Volvo will be a 100% electric brand in 2030. This was confirmed yesterday by Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of the Swedish company. By 2025, half of its sales will already correspond to cars of this type (the other half will be hybrids), so its thermal models, considered by Samuelsson himself as technology in decline, will gradually disappear in the coming years.
Besides, Volvo will also turn towards a completely online sales model. This will not mean the closure of its current network of dealers, as they will have a decade to adapt to the manufacturer’s new reality. Within this new corporate strategy, one of the most important models will be the XC20 Recharge.
This B-SUV will be one of the company’s first cars to employ Volvo’s parent Geely SEA modular platform. Samuelsson himself confirmed at the time that, despite being the smallest car in its lineup, the XC20 Recharge (a name that, although not definitive, was recently registered by the company) will be no less luxurious than its range brothers.
The importance of this urban SUV for Volvo will be enormous since a large part of the task will fall on its shoulders to achieve that by 2025 half of its sales are electric. Why? Because due to its reduced size and its content starting price (remember that it will be cheaper than the XC40 Recharge, whose future access versions will cost less than 40,000 dollars), it will become one of the company’s largest volume vehicles.
Although it does not have a specific launch date yet, Volvo gave us a hint yesterday by presenting us with a preview image of its future electric launches. In it, you can see a total of seven cards; the only one ultimately uncovered being the XC40 Recharge.
Going through the image from left to right, the next model appears to be the newly introduced C40 Recharge (easily distinguishable by its two “humps” on the roof), while the third is the XC90 Recharge, scheduled for 2022. The fourth is the smallest of all; also, its profile is that of an SUV. Considering that Volvo promised to launch a new electric model a year until 2025, this means that the XC20 Recharge should arrive in 2023.
So far, all the official information on this ambitious model comes from Samuelsson himself, who at the time stated the following: “We will also use [the platform] SEA. We will use it in a smaller car, where I think it is convenient and smart to share [architectures] to achieve competitive costs. It is difficult to use a platform like the CMA, which combines thermal and electric motors in smaller segments.”
“So if we want to create a car smaller than the XC40, the SEA platform will allow us to do so. We can build a premium Volvo on it. We will do it together with Geely; we are cooperating. We developed the CMA platform in Gothenberg, although it was jointly funded. But the SEA platform was developed in China, and with Chinese suppliers, you get excellent costs. But with a Volvo top hat.”
“SUVs are very popular, but it will also have to be fully electric. I believe that the SUVs of the future will not be exactly like the SUVs of today. Ground clearance and off-road capabilities are probably not that important by then. We will see what it will be called, but it will be a car that will definitely be in line with customer expectations.”