Category Archives: VolvoCars

VolvoCars

New over-the-air update improves Apple CarPlay experience in Volvo cars

Our latest over-the-air update makes the infotainment system even better for Apple CarPlay users, arriving to Volvo cars globally with Google built-in.

The most notable improvement in this update is that Apple Maps and other supported navigation apps are becoming available in the driver display, just behind the steering wheel.

The driver display now also presents call information. You can answer, reject and end calls using the buttons on the steering wheel, and with the centre display you can directly hang up or mute the call. The CarPlay tile in the centre display now also features media information. The improved media interaction makes it easier for you to play, pause and skip between songs.

“When our customers get in their Volvo car, we want it to be a better experience than the day before – our over-the-air updates are a cornerstone in this ambition,” says Alwin Bakkenes, our Head of Software Engineering. “The latest update on CarPlay features is an excellent example of how we continuously improve and add features and functions together with our technology partners, making our customers’ experience richer over time.”

Since we started rolling out over-the-air updates, we’ve constantly increased the number of customer cars reached, cementing our position as one of the industry leaders when it comes to updating car software remotely. Our previous update brought the total number of delivered over-the-air updates over the one million mark, and this update alone will be sent out to a record high number of more than 650,000 Volvo cars.

This update also brings a range of changes that improve the experience for all drivers. From now on, you can switch between driver-support functions using the steering wheel buttons and choose whether the door mirrors should fold or not when locking the car. Other changes include minor engine calibration optimisations and bug fixes.

The small print

  • The functionality of over-the-air updates is available only on Volvo car models with Google built-in.
  • Google, Google Play and Google Maps are trademarks of Google LLC.
  • Availability of the features and services mentioned may differ between markets.
  • For the full release notes for the software 2.9, follow this link. Choose country, car model and model year to see the details
VolvoCars

Space, smart storage, intuitive tech: the all-electric Volvo EX30 small SUV embodies the best of Scandinavian design

The new, fully electric Volvo EX30 is not just designed for safety and increased sustainability, it also aims to make your life more convenient, more relaxing and more enjoyable through cutting-edge tech and considerate Scandinavian design.

Our new small SUV has a stylish interior that embraces sustainable thinking, while carefully crafted compilations of materials enhance the distinct graphic design of the interior. With recycled and renewable materials such as denim, flax and wool, as well as a variety of expressive colours and textures, our interior has responsible design at its core.

And when you interact with the EX30, it offers a contextual user experience, smartly removing complexity for more focused and enjoyable driving on a single screen. On top of that, features such as a soundbar covering the entire width of the dashboard – the first of its kind in a car – and an array of smart storage ideas combine to deliver a big-car experience with less.

“The Volvo EX30 combines all the best elements of Scandinavian design,” says Lisa Reeves, our Head of Interior Design. “New materials add creative textures, colour and personality to the cabin, while smart functionality and a great user experience are the hallmark of every true Volvo creation. Together, these elements distil the essence of a Volvo into a small package.”

 

Premium audio quality

Our soundbar in the EX30, the first of its kind, is inspired by home audio design. It brings several speakers together into one soundbar and fills the entire cabin with premium sound. When you choose to combine it with the Harman Kardon high-end sound system, you can listen to your favourite music and podcasts in outstanding audio quality.

The soundbar is a great example of smart design, by clustering speakers together within one component and reducing the amount of wiring and material. At first you might not even notice it, located under the windscreen and seamlessly integrated into the cockpit design. But with no need for speakers in the doors, we can give you a lot more storage space. In the same vein, we’ve moved the window switches to the centre console, where they are easy to reach for both the driver and front-seat passenger.

These and other examples represent a broader principle of centralisation inside the EX30. We’ve also relocated the glove compartment and placed it beneath the centre screen. This means both the driver and passenger can now access it easily, because it uses extra space provided by the flat floor.

The centre console is extremely versatile, with a sliding system that allows you to choose exactly how you want to use the space. The top of the cupholder can be slid out to hold your latte or smartphone, or moved back for more storage. The lower tunnel has a protective storage area for small items such as your sunglasses or ear pods, and you can place a bag in the large open space above.

We haven’t forgotten about the rear passengers either when it comes to convenience. They can store their phones in dedicated pockets in the front seatbacks, while a neat storage box slides out from beneath the centre console. Inside the tailgate, we included a handy size guide – perfect when you’re out to buy some flat-pack furniture and are unsure whether that new table will fit.

Creating a feeling of space

The centralisation theme inside the EX30 is also represented by the single 12.3-inch centre screen, positioned in the centre of the dashboard, which contains all relevant information for you as a driver. Putting everything into a single screen means we can create a feeling of space around the driver, as well as save on materials.

