It's called the XC40, Volvo's first electric car, announced as one of the safest vehicles ever made, and it will make its debut on 16 October. It accelerates the Swedish brand's environmental commitment through the arrival of new technologies.
It is now a matter of days. On 16 October, Volvo will officially present the new electric XC40, the first electric model developed and built entirely by Volvo. "It will be one of the safest cars ever made," a company statement previews. Indeed, to introduce its first "true" electric model, Volvo could only begin with safety — always one of the Swedish brand's most cherished values. The new electric XC40 will be a fundamental milestone in the brand's future mobility evolution, as Cars Håkan Samuelsson, president and CEO of Volvo, explains in the video interview released a few days ago.
The battery is protected by a safety cage consisting of an aluminium frame; positioning it in the floor of the car also has the advantage of lowering the centre of gravity and thus improving rollover protection. The electric powertrain is integrated into the body structure, and the active safety system suite — Adas — promises to be highly comprehensive and increasingly close to autonomous driving. For all other details on the new electric XC40, there is nothing left to do but wait until 16 October.
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Meanwhile, Volvo is also moving on other fronts, drawing ever closer to the environmental issues that have long defined the Swedish brand's commitment. From the fight against plastic in the seas through its participation in the LifeGate PlasticLess® project to the first carbon-neutral factory, in Skövde, Sweden, through to the commitment — from 2025 onwards — that at least 25 per cent of the plastic used in the manufacture of every new Volvo will be derived from recycled material, complemented by a pledge to eliminate single-use plastic items from all its offices and events worldwide by the end of 2019. Then there is a line-up that now covers almost the entire evolutionary scale of hybrid technology: over forty models, from the new diesel mild hybrid vehicles — recognisable by the use of the letter B for the first time — to the plug-in hybrid Twin Engine range (XC90, V90 and S90, XC60, V60 and S60, through to the compact SUV XC60 hybrid), with or without the advantage of all-wheel drive, all ahead of the electric car — "a natural technological step and a way of affirming our commitment to sustainable mobility and emissions reduction," as Michele Crisci, president and chief executive of Volvo Car Italia, explained.
Read also: Volvo will electrify its range and abandon traditional engines
While the XC40 will be the first electric vehicle entirely developed and built by Volvo, the Swedish company has tackled the topic of electrification on several occasions in the past. It did so in 2010 with the Volvo C30 Electric, moving through interesting hybrid experiments featuring an electric motor paired with a second internal combustion "range extender" unit that could run on petrol or ethanol and extended the range to around 1,000 kilometres, right up to the first plug-in diesel hybrids in 2012.
To this is added the new challenge from Swedish Volvo, which with the sub-brand Polestar will arrive in Europe from 2020 with the Polestar 2, an electric saloon equipped with a motor producing over 400 horsepower, powered by 78 kWh batteries.
With a declared range of 500 kilometres and a price of around 50,000 euros, it promises to be the perfect rival to the Tesla Model 3, in September the best-selling electric car in Italy (Unrae data).
