- Volvo showed a glimpse of the upcoming EX60 mid-size electric crossover.
- The new EV will be based on the SPA3 architecture.
- It will use an 800-volt battery pack, enabling faster charging times than a 400-volt system.
Despite toning down its ambitions of going full-electric by 2030, Volvo hasn’t abandoned its goal of launching several new battery-powered cars this decade. After the EX30, EX90 and ES90, it’s time for the EX60 to join the party later this year.
The mid-size electric crossover made a brief appearance during the reveal event of the ES90 electric sedan earlier this week, although it was anything but a surprise. As you’ll see in the video embedded below, both the presenter and the person holding the cover over the EX60 were anything but caught off guard.
It’s no surprise that Volvo wants to stir up interest in the upcoming EX60. Sales of the aging EX40 and C40 in the United States were appalling last year, and the more affordable but rather small EX30 has just started showing up at dealerships across the country. Meanwhile, the EX90 is a $90,000+ machine, albeit a pretty capable one.
So an XC60-sized EV slots perfectly in the same space currently dominated by the Tesla Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ford Mustang Mach-E. Just like its competitors, the EX60 is poised to become Volvo’s best-selling EV thanks to people’s affinity with mid-size crossovers the world over.
The Volvo EX60 will be the Swedish automaker’s first model to sit on the new SPA3 platform. The architecture is much more flexible than the SPA2 platform underpinning the ES90 sedan and EX90 SUV and allows the automaker to build cars smaller than the EX30 and larger than the EX90. Significant cost reductions are also a big part of the SPA3 architecture.
Thanks to an 800-volt high-voltage battery, charging times should also be better than average. The ES90, for instance, is advertised as being capable of adding up to 186 miles of range in just 10 minutes from a 350-kilowatt charger–we might see something similar in the EX60.
Volvo’s new mid-size EV is not the last card in the Swedish automaker’s plan, though. Two more electric models based on the SPA3 architecture, as well as a long-range plug-in hybrid will join the ranks in the coming years, hopefully enabling Volvo to reach its newly-adjusted goal of having 90-100% of sales coming from EVs and PHEVs by the end of the decade.
