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Volvo EM90 unveiled as electric minivan for the Chinese market

Volvo is bringing boxy back with the EM90, its first entry into the minivan segment. Described as a "living room on the move," the people-hauler features an electric drivetrain and a spacious-looking cabin with three rows of seats as well as a long list of technology features. Unverified reports claim that the EM90 is based on the Zeekr 009. Volvo hasn't revealed what's under the sheet metal, but design details such as the shape of the windows and the kink on each sliding door seemingly confirm the connection. However, the EM90 features a look of its own that's characterized by Thor's Hammer-shaped lights on both ends, a body-colored front-end panel with a backlit Volvo emblem, and "VOLVO" lettering on the hatch. Volvo explains that the front's design was inspired by "skyscrapers and cutting-edge immersive art." Road noise-canceling technology and a dual-chamber air suspension system should make the EM90 a comfortable space to travel in. If it's too quiet, Volvo offers a 21-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound system, 5G connectivity, and a roof-mounted 15.6-inch screen that folds into the headliner when it's not in use. It can be used to display entertainment options via third-party apps and it can project a user's phone. If you'd rather get work done, there are tablets integrated into the individual rear seats and a "meeting room" mode that adjusts the screens, the seats, the windows, the air conditioning, and the interior lighting accordingly. "Theater" and "bedroom" modes are available as well. While the rear occupants are working, watching a movie, or sleeping, the driver faces a digital instrument cluster and a 15.4-inch touchscreen for the infotainment system. Several cameras, a millimeter-wave radar, and ultrasonic radars power a wide selection of electronic driving aids. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Power comes from a 268-horsepower electric motor linked to a 116-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. Volvo quotes a maximum driving range of up to 458 miles, though it notes that figure was obtained using the Chinese testing cycle. Zero to 62 mph takes 8.3 seconds.  Made in China, the Volvo EM90 is on sale now on the Chinese market. There's no word on whether it will be sold in other countries, Volvo merely said the model is "coming first to China," but we wouldn't bet on seeing it show up in a showroom on our side of the Pacific.

Volvo's plan for China: sell them on the clean air inside the car

Large Chinese cities aren't known for having clean air. Just this week, the Chinese city of Harbin filled with record levels of smog after starting the city's coal-fired heating system, according to CNN. But Li Shufu, the chairman of Geely, Volvo's parent company, says the automaker's astute attention to cabin comfort in areas such as air filtration is a selling point for the Swedish automaker in China, Forbes reports.
Shufu says when he is inside a Volvo, he feels like he's in Northern Europe, but when the door is opened, he feels like he's in Beijing. The chairman made the remarks at the fourth annual Global Auto Forum (GAF) in China (which also happened to be attended by Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, which was Volvo's owner until 2010), where he emphasized Geely's hands-off approach to managing Volvo, saying, "Geely and Volvo are brothers, not father and son."
While good filtration contributes to cabin comfort, the way we see it, Shufu also is allowing Volvo to play to its most well-known strength: safety. Smog protection via air filtration might not seem like the most important safety feature for a car in the US (unless you live in Los Angeles), but when you consider that Harbin's level of fine particles was up to 30 times higher than the World Health Organization's recommended standard on Tuesday, we'd think twice about that. Fine particles, which are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less, are considered to be the most harmful to health.

How Volvo is going greener, according to sustainability chief Henrik Green

STOCKHOLM — This week, Volvo unveiled its new flagship electric vehicle, the EX90 three-row SUV. ItÂ’s not just a look at a product weÂ’ll see come to market in 2024, but a glimpse at the approach Volvo is taking to become more sustainable as it aims to go all-electric by 2030 and carbon-neutral by 2040. After the unveiling of the EX90, we had the opportunity to speak with Henrik Green, VolvoÂ’s advanced technology and sustainability officer, as part of a roundtable discussion about the brandÂ’s climate strategy moving forward. Part of the strategy is accountability and transparency. In an industry where sensitive materials like cobalt and lithium can be environmentally, socially and geopolitically problematic, traceability is paramount. Volvo will use blockchain technology — the same sort of secure ledger tech that makes cryptocurrency possible — to trace cobalt, lithium and nickel from their very origins in the earth all the way to the EX90s that roll off the factory floor. Green said he expects that traceability to expand to more materials, but those three are what Volvo can commit to today. Green also predicts a time when “you as a consumer should be able to see, ‘Here, in my app, this is the car I bought, this is where my nickel came from thatÂ’s in my car.’” While step one is improving transparency, “the next step is — this is much more long-term — how can we affect the industry to source from the most sustainable sources as possible?” And that leads us to recycling. A circular economy is the goal, where raw materials are used minimally, replaced by materials sourced from old cars, batteries, electronics and the like. But that depends on the first generations of electric cars fulfilling their lifecycles before they can be recycled. And obviously the better the longevity of products like batteries, the longer this will take. “Unfortunately, it has this built-in time lag of putting batteries out there that live until they need to be replaced, and then we will get the material back.” Partners are beginning to scout for those recyclable materials from sources like non-automotive electronics, “but the massive volume of car batteries will not be accessible until these cars have been on the road 10, 15 or more years.” But recyclability is one of the main factors Volvo looks for when partnering with companies like Northvolt, with whom Volvo is building a factory and R&D center in Gothenburg, Sweden.