Volvo XC40 Electric to be revealed on 16th October

Volvo has announced the arrival of pure electric XC40 on 16 October. This electrified crossover will be the first-ever fully-electric vehicle from the Swedish carmaker. Apart from the zero-emission powertrain, Volvo also claims that the XC40 EV would be one of the safest cars on the road.

According to the carmaker, the safety engineers had to completely redesign and reinforce the frontal structure to deal with the absence of an engine to meet Volvo’s high safety requirements. In order to do that, Volvo has placed the battery pack below the floor of the car where it is protected by a first-of-its-kind safety cage. This cage consists of a frame of extruded aluminium and it is embedded in the middle of the body structure. As a result, it creates a built-in crumple zone around the battery.

Meanwhile, the electric powertrain has been integrated into the body structure for a better distribution of collision forces away from the cabin and reduces the strain on people inside the car, claims Volvo. Although no powertrain details are available at the moment, we know that the XC40 electric will debut a new technology called Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). The ADAS sensor platform is developed by Zenuity, the joint venture company owned by Volvo Cars and Veoneer.

The ADAS platform is a modern, scalable active safety system that consists of an array of radars, cameras and ultrasonic sensors. Because of its scalable nature, it can easily be developed further and lays the foundation for the future introduction of autonomous drive technology.

Malin Ekholm, head of safety at Volvo, talking about the new electric XC40, said, “Regardless of what drives a car forward, be it an electric machine or combustion engine, a Volvo must be safe. The fundamentals around safety are the same for this car as for any other Volvo. People are inside, and the car needs to be designed to be safe for them”.

When it will be revealed on the 16th of next month, the XC40 electric will rival the likes of Hyundai Kona Electric and Audi E-Tron electric crossovers.