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 the 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 its 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 Volvo cars’ next generation. The planned investments in Skövde now take the first steps towards in-house e-motor assembly and manufacturing.
In the 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 only fits 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 and 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 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 occur in Gothenburg, Sweden and Shanghai, China. Earlier this year Volvo Cars opened a new electric motor lab in Shanghai and ongoing e-motor development in Gothenburg, Sweden and state-of-the-art battery labs in China and Sweden.
The Skövde engine plant’s remaining activities, 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.
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