Volvo News

A landmark car ban in Europe could be overturned, according to reports.

America wants to see a station wagon comeback, but it won't be as easy as it sounds.

The age of SUVs is firmly upon us, and carmakers are rolling out high-riding wagons at an astonishing rate.

2026 might be one of the best years for Australian families on the hunt for a new ride.

Speaking at Volvo Cars’ most recent investor briefing in Stockholm, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer Erik Severinson confirmed the upcoming EX60 mid-size EV SUV (scheduled for global launch on January 21, 2026) will be priced at the same level as an equivalent plug-in hybrid (PHEV).Severinson identified charging time and a purchase price premium as two of the strongest impediments to large scale EV adoption and claimed the all-new EX60 addresses both issues comprehensively.“With the EX60 (on a road trip) you will have a car where you will need to go to the toilet long before the battery runs out," he said.“And when you’re back from the toilet, the car is charged. “There will be no penalty for that one per cent journey you take two times a year to the Mountains. It will be as convenient as driving a combustion engine vehicle or a plug-in hybrid,” Severinson said. And in terms of pricing, Severinson added: “People will not get more money to buy cars just because we want to sell them electric cars. “The most sold variant for Volvo Cars in Europe right now is a XC60 T6 PHEV. We know there is a customer demand at those price points. So we will price this vehicle at parity where we are pricing our current best sold cars.“We need to find price points that are equivalent to where we are buying cars today and this car will be priced as a PHEV,” he said. For reference, in Australia the Volvo XC60 T8 plug-in hybrid starts at $92,900, before on-road costs for the Plus grade, rising to $101,990 BOC for the top-spec Ultra model.At the same time Volvo Chief Engineering & Technology Officer Anders Bell referenced some of the tech advancements he said will help facilitate the EX60’s aggressive price position.“My job is to lead Volvo Cars Engineering through the most profound technology shift in the history of automotive.  “On January 21 Volvo will launch the best electric vehicle in the world. An historic moment for us. Arguably the most important launch in the history of the company.“We believe SPA3 (underpinning the EX60) is the best electric vehicle platform in the world,” he said.Bell confirmed the EX60 project is “on time, on cost and on quality” allowing the brand to “scale all the company’s business needs in a completely new way from the smallest electric vehicle to the biggest electric vehicle”.“Whatever needs the (Volvo) team here will have in terms of size, price position (and) markets in the electric vehicle world, we have made a platform that we can deploy to meet those needs in a very clever way” Bell added the EX60’s ‘mega cast’ SPA3 platform replaced 100 welded parts and can be upgraded continuously over time.He said the integrated battery pack reduced cost by 25 per cent, it’s 20 per cent more energy dense and has a 15 per cent shorter charge time.The drive unit is claimed to be 18 per cent cheaper to produce while generating 35 per cent more power and being 11 per cent lighter than Volvo’s previous generation motor.And the software ‘track’ is now uniform across EX90, ES90 and the upcoming EX60 with all new Volvo models, including Gen 2 plug-in hybrids, run from the same ‘software master’.

