Volvo Cars makes charging and paying easier than ever for pure electric Volvo drivers For over a century, motorists around the globe have been used to simply driving into a gas station, checking the going rate for their fuel of choice, filling up their tank and continuing their journey. As it moves towards becoming a fully electric car maker by 2030, Volvo Cars believes it should be just as easy and convenient to charge and pay for charging if consumers are to widely adopt all-electric cars. That is why Volvo Cars will integrate and consolidate a wide variety of charging functions and payment into its Volvo Cars app, with the ambition of making it an easy-to-use, one-stop shop for electric Volvo drivers. With the Volvo Cars app, pure electric Volvo drivers can find hundreds of thousands of public charging stations around the globe from a broad range of charging operators, get real-time information on availability of chargers, and pay for their charging session through one single interface. Charging a pure electric Volvo car has never been easier. “Many of us are familiar with the frustration of having to navigate multiple apps and carrying multiple cards for different charging operators,” said Olivier Loedel, head of Electrification Ecosystem at Volvo Cars. “Our goal was to make life easier for our customers and remove one of the major barriers for customers to switch to an electric car. With the Volvo Cars app, we will create one digital charging platform.” In China, Volvo Cars recently signed agreements with the country’s three leading charging point operators Star Charge, State Grid and TELD, who together cover more than 75 per cent of all public charging points in China. Customers can find charging, start charging by scanning a QR code and pay directly in the Volvo Cars app, through leading payment services including WeChat Pay and Alipay as well as by using V Point. In Europe, Volvo drivers can choose from over 270,000 charging points following the integration of Plugsurfing into the Volvo Car app, which enables cross-border charging access across the continent. In the United States, the new Volvo Cars app is expected to be rolled out before the end of the year. It is designed to build on the already successful ChargePoint in-car app for US-based Volvo Recharge customers, which allows them to search, navigate and pay for charging at one of over 25,000 charger locations. On top of this, as of model year 2023 fully electric Volvo cars in the US will come with a complimentary three-year 250 kWh DC fast charging pass with Electrify America, as well as a subsequent 12-month Electrify America Pass+ membership. Earlier this year, Volvo Cars USA also announced a collaboration with Starbucks in the US, where it will install as many as 60 Volvo-branded, ChargePoint-powered DC fast chargers at Starbucks locations. They will be located along a 1,350-mile route from the Denver area to Starbucks’ Seattle headquarters. Plans include a charging location about every 100 miles, well within the battery range of Volvo Cars’ pure electric models. As it continues to roll out more pure electric cars and make consistent improvements to the owning and charging experience, Volvo Cars is also making investments in public charging networks in areas of strategic importance around Europe, together with local partners. In recent months Volvo Cars has revealed investments in Powerstop-branded fast charging points in a variety of countries, including Poland, Italy and Belgium. Furthermore, in Spain the brand works together with national utility firm Iberdrola on charging points at Volvo Cars retailers. By investing in public charging at retailers and along commuter roads, Volvo Cars boosts availability of reliable public charging infrastructure in Europe that is accessible to both Volvo car and non-Volvo car customers. Meanwhile, it has a variety of preferential pricing agreements in place. Through Plugsurfing, drivers of electric Volvo cars benefit from special rates for the first 12 months when charging at IONITY stations around Europe. In Sweden and Norway Volvo Cars has teamed up with charging operator MER to offer preferential rates in those countries. In China, owners of fully electric Volvo cars enjoy free access to AC and DC charging at three of the country’s biggest public charging operators, Star Charge, State Grid and TELD. Allergies, asthma and air pollution affect hundreds of millions of people around the world in a negative way, according to data from the World Health Organisation and the World Allergy Organisation. That is why Volvo Cars is taking steps to offer its customers ever-improving air quality inside its latest cars through cutting-edge air purification, helping people breathe cleaner air. Volvo Cars believes that clean air offers multiple benefits from a personal health and safety perspective and will continue to make further improvements in this area as it develops its cars. The Advanced Air Cleaner, part of the latest air purification technology available on new 90 and 60 series models has been CERTIFIED asthma & allergy friendly , by Allergy Standards Limited (ASL), removing up to 99.9 per cent of grass, tree and weed pollen allergens from incoming air. Allergy Standards Limited (ASL) is an independent certification programme that helps consumers identify products that are suitable for people with asthma and allergies. “By helping our customers improve the air quality inside their Volvo car, we will help reduce the adverse health effects associated with air pollution, allergens and fine particulates,” said Dr. Maria Bernander, occupant health effects expert at Volvo Cars. “In addition to personal health benefits, studies have shown cleaner air can also help boost concentration which can help you stay more focused during the drive.” Moreover, drivers of the latest Volvo cars* will be able to assess whether to purify the air in the cabin of their car with the help of live data that shows actual outdoor pollen and air quality levels in the car’s centre display. This in-house developed app makes Volvo Cars the first car maker to provide live data of outdoor pollen levels to drivers. “By regularly testing and evolving the air purification features in our cars, we can increase our competitive advantage