Saar: It will become the first product from Volvo’s core portfolio to receive an all-electric powertrain.

It seems that Volvo officials had a lot to share during the unveiling event of the brand new S60 last week. While the company confirmed plans to offer Level 4 autonomous tech with the next-gen XC90 by 2021, it even shared that the XC40 will become the first product from its core product portfolio to receive an all-electric powertrain.

When is it expected? Well, that should not happen before 2019. To be precise, the pure electric Volvo XC40 will only come after Polestar, Volvo’s sub-brand, is done launching its second offering – the Polestar 2. After the XC40, Volvo will take the XC90 as its next project to inject an all-electric powertrain. So, to sum up – the next-gen XC90 will have an autonomous driving tech and will have an all-electric powerplant on offer too. Nice!

If we analyse these developments further, we can foresee how other products in Volvo’s catalogue will go about getting their pure electric hearts. The Volvo XC40 is built on the company’s CMA (Compact Modular Architecture) platform, which will also underpin the next-gen V40 hatchback. So, that will surely get one pure electric variant too. On the other hand, the Volvo’ flagship SUV, the XC90, has the SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) platform doing its duty. That also underpins all the 60- and the other 90-series models. Since SUVs are in demand and expect to see an even greater demand in the near future, it isn’t hard to see why Volvo chose the aforementioned SUVs to foray into the pure electric vehicle space.

Volvo XC60 And S90 Will Soon Get XC90’s T8 Plug-in Hybrid Powertrain In India

It was only in April this year, during the 2018 Beijing Motor Show, when Volvo announced that it wants 50 per cent sales from pure electric vehicles by the year 2025. The Swedes also took the opportunity to unveil the Plug-in Hybrid derivative of the XC40, which is expected to go on sale in China before anywhere else in the world.

Volvo Auto India Targeting 10 Per Cent Share In Premium Car Space By 2020

For India, Volvo is currently gearing up to launch the diesel-fed XC40 SUV on July 4, 2018. Since the XC40 has been a runaway success for the company and it isn’t ideally placed to meet the rising demand for its smallest SUV, India will get only 200 units in the first import lot.