Volvo promised a battery-electric vehicle in 2019, and gosh darn it, it's going to deliver. Next month, Volvo will pen a new chapter in the company's history as it introduces its first electric car to the world. The automaker said in a Wednesday announcement that the Volvo XC40 will serve as the basis of its first electric vehicle and detailed some of the structural details of the forthcoming EV.
While Volvo wasn't ready to show what the compact SUV will look like, we do know it's going to be a very different animal under the skin. The Swedish luxury marque underscored that its vehicles always focus on safety, and the electric XC40 will be no different. Volvo said it's redesigned and reinforced the entire front structure to compensate for the fact that, well, there's no engine there.
Meanwhile, the battery will be stuffed in the XC40 EV's floor and the images depict two electric motors -- one for each axle, likely to create an all-wheel drive system. The battery includes a safety cage embedded in the middle of the body structure, too, to protect it in the event of a crash. Essentially, the big battery gets its own crumple zone.
Moving to the rear, the electric powertrain is partially integrated with the body structure to better distribute forces felt in a crash.
The safekeeping doesn't stop with passive engineering. The XC40 EV will introduce a new active-safety architecture with radars, cameras and ultrasonic sensors. The software to run the entire active safety fleet comes from Zenuity, a joint-venture operated by Volvo and Veoneer. The Swedish automaker promises it's scalable by nature and will lay the foundation for self-driving car technology.
We can expect more details on the electric XC40 in the coming weeks before Volvo lifts the curtain on its first EV on Oct. 16.
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