tentatively due out in 2023. There's no word on when Volvo will release its smallest EV to date.

Volvo recommits to Sweden with development of next-gen platform and engines

Taking into account the facts that Volvo is now owned by China's Geely and how poorly the European automotive market has been recently, we would have definitely understood if Volvo moved production of its products out of its home market. And yet, the automaker has confirmed that it will be investing billions of dollars into new platforms and engines that will be made in Sweden. On a global scale, Volvo is making roughly $11 billion of investments, and close to half of that is being earmarked for Sweden for plant expansion and upgrades.
The new Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) platform will be the used as the basis for most future Volvo products starting with the next-generation XC90 that will be debuting at the end of 2014. SPA will be used to make up two-thirds of Volvo's sales, and gives Volvo a quicker and easier break from Ford-derived platforms. As for the Volvo Engine Architecture (VEA) family of engines, there are really no details about this mill except that it will be a four-cylinder that is more fuel efficient than current engines.
Scroll down for the Volvo press release.

Volvo finds a way to turn body panels into batteries [w/video]

One of the problems with designing an electric vehicle is figuring out where to fit the battery pack. Volvo - as a part of a European Union research project - is working on a way around this issue by replacing standard parts with lightweight components that double as batteries on both conventional and plug-in vehicles. The image above shows one such piece on a Volvo S80. While looking like nothing more than a carbon fiber plenum cover, the piece is actually a battery pack that can store and supply enough energy for the car's entire 12-volt power system.
The parts are made by sandwiching super capacitors (which can charge faster than standard batteries) in between layers of carbon fiber. They can then be formed to replace numerous body panels such as the decklid, roof or door panels. Volvo says that the replacing the body panels and batteries with these nano batteries can help reduce the vehicle's weight by as much as 15 percent. It has taken more than three years just to design the batteries, so there's no telling when, or if, we'll ever see this technology used on a production vehicle. Scroll down for a video and press release on Volvo's innovative battery technology.