Volvo boss HÃ¥kan Samuelsson has unveiled plans for the firm to become a leader in the premium electric car market, through the use of new technology that it says will boost the range, safety and functionality of its cars.
The plans were detailed at the Swedish firm’s Tech Moment event. Introducing the event, Samuelsson said that Volvo, which has committed to becoming an electric-only company in 2030, is aiming to further grow its share of the premium EV market through a commitment to new systems.
“It’s about electrification, and that requires that we build in-house new technologies, such as batteries: we can’t just buy that and rely on a relationship with a supplier,” said Samuelsson. “We need to go deeper and understand batteries in the way we understand a combustion engine. We need to understand charging, and anodes and cathodes and so on.
“We have, of course, software. In the future, a lot of functionality comes from software, and it’s too slow and inefficient to specify what we want and get it in a black box from a supplier. That does not allow us the functionality we need from Volvo: we need to rely on a central computing platform and in-house software. It’s almost as big a difference to the industry as electrification.
“The third are we will lead in is safety. We will really strengthen that position through new technology, allowing us to reach a whole new level of safety. This will be a trademark: you will see on the top of the cars a LiDar, and then you will know it’s a really safe car.”
Volvo to use real-time data to boost safety
Volvo has revealed plans to use real-time data from customer cars to develop rapid improvements to boost the safety of its next-generation cars and accelerate the development of autonomous technology.
The Swedish firm has long had a focus on safety systems, and has previously used traffic data to refine and enhance its safety systems. But Volvo is aiming to take that further with its next-generation electric cars by collecting real-time data - if customers give their agreement.
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600 mile range sounds good. In truth 500 would be enough for me. Also sounds a good reason not to touch an EV until the developement pace slows down. It sounds as if in a few years the EVs of the time will make the ones on sale now seem like a car from the Flintstones.
Auto car you surpassed yourself, managed to use the word Swedish no less than 7 times for an indian owned company.
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