Volvo station wagons to return? SPA3 platform permits extra versatile packaging, for lower-riding EV fashions

Though Volvo had beforehand stated it will not introduce new station wagon fashionsit seems that an about-turn may very well be on the playing cards, because the Swedish model’s new platform might permit its future EV fashions to trip nearer to the bottom, and never essentially be of SUV peak, reported Autocar.

The platform generally known as SPA3 is first used on the EX60 that made its debut in January this 12 months, and has been developed for considerably better engineering flexibility and in order that the automobile’s battery capability doesn’t dictate the peak of the automobile, in accordance with the report.

That is doable as a result of the SPA3 platform has been created for EVs from the outset, quite than being tailored from an ICE-powered automobile platform, which is the case with its predecessor the SPA2 which underpins the EX90 and ES90and thus permits extra freedom in shifting elements and constructions to swimsuit completely different designs, stated Volvo chief know-how officer Anders Bell.

His “job in engineering is to supply choices for the corporate,” Bell instructed Autocar. We are able to make (vehicles) excessive. We are able to make them low. It’s all in scalability and that is unlocked by eradicating the combustion engine, the exhaust, gas tanks and all the things from the equation, and discovering new methods to construct up the bone construction and the scalability of the platform,” he stated.

Packaging constraints for EVs on tailored ICE-based platforms is one motive why electrical vehicles are getting wider generally, as a result of with a purpose to improve capability, battery packs should be made wider sideways, Bell stated. The SPA3 platform gives new potentialities with regard to packaging, which can permit next-generation Volvo EVs to extra intently resemble to width, peak and silhouette of conventional, ICE-powered vehicles, he stated.

When the entrance crash construction of a automobile has not been formed to accommodate an engine, because the case could be for an ground-up BEV design, there may be extra flexibility to place the battery cells throughout the floorpan, and forward of the entrance bulkhead, and subsequently the battery doesn’t strictly need to be inside the wheelbase.

The SPA3 platform strikes the assembly level between the battery and the entrance crash construction ahead, so Volvo can put seven kilowatts – at a minimal, most likely extra – of the pack additional ahead, whereas nonetheless doing all of the loopy Volvo crash stuff,” Bell stated.

Putting battery cells forward of the entrance windscreen frees up room for “foot garages”, similar to within the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GTwhich permits the seating place to be nearer to that of a standard inner combustion engined automobile. In a decrease automobile, you’ll be able to depopulate cells within the rear footwell, as a result of that is really what units the bottom peak of a automobile: the rear-seat passenger,” Bell instructed the publication.

“If in case you have an evenly flat pack all through the entire size of the automobile, you get this penalty. It’s why so lots of the (BEVs primarily based on ICE platforms) seem like child SUVs, even when they attempt to be low,” Bell continued. This might, in principle, open the door to the return of a sedan and station wagon sibling to the EX60, although that depends upon demand.

“You possibly can obtain this incredible bandwidth so we are able to make super-sleek vehicles, like there’s no battery pack that impacts the peak of the roof,” Bell stated.

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