Volvo XC90 Built with New Scalable Product Architecture
Volvo’s all-new XC90 – which will be launched in two weeks’ time in Stockholm – will be the first car in its range to be built on the Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) modular chassis technology developed in-house.
SPA has been under in-house development at Volvo for the past four years and is the cornerstone of the company’s ongoing USD 11bn transformation plan. It will be introduced with the all-new XC90 and then rolled out across the product range in future. The benefits of SPA are twofold, says Volvo.
First, the flexibility of SPA liberates Volvo’s engineers and designers, allowing them to devise and introduce a wide range of new and alluring design features at the same time as improving driveability, introducing safety features, offering the latest connected car technologies and creating more interior space.
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Secondly, SPA will change the way Volvo builds cars in future by allowing a wide range of cars, powertrains, electrical systems and technologies – all of differing complexity – to be fitted on the same architecture, generating significant economies of scale.
The new SPA chassis technology reduces weight and improves weight distribution, improving driving pleasure without compromising on ride comfort.
With SPA, previous design limitations in areas such as wheelbase, overhang, vehicle height and the height of the front are removed.
Today (Aug. 12), for the first time, Volvo is revealing images of the front end or ‘face’ of the new XC90 SUV, which is distinguished by its T-shaped running lights, christened ‘Thor’s Hammer’ by the design team after the shape of the hammer used by the famous Norse god of thunder, Thor.