“Inside the EX30 we continue our strategy of contextual and focused interfaces,” says Tom Stovicek, our Head of UX. “On the single screen, key driving information such as speed and charge levels are positioned prominently at the top, with navigation, media and controls easily visible and accessible below. We also include a contextual bar that gives you the most relevant functions for your needs at any time.”

The centre screen also offers a ‘calm’ view, which strips away everything apart from the most vital information for extra focus. This feature is especially helpful at night, when it can reduce the strain on your eyes during long drives.

In line with our ambition to offer state-of-the-art infotainment, the EX30 with Google built-in includes hands-free help from Google Assistant, Google Maps navigation and your favourite apps on Google Play. The EX30 is also the first Volvo car that comes with wireless Apple CarPlay functionality.

Our infotainment system also comes with 5G where available. Powered by Snapdragon® Cockpit Platforms from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc, this premium in-vehicle experience will be as ultra-responsive as you’d expect.

We have worked closely with ECARX through the jointly owned HaleyTek software joint venture to deliver the best possible infotainment platform across the globe.

Choose from four distinct interior rooms

When picking your new Volvo EX30, you can choose from four distinct interior ‘rooms’. They take a more sustainable approach to materials and each comes with its own expression. For example, one room embraces the timeless appeal of denim and incorporates waste product from the denim recycling process.

Other materials on offer include a recycled plastic made from waste items such as old window frames and roller shutters; flax, a renewable fibre derived from linseed plants and supplied by our Volvo Cars Tech Fund investment Bcomp; a responsibly sourced wool blend including 70 per cent recycled polyester; and a structured knit seat material that includes recycled plastic.

The EX30 also offers the choice of an upholstery in Nordico, a progressive and technically advanced material created from textiles made from recyclables such as PET bottles and bio-attributed material from forests in Sweden and Finland.

The new Volvo EX30 will be revealed on 7 June and will be available to order or pre-order in selected markets on the same date.

The small print

  • Car specifications and the exact customer offer may vary from one country to another. Please visit volvocars.com for further information.
  • Google, Google Play and Google Maps are trademarks of Google LLC.
  • Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Snapdragon is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated.
VolvoCars

Something small is coming: join us for the reveal of the new Volvo EX30

The new fully electric Volvo EX30 will be unboxed on 7 June 2023 at 12:30 UK time (13:30 CEST), during a special event for media in Milan. The reveal will also be livestreamed, and we’d love you to join us. 

 

Our smallest ever SUV, the EX30 is designed to make people’s lives safer, more convenient and more enjoyable. It’s also designed to have the lowest CO2 footprint of any Volvo car to date, while offering customers plenty of range.​

In essence, the Volvo EX30 is a small electric SUV that does big Volvo things, and we can’t wait to show it to you!  

During the reveal event, our CEO Jim Rowan and other senior leaders and experts will guide you through the technology, design and other key highlights, allowing you to explore the car in an immersive way. 

The full reveal will be livestreamed here: 
 

 

Don’t miss it – see you on 7 June.  

Welcome! 

Volvo Cars 

VolvoCars

The all-electric Volvo EX30 small SUV is designed to have the lowest carbon footprint of any Volvo car to date

The new Volvo EX30 is a distillation of all the great things about Volvo Cars: a small, fully electric SUV for the modern era, designed to be safe and have a smaller CO2 footprint than any Volvo car ever before.

By tackling emissions across the entire production and lifecycle of the Volvo EX30, we managed to reduce its total carbon footprint over 200,000 kms of driving to below 30 tonnes*. This is a 25 per cent reduction compared with our fully electric C40 and XC40 models – a good step towards our aim to cut our overall CO2 emissions per car by 40 per cent between 2018 and 2025.

As a fully electric car, the Volvo EX30 has zero tailpipe emissions, which not only contributes to a lower CO2 footprint. The impact on air quality can be significant: for example, new research by the University of Southern California* found that even a small increase in electric cars in an area has a direct positive effect on the amount of emergency room visits due to asthma.

But in order to reduce the overall carbon footprint of a car, electrification is not enough. A car is not just driven, it is also designed, developed, built and transported – and all those steps offer opportunities to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Our new EX30 is a big step in the right direction for our sustainability ambitions,” said Anders Kärrberg, our Global Head of Sustainability. “By 2025, we aim to reduce our overall CO2 emissions per car by 40 per cent from 2018 levels through a 50 per cent reduction in overall tailpipe emissions, and a 25 per cent reduction in emissions from our operations, raw material sourcing and supply chain – all on the way towards our ambition of being a climate-neutral company by 2040.”

Recycled materials all around

So how did we cut the CO2 footprint of the Volvo EX30 to 75 per cent of our current electric models? First of all, designing a smaller car means that you need less material to produce it. Given that aluminium and steel are two of the biggest contributors to production-related CO2 emissions, this is where we and you as a customer can make a big difference.

