Volvo EX30 2023 News

Volvo has developed the first battery passport, a way to trace the materials, composition, recycled content, carbon emissions and origin of its batteries. The game-changing blockchain tracing technology has been in the works for over five years in partnership with UK company Circulor. It is important because Volvo is a step ahead of other manufacturers such as Tesla, BYD and Ford, all of which will need to supply battery passports to sell electric cars in Europe from February 2027. Volvo's EX90 electric large SUV will launch the technology and it will steadily rolled out to all of Volvo’s electric cars including EX30, EX40 and future products. Also under the Geely umbrella is Polestar, the electric-only brand already using blockchain technology to trace its materials. Volvo has set a global date of 2030 to go fully electric while Australia will be ahead of the curve, selling EVs exclusively from 2026. Owners will be able to scan a QR code for a simplified version of the passport. Also included is a battery health assessment function that will be crucial for residual values. Regulators get access to more detailed information from the passport. This includes all aspects that supplier Circulor traces, including battery materials from mines, through refining processes, energy mixes being used by suppliers, shipping, to eventually ending up in a car for a total emissions figure.In addition to keeping track of emissions throughout production, blockchain technology will also shed light on which suppliers are being used and if they’ve committed human rights violations. "Car manufacturing has never been about which rock went into which component and which got connected to which car," Circulor CEO Douglas Johnson-Poensgen told Reuters. "It's taken a long time to figure that out," she added. 

Volvo is chasing down Tesla with a revolutionary process that will make its electric cars cheaper.The Chinese owned Swedish brand has committed to a “mega casting” manufacturing process in its next-generation electric cars, according to UK publication Autocar.The radical procedure die-casts large sections of the car such as the complex rear and front underbody in one piece.This apparently rolls hundreds of individual parts into one solid slab, which slashes production costs and increases efficiency that should make future vehicles cheaper.Tesla is currently the only car maker that uses this process, which allows it to sell its cars for less than competitors.In Australia, the Tesla Model Y starts at about $60,900 (before on-road costs) which is significantly less than rivals such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5 ($65,000) and Toyota bZ4X ($66,000).According to reports Volvo will start by using the production technique on the rear floor, which will weigh 50 per cent less and require significantly less welded joints.Tesla currently uses the process for the front and rear floors but has recently abandoned plans for a one-piece cast floor from front to back.This coincides with Tesla halting development of its cut-price Model 2 small car that relied on the cost savings associated with the single piece casting technique.Tesla was believed to be targeting a US$25,000 ($37,800) price for the Model 2.Volvo has committed to be electric-only in Australia by 2026, which is when the maker is tipped to start mega-casting its cars, and it has a few holes in its EV line-up that need to be filled.It is likely the first Volvo model to use the cost-cutting process could be the EX60, the electric equivalent of the volume-selling XC60 mid-size SUV that would compete with the Model Y.The next-generation of the XC40 electric SUV, which will most likely be dubbed the EX40, could also be a candidate for the process.The recently launched EX30 little electric SUV and soon to arrive EX90 large SUV might join the end of the queue.Volvo’s parent company Geely also owns Polestar and a range of other electric vehicle brands such as the confirmed for Australia Zeekr. Both would be in line to use to same technique in the future.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will have noticed a sharp increase in the number of electric cars on the roads of Australia in 2023. Sales are up nearly 200 per cent and more than 80,000 new examples were sold in the first 11 months of the year (almost as many as hybrid vehicles).

Volvo Car Australia is on-track for another record year in 2023, as sales soar past 8000-units to the end of August and could top 12,000 by year’s end.

Look down at your feet. You're standing on the threshold of a new age where an electric Hyundai SUV can have Lamborghini power and acceleration without the supercar price.