Although Volvo had previously said it will no longer introduce new station wagon models, it appears that an about-turn could be on the cards, as the Swedish brand’s new platform could allow its future EV models to ride closer to the ground, and not necessarily be of SUV height, reported Autocar.
The platform known as SPA3 is first used on the EX60 that made its debut in January this year, and has been developed for significantly greater engineering flexibility and so that the vehicle’s battery capacity does not dictate the height of the vehicle, according to the report.
This is possible because the SPA3 platform has been created for EVs from the outset, rather than being adapted from an ICE-powered vehicle platform, which is the case with its predecessor the SPA2 which underpins the EX90 and ES90, and thus allows more freedom in moving components and structures to suit different designs, said Volvo chief technology officer Anders Bell.
His “job in engineering is to provide options for the company,” Bell told Autocar. We can make [cars] high. We can make them low. It’s all in scalability and this is unlocked by removing the combustion engine, the exhaust, fuel tanks and everything from the equation, and finding new ways to build up the bone structure and the scalability of the platform,” he said.
Packaging constraints for EVs on adapted ICE-based platforms is one reason why electric cars are getting wider in general, because in order to increase capacity, battery packs will have to be made wider sideways, Bell said. The SPA3 platform offers new possibilities with regard to packaging, which will allow next-generation Volvo EVs to more closely resemble to width, height and silhouette of traditional, ICE-powered cars, he said.
When the front crash structure of a vehicle has not been shaped to accommodate an engine, as the case would be for an ground-up BEV design, there is more flexibility to position the battery cells across the floorpan, and ahead of the front bulkhead, and therefore the battery does not strictly have to be within the wheelbase.
The SPA3 platform moves the meeting point between the battery and the front crash structure forward, so Volvo can put seven kilowatts – at a minimum, probably more – of the pack further forward, while still doing all the crazy Volvo crash stuff,” Bell said.
Placing battery cells ahead of the front windscreen frees up room for “foot garages”, such as in the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT, which allows the seating position to be closer to that of a conventional internal combustion engined car. In a lower car, you can depopulate cells in the rear footwell, because this is actually what sets the lowest height of a car: the rear-seat passenger,” Bell told the publication.
“If you have an evenly flat pack throughout the whole length of the vehicle, you get this penalty. It’s why so many of the [BEVs based on ICE platforms] look like baby SUVs, even if they try to be low,” Bell continued. This could, in theory, open the door to the return of a sedan and station wagon sibling to the EX60, though that depends on demand.
“You can achieve this fantastic bandwidth so we can make super-sleek cars, like there’s no battery pack that affects the height of the roof,” Bell said.
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