Volvo EX90, brand's electric 'computer on wheels,' underlines embrace of industry transition

STOCKHOLM -- Volvo Cars says the EX90 starts a new era for the nearly 100-year-old Swedish brand.

The flagship electric SUV, with a range of up to 600 km (373 miles) and a 0 to 100 kph (62 mph) time of 4.9 seconds, is the first Volvo car to be truly defined by its software, CEO Jim Rowan said while unveiling the car here Wednesday.

The first major launch under Rowan, who took charge of Volvo in March, won't be just a new car, it will be a highly advanced computer on wheels that he says will "get better over time" because it can receive over-the-air software updates.

The EX90's computing power helps make it Volvo's safest model to date, the automaker said.

The premium large SUV will have an "invisible shield of safety" that can help reduce accidents that cause serious injuries or death by up to one-fifth, Rowan said.

Sensors including eight cameras, five radars and, for the first time in a Volvo, lidar, are connected to the car's core computers.

The lidar technology, which is from Luminar and will become standard equipment in Volvos over time, can detect pedestrians at distance of up to 250 meters even at highway speeds. Volvo said the lidar and other sensors will improve the reliability and overall performance of its assisted driving function, Pilot Assist.

Nvidia's Drive computer platform, which aims to provide increasing levels of autonomous driving, runs the automaker's in-house software to create a real-time, 360-degree view of the world.

The EX90's core computing system is power by Nvidia's Xavier and Orin products. Xavier, which is designed for Level 2 Plus advanced driver assistance systems and Level 3 automated driving, delivers 30 trillion operations per second. Meanwhile, the Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC) delivers 254 trillion operations per second allowing developers to scale from Level 2 Plus to Level 5 full-autonomous vehicles.

The EX90 also has a Qualcomm processor that works with in-house software to run most of the core functions inside the car, from safety and infotainment to battery management.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon computing platform will be combined with video game company Unreal Engine's  visualization capabilities to provide high-quality graphics on the in-car screens and head-up display.

A 15-inch center screen is the entry point to the car's infotainment system, which features Google services including hands-free help from Google Assistant, navigation from Google Maps and access to apps via Google Play. The EX90, which will have 5G connectivity as standard where available, will also be compatible with wireless Apple CarPlay.

"The end result is a more responsive and enjoyable experience inside the car," Rowan said in a release.

The EX90 is Volvo's first model that is hardware-ready for unsupervised autonomous driving. The automaker said in January it would make the feature available first to customers in California before rolling it out in other markets.

The official launch of the automaker's so-called Ride Pilot is pending Volvo's internal verification that it is safe as well as approvals for use from local authorities in the different markets.

Volvo is also road testing autonomous driving features in Sweden as well as collecting data for its future system across Europe and the U.S.

Volvo will use colors to signal the difference between driver-assisted mode and unsupervised autonomous driving mode in its full-electric flagship.

The EX90 driver-focused display screen that is visual through the steering wheel will use green to signal when the car is using assistance solutions such as lane keeping and adaptive cruise control (see below).

Blue/green or aquamarine, which will appear as a thin horizontal line across the top of the screen, on the lane markings, and on the car directly ahead, signals that the car has taken control of the driving (see below).

Volvo also will debut its so-called driver understanding system as standard equipment in the EX90.

The real-time interior sensing system uses two cameras to look for early signals that show the driver is not alert. If the driver is not alert the assistance system starts with a warning signal that grows in volume based on the severity of the situation.

If the driver doesn't respond to increasingly clear warnings, the car can even safely stop by the side of the road, sending a warning to other road users with its hazard lights.

"Our sensors don't get tired or distracted," Rowan said in the release. "They are designed to respond and react when you're just a fraction too late."

Starting with the EX90, Volvo will reveal one new full-electric car each year as it drives to become an electric-only brand by 2030.

Segment poised for shift

The EX90 has the potential to lift a segment that appears rife for change.

Through nine months European sales of electric cars were up 26 percent to 1,004,246, Dataforce figures show. But full-electric models, led by the BMW iX, accounted for less than 10 percent of the premium large SUV segment's 193,573 sales during the period (see table, below).

Diesel powertrains remain the top choice in the segment, but that lead has been trimmed dramatically since Volvo, BMW and Mercedes added plug-in hybrid versions of the XC90, X5 and GLE, respectively.

Plug-in hybrids account for roughly a third of all sales in the segment, signaling an openness from car buyers in Europe toward a car with a plug.

The iX has proved that by becoming the No. 4-seller in the segment during its first full year of availability.

The arrival of the EX90 and its sister model, the Polestar 3 from Volvo's 5-year-old subsidiary, have the potential to further shift the segment toward full-electric offerings.

This trend has already been seen in the luxury sedan segment. The arrivals in that last three years of the Porsche Taycan, Mercedes EQS and Audi e-tron GT have boosted the full-electric share in the segment to 49 percent through September, from 37 percent during the same period last year.

There has also been strong uptake for battery-driven models in Europe's premium midsize SUV segment, where the Tesla Model Y leads the Mercedes-Benz GLC and the midsize premium segment, where the Tesla Model 3 and Polestar 2 rank No. 2 and No. 5, respectively.

For Volvo the EX90's arrival is a double-edged sword because it will compete in the segment against the model that started the brand's rapid revival in 2014, the XC90, which remains segment's No. 3 seller overall (see table, below) as well as the third-ranked plug-in hybrid in its class, with a nine-month volume of nearly 10,000, according to Dataforce. 

The EX90, the brand's third battery-electric vehicle after the battery-powered variant of the XC40 crossover and the sporty C40 compact crossover, will be built at Volvo's U.S. factory near Charleston, South Carolina, along side the Polestar 3 starting next year. Volvo will then add production of the SUV in China.

The electric flagship will be sold alongside the mild and plug-in hybrid versions of the XC90 crossover.

The EX90 is Volvo's first car with the hardware needed to enable bi-directional charging, giving the SUV the ability to give back to the grid or re-charge another battery-powered model.

Lutz Steigler, Volvo's senior manager for vehicle propulsion, told Automotive News Europe that savings of roughly 500 euros a year would be possible, based on variable power pricing schemes in Sweden from last year. This figure is based on vehicle-to-home charging, meaning the EX90 would be used to power a dishwasher, for instance, rather than using power from the utility provider.

The EX90 electric will also feature an interior radar system designed to ensure that no one is unknowingly left behind in the car. One aim is to stop hot car deaths, which government statistics show have taken the lives of more than 900 children in the U.S. since 1998.

A majority of hot car deaths occur because someone forgot that their child was in the car at the time, according to statistics.

The Volvo EX90 contains 15 percent recycled steel, 25 percent recycled aluminum as well as 48 kg of recycled plastics and bio-based materials. That represent about 15 percent of the total plastic used in the car -- the highest level of any Volvo.

Volvo aims to be climate-neutral by 2040.