2001 Volvo S60 T5 Sedan 4-door 2.3l on 2040-cars

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Volvo EX90 will be the XC90's all-electric successor

Clarification: Volvo reached out to clarify that the EX90 will be "our new flagship sold alongside XC90 for the foreseeable future" — more of a "successor" than a "replacement." The story has been updated to clarify.     Volvo has announced what we've long suspected. The XC90's successor as the Volvo flagship will be an all-electric crossover. Its name, as officially stated by Volvo, will be EX90, rather than the previously thought EXC90 or even more evocative Embla, and it will be sold alongside the XC90 for a time The primary philosophy of the new flagship, the company says, will be that old Volvo calling card: safety. The automaker promised in a statement that "standard safety in the EX90 will be beyond that of any Volvo before it." They are also reiterating that they're working to be a 100% crash-less and 100% carbon-neutral company. Volvo says the EX90 will cruise down the road with an "invisible shield" of cameras, radar and lidar sensors. They will work in unison to create a "360-degree real-time view of the world," a description that sounds like Tesla's not-quite FSD visualizations that show 3D representations of lanes and traffic movements on the center screen. Volvo says over time the software can reduce serious injury and fatal accidents by 20% and overall crash avoidance by 9%. The software is made to share data from the entire fleet similarly equipped Volvos, learning as it goes.  Inside, the car will monitor driver alertness with algorithms that track eye gaze and focus. Volvo claims the programming is "beyond what has been possible in a Volvo car to date." If the system detects distraction it will respond with increasing levels of assertiveness, starting with "softly nudging". However if the driver falls completely unconscious it's designed to safely pull over and call for help, in what sounds similar to Mazda's Co-Pilot feature or VW's Emergency Assist 2.0. Volvo has not revealed specs or the actual design of the EX90. We suspect it will be based on last year's Volvo Concept Recharge, though it could also look like the unearthed patent images from last month. The Volvo EX90 will be revealed in full on November 9.

Volvo aiming for a stock IPO by the end of 2021

Volvo Cars is "making good progress" toward a potential initial public offering by the end of this year, the chief executive of the Swedish premium auto brand told Reuters on Wednesday. "We are looking at the possibility of doing an IPO before the end of the year," listing shares on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange, company CEO Hakan Samuelsson said in an interview. Samuelsson and other Volvo executives on Wednesday laid out an extensive road map to becoming a fully electric car maker by 2030, including plans to sell 600,000 battery electric vehicles at mid-decade and build a European battery gigafactory in 2026. Volvo earlier this year scrapped a proposed merger with the company's Chinese parent, Hong Kong-listed Geely Automobile. In March, Geely said Volvo would explore capital market options, including an initial public offering and stock market listing. Many startups have gone public in the United States and China over the past two years, following electric vehicle market leader Tesla Inc in taking advantage of investor enthusiasm to raise cheap capital to compete with established brands such as Volvo. Samuelsson said Volvo and Geely will continue to share vehicle architectures, internal combustion powertrains and other components. But the companies will do so at "an arm's length distance," consistent with the way independent companies do business, he said. During Wednesday's briefing, Volvo also said it plans to equip many of its future vehicles with self-driving technology, including standard lidar sensors from Luminar Technologies Inc and computers from Nvidia Corp. "Our goal is to build the safest cars possible, using all available technology," Samuelsson said. As it launches new electric vehicles, Volvo also plans a slew of related products, including insurance and vehicle subscription payment plans offered directly by the automaker, Samuelsson said. "The whole vehicle business will be recurring revenue," Samuelsson said. In Europe, the company plans to change its retail operations so that customers order new electric vehicles directly from the manufacturer, with dealers paid commissions to deliver them, Samuelsson said. In the United States, where laws protect existing dealers, Volvo will still sell vehicles through franchised retailers. For its future electric vehicles, Volvo is working with Swedish partner Northvolt on a new generation of batteries with higher energy and designed to be packaged as a structural element of the vehicle.

Volvo PV444 turns 70

Volvo has made all manner of vehicles over the course of its long history, including coupes, convertibles, hatchbacks, sedans, wagons and SUVs. But the vehicle that started it all was the PV444.
Or rather, we should say, the PV444 is what re-started it all. Because while it wasn't Volvo's first model, it was the first one it produced after the war. Monday, September 1, will mark 70 years since the PV444 first debuted at the Royal Tennis Hall in Stockholm pictured above, where the company received 148,437 visitors.
That presentation there took place shortly before the end of World War II when the vehicle wasn't even finished yet. A team of 40 engineers and designers were still fine-tuning the final version, but were eager to show the public what it would start building after the last bullet was fired and peace would return to Europe.