Volvo Cars
will assemble electric motors at its powertrain plant in Skövde, Sweden, and
plans to establish complete in-house e-motor production by mid-decade. It will
invest 700 million SEK to this end in coming years.
The company
is committed to becoming a premium electric car company and aims for its global
sales to consist of 50 per cent fully electric cars by 2025, with the rest
hybrids.
The Skövde
operations have been part of the Volvo Cars story ever since the company’s
founding in 1927. Adding e-motor production to the plant’s activities means the
historic ground in Skövde will be a part of the company’s future as well.
Volvo Cars
announced earlier this year that it is investing significantly in the in-house
design and development of e-motors for the next generation of Volvo cars. With
the planned investments in Skövde, it now takes the first steps towards
in-house e-motor assembly and manufacturing.
In a first
stage, the Skövde facility will assemble e-motors. At a later stage, the
company intends to bring the full manufacturing process for e-motors in-house
into a facility in Skövde.
“The very
first Volvo from 1927 was powered by an engine built in Skövde,” said Javier
Varela, senior vice president of Industrial Operations and Quality. “The team
is highly skilled and committed to delivering on the highest quality standards.
So it is only fitting that they will be a part of our exciting future.”
Taking over
the role of the internal combustion engine in car engineering, e-motors are a
fundamental building block of electric cars, together with the battery and
power electronics. The interplay between these three component areas is crucial
in developing premium electric cars.
Bringing
the development and production of e-motors in-house will allow Volvo Cars
engineers to further optimise electric motors and the entire electric driveline
in new Volvos. This approach will allow engineers to make further gains in
terms of energy efficiency and overall performance.
Design and
development of the company’s electric motors takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden
and Shanghai, China. Earlier this year Volvo Cars opened a new electric motor
lab in Shanghai, in addition to ongoing e-motor development in Gothenburg,
Sweden and state-of-the-art battery labs in China and Sweden.
The
remaining activities at the Skövde engine plant, focusing on the production of
internal combustion engines, will be transferred to a separate subsidiary of
Volvo Cars, named Powertrain Engineering Sweden (PES). PES is intended to be
merged with Geely’s combustion engine operations, as announced earlier.
Fr:
Source: Volvo Cars.
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