Volvo and Polestar are two companies that are very close together, so close that the Polestar 3 cars I was looking at were built by Volvo in Sweden. They are also very close to each other in strategy, or Polestar is forced to stay close to Volvo because they still don’t have the muscle to develop cars on their own.
Polestar 3, made in Sweden by Volvo Cars.
They also differ in how open they are. Volvo says we’ll have a sequel to the XC90 soon, Polestar has already revealed what the next four models (including the Polestar 3) will look like.
For Volvo, everything is darker. We know an XC90 sequel is coming soon, but what will be looks shaky. It has been a guessing game for us journalists over the past few years and this week a new piece of the puzzle has arrived during the launch of Polestar 3.
But we support the tape. We know there will be a sequel to the XC90. We know that somehow it will be fully electric and that Volvo will continue to sell a fossil version for a while because the whole world still doesn’t have charging stations around the corner.
Even Volvo, or rather then CEO Håkan Samuelsson, said the next generation cars will have real names and Embla is gone. started pouring around when Volvo applied for the mark.
Last summer they also unveiled a new design strategy and unveiled the Concept Recharge car. When Volvo’s head of design Robin Page presents the car below, the concept and the Polestar 3 are basically copies of each other. Overall, the shape is very similar, but if you look inside, it’s exactly the same layout, the same screens in the same places.
But then something happened. Suddenly, Volvo started registering brands with E in the beginning and now there is talk of the XC90 sequel as the EX90. It may have something to do with Jim Rowan stepping in as CEO and not appreciating the new names. Or Volvo has figured out that you need to electrify their current models if you’re not going to completely lose them to the competition.
Some time ago, patent images of a car coming from Volvo appeared. This is a restyling of the current XC90 and will be called EX90, but it is not the brother of the Polestar 3. See the images below. Above, the Polestar 3, then the Volvo Concept Recharge, then the car from the leaked patent images and finally the Polestar 3 again. Check especially the position of the wheels.
The mysterious thing about those patent images is the front, which is completely covered like on an electric car and not a fossil car. The natural thing would be to revamp the XC90 a bit, sell it with fossil engines, and release a version of the Concept Recharge as an all-electric car.
No grill here either
Or will it be that EX90 and that concept was just bullshit? No, why would you spend a lot of money on a car and let the little Polestar run away with the results? That Volvo does not release that concept in production form which is in many ways similar to the Polestar 3 but with room for seven people is unreasonable. How come? Because a fossil car converted to an electric car is barely enough today and it won’t be enough in 3-4 years.
One thing surprised me with the launch of the Polestar 3. They show it now and deliver it in a year. There are long lead times for all electric cars right now, but a year from the show to the start of production is a long time even in these times, because we are talking about the first cars and not large scale production in a year. The LiDAR version will also arrive at least six months later.
For the first time there was talk of the fact that the next electric Volvo would be produced alongside the Polestar 3 at the American Volvo plant in Charleston. But upon the launch of the Polestar 3, it became clear that it will be manufactured for the first time at the company’s plant in Chengdu, China. Only in mid-2024 will it launch Polestar 3 from that factory.
This may be due to the fact that Volvo simply wants to eat the whole production by itself or they have problems and the Volvo variant of the Polestar 3, as well as the start of production of the Polestar 3, is delayed compared to what was planned a few years ago. Polestar can afford to wait a bit with production, but Volvo needs to get an electric XC90 out now, preferably just now. Maybe an electric version of the revamped XC90n is the solution? They’ve already done this with the XC40, so putting some batteries in the old fossil car might be the solution here?
If so, I think at the same time they rename the XC40 Recharge to the EX40 and do the same trick with the XC60, which could become the EX60 in its current form (perhaps with a makeover). Volvo also needs a midsize electric SUV, and if we have to wait more than two years before it goes into production, time is running out for Volvo.
What I don’t understand is Volvo’s pressure on safety they’ve had recently. In the video below, a car turns around which is very similar to the car in the patent sketches. Why isn’t Concept Recharge included there instead?
The Polestar 3 is equipped with LiDAR, which is one of the cornerstones of Volvo’s safety system, but it can only be decided this spring and delivery is scheduled for 2024. Volvo can really talk a lot about safety and not immediately release a version with LiDAR?
Many questions. On November 9, Volvo will provide some of the answers.