Volvo's backflip on its plan to only sell electric cars in Australia by 2026 won’t be accompanied by a new target date.Despite the carmaker believing it’s the right thing to do, it says Aussie buyers aren’t ready to go EV only.Speaking to CarsGuide at a brand event, Volvo Australia Managing Director Stephen Connor explained the brand’s decision to step back from its 2026 commitment.“We’re still committed to a fully electric strategy,” he said. “What we identified in this journey is that it can’t be a switch on and switch off kind of view.“Why? Because infrastructure isn’t ready for it, consumers are also not ready for it.“What does the consumer want as opposed to what we want? We’re still committed to being climate neutral by 2040, so those milestones are still there but it may take us a little longer to be fully electrified."Connor detailed how Volvo will eventually reach its goal in Australia.“Every new model that we bring out is fully electric from now onwards. But that doesn’t stop us from refreshing our current line-up, because that’s what the consumer is telling us they really need.“I’d love to tell you today we’ll be there by 2027 or 2028, but it’s not a race, and we can get there gradually and when it suits consumers.“We could have forced it through, no doubt. We’ve got the product to do it, but is it necessarily the right thing for the brand today? Probably not.“It’s the right thing to do, but the world, I think, has shifted so much in the last three-to-four years.”Volvo wants to continue to record solid sales numbers of its popular combustion cars, which it now intends to keep updating. According to Connor, the XC40, XC60, and XC90 SUVs are “big volume cars” that are “selling really well in the marketplace".He confirmed the mid-size EX60, arriving in 2026, will mark Volvo's next step on its electrification journey, adding that the brand may re-assess its progress on electrification at that point as its range of core vehicles will have electric versions.“As soon as that arrives we can sit back and go ‘Okay, what’s the product cycle?’ Then we can redefine whether it’s 2028, 2029, or 2030,” he explained.How does Volvo know its consumers aren’t ready? Connor highlighted the growth in plug-in hybrid sales, as well as feedback at a corporate and dealer level that “not everyone wants to go straight from a petrol or mild hybrid to a fully electric car".“Who would have thought we’d be here talking about plug-in hybrids as the next big thing?“We could have been egotistical and pushed it through, but that’s not Volvo and it’s not who we are.”He said the growth of PHEVs in particular came as a bit of a surprise, given the brand has offered them for some time. However, it seems the shift to longer electric driving range has been a turning point for buyers.“What’s actually changed as part of that surprise is that when we first launched PHEVs the range was probably like 35 to 40km in the real world, now the average range of most PHEVs is more like 70 and then the next generation coming through would be up to 100 to 150km."So what’s really changed is the technology evolving so quickly. All of a sudden, it really makes sense.”There is also an element of what Volvo’s Gothenburg, Sweden head office makes available to the Australian division, which weighs into the equation.“When we made that original announcement, the weren’t going to be made available.” he said.“But because we’re nimble and agile, head office decided to re-invest back into the two staple cars that we’d loved and known, so that also gave us the ability to redefine what we want to do. “That decision though is made at a local level. If we don’t want XC90, we don’t have to take it, but because they refreshed it, we went ‘Yeah, it’s a great car, why wouldn’t we take it.’”In addition, he added HQ offering updated versions of the brand’s core combustion range came at the perfect time, as the scale-up of the EX90 - which the brand had hoped would be a volume seller immediately - was impacted globally by software-related delays and the announcement of an upgraded 800-volt version which will allow faster charging than the current 400-volt version.Volvo sales are down 21 per cent year-on-year in Australia to the end of September, although the company has managed a significant percentage of its yearly volume in just the last month as deliveries start of updated and new models.Next for the brand will be the arrival of the ES90 electric sedan, with the EX60 mid-sizer arriving in 2026.

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Motor shows are officially back in Australia, and it's all because of electric cars.The Sydney International EV motor show is returning this October to the ICC Sydney, proving the EV show wasn’t just a flash in the pan.The organiser of the show, Ray Evans, said they are expecting about 40,000 visitors to come through the gates over three days.“The exceptional response has proven that Australians are hungry for EV knowledge and options," said Evans."This year we're delivering exactly what the market wants - hands-on experiences with over 100 vehicles, test drives, daily sessions and a New Model Stage.”The show will give potential customers a chance to get up close and personal with some of the newest names in the EV game.Brands such as Farizon, Lotus, Polestar, Smart, Volvo, XPeng and Zeekr will have current and coming models on display.Volvo Australia boss Stephen Connor said the company is committed to a fully electric future."This year we have already introduced three new all-electric models to Australia, and to date our all-electric lineup equates to 40 per cent of our total volume," said Connor.Volvo will have the new ES90 electric sedan on display at the show. Attendees can also check out the $1.2m Rolls-Royce Spectre EV.Some experts have predicted Australian EV sales to balloon to between 15 and 19 per cent next year, according to the show organisers. Currently EV sales only make up about 7.7 per cent of new car sales through the first eight months of this year.The show runs from October 31 to November 2nd and tickets start from $35.00 and are available now from Ticketmaster.