Volvo to design electric motors in-house for its next generation EV models

With the aim of moving towards becoming a fully electric car maker, Volvo Cars has announced that is making significant investments to design and develop in-house electric motors for the next generation of its EV models.

The company has opened a new electric motor lab in China's Shanghai, the latest addition to its global network of facilities for the development and testing of electric car components. Apart from the lab, Volvo has an ongoing e-motor development facility in Sweden and state-of-the-art battery labs in China and Sweden.

Volvo says in-house development of electric motors will allow its engineers to further optimise the motors and the entire electric driveline in its upcoming cars. It will also allow the engineers to make further gains in terms of energy efficiency and overall performance. “Through in-house design and development, we can fine-tune our e-motors to ever better levels," says Henrik Green, CTO at Volvo Cars.

The electric motor lab in Shanghai that became operational last month, will mainly focus on electric motor development for use in fully electric and hybrid cars based on Volvo's forthcoming SPA 2 modular vehicle architecture.

Electrification is part of Volvo's comprehensive climate plan which addresses carbon emissions across all its operations and products. The company aims to become climate-neutral by 2040 and for 50 per cent of its sales to be fully electric vehicles by 2025, with the rest hybrids. Its

Volvo says that as a first tangible step towards its 2040 emission goal, it aims to reduce its lifecycle carbon footprint per car by 40 per cent between 2018 and 2025.