The World’s Favourite Volvo Will Be Fully Electric In Its Next Avatar

The XC60 SUV has been the bestselling Volvo model since 2009

The Volvo Car Group has announced a 50:50 joint venture with Swedish battery company Northvolt to develop sustainable batteries to power the next generation of Volvo and Polestar cars. And the first to make use of this JV will be the Volvo XC60.

As part of the tie-up, an R&D centre will be set up in Sweden, where both companies will leverage their expertise in battery development. This facility will become operational by 2022. The companies also seek to set up a battery factory in Europe by 2026, with a capacity of 50GWh per year. In the meantime, Volvo will start sourcing batteries from Northvolt’s factory in 2024 as part of its plan to secure 15GWh of battery cells from the latter every year.

The development is a significant step forward in Volvo’s electrification plans. The Swedish carmaker plans to convert half its fleet to electric models by 2025, followed by a complete overhaul by 2030.

As mentioned earlier, the XC60 SUV will be the first vehicle from Volvo to undergo this electric transformation. The SUV, which is the most popular Volvo model globally, launched in 2009 and then underwent a generation update in 2017. The facelifted second-gen model was released a few months ago, and we expect this to be the last XC60 iteration to use an internal combustion engine.

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