Volvo Ex90 News

Why the Volvo EX90 is late and why it's probably likely to be very worthwhile as a result.

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. 

Ever since it was flagged earlier this year as an ‘indirect replacement’ for the company’s original EV model, the Polestar 2, by CEO, Thomas Ingenlath, widespread speculation has kicked off over whether the Polestar 7 will even again be a Tesla Model 3-style sedan-esque liftback competitor.

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 and Polestar have been forced to delay production, and therefore the launches, of their EX90 and Polestar 3 electric cars respectively due to more time needed to iron out software problems.

Volvo XC40 is now over 50 per cent electric as a share of sales, seemingly vindicating the brand's position that its customers are ready to go fully EV by 2026.

Volvo is setting its sights on younger buyers with a new small electric SUV, set to be revealed and in production by the end of the year.

Speaking to CarsGuide at an event in Sydney, Swedish electric brand Polestar said it wasn’t fussed by competitive claims by its sister brand Volvo in Australia.

The Volvo EX90 electric SUV has been revealed overnight, with the replacement for the XC90 the first dedicated fully electric car from the Swedish brand.

The Volvo EX90 is another teaser closer to its reveal later this week, with the Swedish brand's UK arm tweeting two very blurry images of the electric SUV's headlight and headrest.But this is just the latest of many teasers and snippets of information Vol