Volvo opens electric motor lab in Shanghai

Swedish automaker Volvo Cars opened a new electric motor lab in Shanghai on Tuesday, the latest move as the company continues to move toward becoming a fully electric carmaker.

Volvo's new lab will mainly focus on electric motor development for use in fully electric and hybrid cars based on Volvo Cars’ forthcoming modular vehicle architecture.

The investments in e-motor design and development represent another step toward Volvo Cars’ electrification strategy. Volvo aims for 50 percent of its sales to be fully electric vehicles by 2025, with the rest hybrids.

In 2020, multinational automobile companies are speeding up their efforts in the country's future new-energy vehicle market and seeking longer-term development.

“Through in-house design and development, we can finetune our e-motors to ever better levels,” said Henrik Green, chief technology officer at Volvo Cars. “By constantly improving their overall performance levels in terms of energy efficiency and comfort, we create an electric driving experience that is unique to Volvo.”

The lab is part of its global network of facilities for the development and testing of electric car components. Volvo Cars said the company is making significant investments that allow for the in-house design and development of electric motors for the next generation of Volvo models.

Bringing the development of electric motors in-house will allow Volvo engineers to further optimize electric motors and the entire electric driveline in new Volvos. This approach will allow engineers to make further gains in terms of energy efficiency and overall performance.

In the first 10 months of this year, Volvo Cars sold nearly 130,000 vehicles in the Chinese market, a year-on-year increase of 5.3 percent.