2004 Volvo Xc90 T6 Wagon 4-door 2.9l on 2040-cars

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Volvo's $2.9 billion stock IPO is a key test in shift to EVs

Volvo Car AB is looking to raise 25 billion kronor ($2.9 billion) in a Stockholm initial public offering in a test for automakers amid the transition to electric vehicles. The Swedish carmaker, owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., is offering shares at 53 kronor to 68 kronor each (about $6-$8), according to a statement Monday.  The deal values Volvo Cars at as much as $23 billion, 11 years after the Chinese firm bought the business from Ford Motor Co. for $1.8 billion. The IPO is set to be EuropeÂ’s largest since January, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The carmaker, with an ambitious plan to only sell full electric cars by 2030, plans to use the funds to add carmaking capacity so it can nearly double annual sales to more than 1.2 million vehicles. Volvo Cars also plans to construct a battery plant in Europe. “We have a very clear strategy to be an electric company in 2030 and weÂ’ve been on that journey for some years now,” Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson said in an interview. “With this, of course, we can secure that transformation, because of course, itÂ’s not free of charge.” VolvoÂ’s projected market capitalization of about $20 billion compares to roughly $65 billion for BMW AG, while the German premium carmaker produces more than 2 million vehicles versus Volvo CarsÂ’ 660,000 last year. Newer entrants to the industry such as ChinaÂ’s Nio Inc. and Tesla Inc. have seen their share prices surge past traditional manufacturers even as they sell only a fraction of the number of vehicles. The IPO also comes less than a month after electric-vehicle maker Polestar, controlled by Volvo Cars and Geely, said it will go public in New York via a blank-check merger. The deal implies an enterprise value of $20 billion for the startup, with Volvo Cars expecting to hold a 50% stake in Polestar after it lists. While the century-old Swedish industry stalwart and Polestar have similar valuations, 4-year-old Polestar has a target of delivering only about 29,000 cars this year. Geely previously attempted to take Volvo Cars public in 2018, but called off the listing after investors were said to balk at its valuation expectations of as much as $30 billion.  A group of pension funds and institutional investors have committed to buying 6.4 billion kronor worth of shares in the IPO. The offering of as much as 21% of Volvo Cars runs through Oct. 27, and the shares are set to start trading in Stockholm on Oct. 28. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Volvo's product road map includes five EVs and two PHEVs

Volvo recently hosted a gathering in Miami for North and South American retailers. A few attendees, perhaps proud of what Volvo had to say, shared some details on the proceedings with Automotive News. Volvo's pledge to become an all-EV brand by 2030 will commence with five new electric vehicles and two plug-in hybrids in the coming years. First up is a full-sized, three-row crossover said to get its vibe from the Concept Recharge. We figure this will be the long-rumored and occasionally canceled XC100, but that's only an educated guess. We've seen no spy shots of such a vehicle yet, but AN reports sales aspirations for the full-sizer are about 20,000 units for next year. If that's the case, something should appear soon. Around two years after the potential XC100 comes an EV codenamed V546 that AN reported on earlier this month. Said to slot in between the 185-inch-long XC60 and 195-inch-long XC90, this tweener could be about the length of the 189-inch Ford Edge. The sources claim it will ride on a new electric platform, which could be the SPA2 bones that will support the coming electric XC90 and that the Concept Recharge electric crossover study (pictured) sits on. This one goes into production in the U.S., at Volvos' Ridgeville, South Carolina plant, and in China. The plan is to sell 100,000 units annually. At some point, the XC60 small midsize crossover gets a battery-electric variant. The fourth EV will be a dinky silent runner that slides in under the XC40 Recharge. Referred to in the past as the XC10, XC20 and XC30, previous reportage claims this will ride on the Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) sourced from parent company Geely. The fifth EV was only mentioned as being a sedan, which is another mysterious entry. The S90 and XC90 are getting new PHEV generations, the crossover still expected to inaugurate proper names to the Swedish automaker's lineup. Volvo's planning a hiring spree for the South Carolina plant that only makes the S60 sedan at the moment. One of the new EV crossovers will start down lines there later this year, along with Polestar's middleweight performance crossover, then the potential XC100 (or whatever its proper name is) begins assembly there in 2023.  Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

When Android Automotive goes in the dash, Google wins — and automakers lose data

You've gotta hand it to Google for the way the Silicon Valley tech giant has made indelible inroads into the car on multiple fronts. The most obvious is with its pioneering self-driving car technology that's caused car companies to get their act together on autonomous vehicles — and also collaborate with Google. Google has more directly extended its influence and data-mining capabilities into the car with its Android Auto smartphone-projection platform that most major automakers have adopted along with Apple's CarPlay. And now it's preparing to dig even deeper into dashboards by deploying its open-source operating system, Android Automotive, beginning with Audi and Volvo. Volvo recently announced that its next-generation Sensus infotainment system will run Android Automotive as an OS and include Google's Play Store for cloud-based content, Maps for navigation and Google Assistant for voice recognition, which can even command a car's climate control. By embedding Google in the dash, Volvo says owners will get an improved connected experience. "Bringing Google services into Volvo cars will accelerate innovation in connectivity and boost our development in applications and connected services," Volvo senior vice president of R&D Henrik Green said in a statement. "Soon, Volvo drivers will have direct access to thousands of in-car apps that make daily life easier and the connected in-car experience more enjoyable." Having Android Automotive onboard could benefit drivers — and provide a big win for Google, since it opens a deep and lucrative new data-mining vein for the company. But it's a wave of a white flag for car companies when it comes to delivering their own cloud-based content and services. It also represents a massive data giveaway and, for Audi, a reversal of earlier reservations about letting Google get too much access to car data. Not long after Android Auto and Apple CarPlay were introduced in 2014 and most automakers eagerly embraced the technologies, several German automakers second-guessed their decision when they realized what was at stake: data. At a conference in Berlin in 2015, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said car owners "want to be in control of their data, and not subject to monitoring." A few months earlier, Stadler stated that "the data that we collect is our data and not Google's.