On top of that, while we use less steel and aluminium when building our new small SUV, more of it is also recycled content. Around a quarter of all aluminium used in building the car is recycled, as is approximately 17 per cent of all steel used in producing a Volvo EX30, further reducing the environmental impact from those materials.

That approach continues inside, because the most sustainable component is the one that does not exist. By using optimisation as a guiding sustainable design principle, our designers have managed to combine multiple functions inside the Volvo EX30 within one component. This reduces the number of parts needed inside without compromising on functionality.

The material used for the Volvo EX30 is another contributor to a more sustainable way of creating new cars. About 17 per cent of all plastics in the car, from interior components to exterior bumpers, are recycled – the highest percentage in any Volvo car to date.

Another step towards climate-neutrality

Another crucial area for emission reduction is the manufacturing and supply chain, for example through the supply of clean energy. The Volvo EX30 will be built in a factory powered by high levels of climate-neutral energy, including 100 per cent climate-neutral electricity.

As for the supply chain, we’ve worked with our Tier 1 suppliers for this car and 95 per cent of them have committed to 100 per cent renewable energy in their production by 2025 – and many are already there. This reflects our ambition to not just reduce emissions in our own operations, but also to encourage partners in our wider supply chain to do so.

The production process for the Volvo EX30 has also been streamlined in multiple ways. This means the car represents one of our highest rates of material utilisation in stamped body parts during manufacturing.

And as we continue to tackle the challenge of material traceability, especially when producing the battery packs for the Volvo EX30, we have blockchain technology in place to help trace critical raw materials, which now include lithium, manganese, cobalt, graphite and nickel.

Smarter and more sustainable materials

Inside, we use a wide array of recycled and renewable materials for seats, dashboard and doors, including materials such as denim, flax and a wool-blend that also contains around 70 per cent recycled polyester. The denim in particular is a good example of how to use materials in smarter and more sustainable ways.

To create the denim interior deco, we use fibres that would otherwise be waste products of the denim recycling process. When jeans are recycled, the shredded fibres are twisted into a yarn, and long fibres link with one another. The short fibres, however, usually fall away as waste – and we have rescued these short fibres by using them in our denim interior deco.

Downsize without compromise

All this adds up to a car that has a so-called cradle-to-gate CO2 impact of an estimated 18 tonnes. Cradle-to-gate describes the CO2 impact from the extraction of raw materials to the finished car arriving at the dealer, so before it’s driven.

At its end of life, the EX30 is designed to be recovered to 95 per cent, by recycling the materials and recovering energy from what can’t be recovered.

In short, the Volvo EX30 gives you as a customer more scope to downsize and reduce your personal CO2 impact, without having to compromise on safety, driving comfort or convenience. That’s a good thing for you as a driver, and less damaging to the environment.

The new Volvo EX30 will be revealed on 7 June and will be available to order or pre-order in selected markets on the same date.

The small print

  • The carbon footprint calculation of below 30 tonnes over 200,000 kms of driving is based on usage of charging electricity from the EU27 electricity mix.
  • The lowest carbon footprint of any Volvo car to date statement relates to globally available products over 200,000 kms of driving.
  • For more insights on the California study on the link between electric cars and air quality, please see: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723003765
  • Range and energy efficiency according to the realistic WLTP driving cycle under controlled conditions for a new car. Real-world range may vary. Figures are based on preliminary target.
  • Car specifications and the exact customer offer may vary from one country to another. Please visit volvocars.com for further information.
  • Carbon footprint and cradle-to-gate CO2 values based on assessment. A verified Life Cycle Analysis document will be published later this year.
VolvoCars

Volvo Cars accelerates commercial transformation with the UK on course to become the brand’s first direct sales market

We’re getting ready for a fundamental change in how we do business and 2023 will be an important year for us. This year, our commercial transformation gathers pace as we evolve what we sell, how we sell and where we sell.

This transformation is crucial to our long-term ambitions and growth as a company. We will be fully electric by 2030, introduce new ways to access a Volvo car, roll out a seamless online and physical retail experience, and create a lot more direct relationships with our ever-growing consumer base around the world.

Europe, our largest sales region and furthest along in the move towards full electrification, is spearheading this transformation – already in 2022, online and direct sales represented 11 per cent of the total sales in our top five European markets.

In the United Kingdom the change is already well under way, with many direct sales channels already operational. Since 2019, it has been possible to order a Volvo car online in the UK. The subsequent launch of the Care by Volvo subscription service in September 2020 offered a new, flexible alternative to traditional car ownership. To date, more than 12,000 new cars have been sold by this direct channel.

