The Volvo EX60 is built on the new SPA3 platform – probably in Gothenburg

In the future, all Volvo electric cars will share basic technology. Volvo Cars calls this the Superset tech stack.

– Volvo Cars’ Superset tech stack changes the game: it makes it possible to channel all our engineering efforts into a single direction that drives all our products, instead of working on specific car projects, says Anders Bell, Chief Engineering & Technology Officer at Volvo Cars.

Instead of working with annual models, there will be continuous improvement work. You can see it as all cars have a similar central computer that receives frequent updates to their common operating system. In engineering language, this is called core computing. The computers are supplied by American Nvidia.

The Superset tech stack is a central part of the new platform SPA3, which will be the basis for all Volvo electric cars going forward.

First to use the SPA3 platform will be the medium-sized SUV EX60, which corresponds to today’s best-seller XC60. It follows the EX90 and ES90 which are based on the SPA2 platform – a platform originally intended for both plug-in hybrids and electric cars.

The SPA3 platform is a further development of the SPA2 used in the EX90 and ES90, but has been made more scalable so that it can be used for all model sizes – even larger models than the EX90 and smaller cars than the EX30.

In this way, Volvo Cars can share the development costs across the entire model program and thus achieve higher profitability.

This may also mean that Volvo will not use platforms from Geely in the future.

Another way that Volvo Cars expects to improve profitability is by using megapresses (gigacasting). These are gigantic sheet metal presses that drastically reduce the number of individual sheet metal parts in the cars. Two mega presses have been installed in the Volvo factory in Gothenburg and perhaps that is why it is rumored that the Volvo EX60 will be manufactured there.