by offering a more comfortable and healthier driving experience,” said Anders Löfvendahl, cabin air quality technical expert and function owner. Cars equipped with the company’s latest air purification technology also come with a sensor, launched globally in 2020 as a world-first feature in Volvo cars, that measures PM 2.5 levels inside the cabin and allows customers to compare those to outside levels. Indicating the amount of fine particulate matters in the air, PM 2.5 levels are a widely used measure for air quality. Globally, many urban areas suffer from PM 2.5 levels that exceed recommended levels by the World Health Organisation, underlining the need to minimise their impact. Thanks to a synthetic fibre-based filter and ionisation in Volvo Cars’ Advanced Air Cleaner, up to 95 per cent of all PM 2.5 particles are kept out of the cabin in our 60 and 90 series models. Additionally, the Advanced Air Cleaner can remove more than 97 per cent of airborne viruses that try to enter the cabin via the air filter and remove existing viral levels in the vehicle by up to 95 per cent. Results from recent tests performed by the independent Austrian research and testing institute OFI show that the viral filtration efficiency of its filter and ioniser makes the technology highly effective against airborne viruses. Volvo Cars is introducing a range of updates to its entire car line-up, the most prominent of which is an exterior refresh of its fully electric XC40 Recharge. The company also unveils a single electric motor variant of the pure electric C40 Recharge. The new C40 and XC40 variants, along with all other new Volvo Cars’ models, will be available through an updated offer concept, designed to make the online ordering process of Volvo cars easier and more convenient. Volvo customers will now be able to choose between different equipment levels and select the options that best suit their personal needs. The new offer structure reflects Volvo Cars’ ambitions to increase price transparency, as well as reduce complexity in its model offering by focusing on attractive pre-selected variants. When Volvo Cars first presented the XC40 in 2017, it was a fresh, creative and distinctive addition to the Volvo line-up. Five years later, it is an award-winning staple in the company’s portfolio and one of the car maker’s constant top sellers. To reinforce its cutting-edge design and modern statement, Volvo Cars designers have now given the XC40 line-up a refresh. A new front bumper and a frameless grille plate keep the all-electric XC40 Recharge visually in sync with the Volvo C40 Recharge, aligning the two cars that symbolise Volvo Cars’ electrification journey. The signature Thor’s Hammer headlights are augmented with state-of-the-art pixel LED light technology, enabling them to automatically adapt to traffic in front and efficiently light up the road ahead without dazzling other drivers. Additionally, customers will receive premium leather-free upholstery options in the pure electric XC40 Recharge, as well as new exterior colours and rims, offering further possibilities for personalisation. “As we move towards becoming a fully electric company, our design language follows,” said Robin Page, head of design at Volvo Cars. “With the refreshed fully electric XC40, we continue to evolve its instantly recognisable design, creating a more modern face with a sleeker front and an even more integrated grille.” In addition to the twin motor variant, Volvo Cars has also unveiled a single electric motor variant of the pure electric C40 Recharge, expanding its fully electric offer and supporting its ambition to help more people make the switch to fully electric cars. The new single-motor C40, with power on the front wheels, expands the company’s range of fully electric variants to four, further paving the way towards its ambition of selling only fully electric cars by 2030. The single-motor C40 Recharge comes with a 69 kWh battery and an anticipated range of up to 434 km on a single charge under the WLTP drive cycle. The battery can charge from 10 to 80 per cent of capacity in approximately 32 minutes on a fast-charging system. Volvo Cars is integrating and testing a new wireless charging technology in a live city environment together with selected partners, evaluating its potential for future electric cars. Over a three-year period, a small fleet of fully electric Volvo XC40 Recharge cars will be used as taxis by Cabonline, the largest taxi operator in the Nordic region, and charged wirelessly at stations in Gothenburg, Sweden. The wireless charging test is one of many projects outlined within the strategic initiative Gothenburg Green City Zone, under which designated areas within the city are used as live testbeds for the development of sustainable technologies. “Gothenburg Green City Zone lets us try exciting new technologies in a real environment and evaluate them over time for a potential future broader introduction,” said Mats Moberg, head of Research and Development at Volvo Cars. “Testing new charging technologies together with selected partners is a good way to evaluate alternative charging options for our future cars.” The charging stations used in the test are delivered by Momentum Dynamics, a leading provider of wireless electric charging systems. The charging starts automatically when a compatible vehicle parks over a charging pad embedded in the street, allowing drivers to conveniently charge without getting out of their car. The charging station sends energy through the charging pad, which is picked up by a receiver unit in the car. To easily align the car with the charging pad, Volvo Cars will use its 360-degree camera system. For the fully electric XC40 Recharge cars, the wireless charging power will be more than 40 kW, making the charging speeds around four times faster than a wired 11 kW AC charger and almost as fast as a wired 50 kW DC fast charger. In total, the Volvo cars will be used for more than 12 hours a day and drive 100,000 km per year, which also makes this the first durability test of fully electric Volvo cars in a commercial usage scenario. Other partners involved in the wireless charging project include the company’s own Swedish retailers Volvo Bil and Volvo Car Sörred, Swedish energy compan