In early 2022 we were the first manufacturer in the UK to launch an online direct sales platform for approved-used cars. We then provided a new solution for Fleet and Business consumers with a tool for SMEs to order and manage their company cars directly with us online.

In June this year we’ll be taking the next important step as the UK becomes our first 100 per cent direct market when we close the UK wholesale channel. It is important to note that we are not closing the Volvo Cars retailers. They continue to be an important part of a seamless online and physical consumer experience. Sweden will be the next market to switch to this model, while other markets in Europe will follow as they become ready.

Getting a new Volvo: you’re in the driver’s seat

In the UK, our new approach to getting a Volvo car is designed around flexibility for the consumer. You decide how you access a new Volvo model: through subscription, leasing, Personal Contract Purchase (PCP), Volvo Loan or outright purchase.

Regardless of whether you visit one of our retailer partners, walk into our urban studio, head to our website or use the Volvo Cars app, everyone should get the same outstanding and meaningful experience.

“Evolving consumer needs are the driving force behind this change. We want to provide the best possible experience for our consumers, whatever their buying preferences. The transformation is being undertaken in close collaboration with our retailer partners and we are confident it will deliver an industry-leading buying process,” says Kristian Elvefors, Volvo Car UK Managing Director. “It’s exciting to see the progress we’ve already made as we transition our business and continue the roll out of this new sales model. So far this year, 17% of our sales have been online and direct, and they continue to grow as we move towards the completion of this transformation.”

This simple and smooth buying process will be underpinned by our online store, volvocars.com. Transparent and national online pricing without haggling or hidden fees, as well as an easy-to-understand offer, makes ordering a new Volvo car a breeze.

Consumers can complete an order in a few simple steps and follow their car through every phase of the delivery process via the Volvo Cars app. Here, they also find all car-related services and functionalities in a user-friendly, seamless interface.

Apart from simplifying our offer and introducing more transparent pricing, we’re also investing in a centralised digital inventory system that will allow us to see all cars that are available across the country at any given time. That allows us to locate and deliver cars faster.

While online consumer relationships will play an increasingly important role, our physical retailers will always be a key component of our success. Not only will they deliver and service cars, they will remain responsible for a lot of everyday contact with consumers, such as providing test drives and assisting them through the new sales process.

“We are really looking forward to continuing our strong relationship with Volvo Car UK as we undergo this huge transformation,” says Chris Carr, Managing Director and owner of Volvo Cars Shrewsbury, who was among the first to sign the new partner agreement. “Volvo has shown willingness to listen to retailers throughout this journey and demonstrated openness. This collaboration leaves us, as retailers, in a really positive place to drive our businesses forward, while securing a fundamental role in the future of Volvo’s first direct sales market.”

Together with our retailer partners, we’ll also keep investing in advanced data analytics capabilities. By analysing how customers use our platforms, interact with our brand and use our products, we can understand them even better: what they want and how we can make their lives easier.

VolvoCars

Media advisory – not for publication: Volvo Cars at SMMT Test Day 2023

At Volvo Cars, we are busy working towards our ambition of being a fully electric car maker by 2030. There’s the new EX30 small SUV and EX90 large SUV on the horizon, but we have also recently updated our existing pure electric models – the C40 and XC40 Recharge. With a longer range and improved efficiency, these upgraded models are both now capable of more than 300 miles on a single charge.

The international media launch of these (pre-production) cars was in late April, but we have secured two left-hand-drive models from Sweden to bring to SMMT Test Day. This is the first time that anyone will have driven these cars in the UK, so please visit the Volvo stand to sample them.

We will also have the V60 and XC90 plug-in hybrid models to test, complete with our latest Android-powered infotainment system, along with the rugged V90 Cross Country in a rather fetching Bright Dusk colour.

These are the cars that will be available to drive on the hill route at Millbrook:

•    C40 Recharge RWD (updated, single-motor, rear-wheel-drive version)

•    XC40 Recharge Twin AWD (updated, dual-motor, all-wheel-drive version)

•    V60 Recharge Plug-in Hybrid T6 AWD

•    V90 Cross Country B5 AWD

•    XC90 Recharge Plug-in Hybrid T8 AWD

And as if that wasn’t enough, there will be a special appearance from one of our iconic heritage models – an immaculate, low-mileage 240 GLT from 1989 will be on static display.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Volvo if we didn’t add a little Swedish flavour to Test Day, so we invite you to join us for Fika throughout the day. A variety of sweet treats, tea, coffee and soft drinks will be available if you fancy a break and a chat with the team. We all look forward to catching up with you.

See you on Thursday!

The Volvo Car UK PR team

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Descriptions and facts in this press material relate to Volvo Car UK’s car range. Described features might be optional. All information is correct at time of going to press and may be altered without prior notification.