The EX90 armed to the teeth has the confidence to challenge all traditional luxury brands, but the completely changed industry rules still put forward higher requirements for Volvo.

How difficult is it to combine luxury cars with electrification? BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi have all given answers in their own ways in the past two years. From the initial simple water test to the comprehensive promotion of performance with the help of an all electric platform, under the labels of i, EQ and e-tron, they really have hidden ambitions.

Unfortunately, blood and embarrassment are always intertwined.

When the new power enterprises led by Tesla continue to launch fierce attacks, the signal that the market can give is that BBA is not only confronted with unprecedented obstacles, but also the arrogant and arrogant nature seems to be so ignorant at this time. Compared with the fuel car business that has made a lot of money, those electric products that have been built with all their strength have only one way to go: "survive at a lower price".

Some people attribute this to the fact that the global new energy market is still in the development period, and the traditional luxury brands have not yet come into force. As the subsequent market potential gradually emerges, there are plenty of time and opportunities for development.

In this regard, these traditional giants who have eaten all the market dividends seem to be convinced. When the time comes to 2022, Chinese auto enterprises such as "Weixiaoli" will continue to expand their power, and there is no other special means to break the circle except promoting the product landing according to the existing plan.

In contrast, I believe that Volvo, which announced to the world early that it would completely "electrify", has shown the courage to break the ice when its fuel vehicle business has performed fairly well. No matter whether the Chinese car market can still make room for it, Volvo's sense of urgency to break the situation as soon as possible has been expressed from the official appearance of the EX90.

The strength of EX90 still exists

From the perspective of an onlooker, Volvo's brand values that it has always adhered to are the first prerequisite for its stability in the times. Times will always change, and many new things will emerge. But with the help of safety, health, sustainability, personalization and other labels, Volvo, which has values as its self coordinate, can find the direction of self upgrading.

From its maintenance of objective laws and its adherence to long-term principles, we can also see that Volvo is a very attractive luxury brand.

If so, when the world has chosen electrification from a number of industrial transformation paths without hesitation, Volvo will first jump out of the line and take promoting electrification transformation as the only development policy, which seems to have some persuasiveness.

On March 2 last year, Volvo gave a specific timetable around electrification transformation, business model innovation, climate neutrality and other fields - to achieve full electrification in 2025, when the proportion of pure electric vehicles will reach 50%, and the rest will be hybrid vehicles; In 2030, it will become a pure electric luxury car enterprise; In 2040, strive to become a climate zero load benchmark enterprise; All pure electric models will only be sold online.

Under the radical planning, Volvo is unwilling to accept the status quo. In terms of product breakthrough, Volvo did come up with a brand new C40 Recharge pure electric sedan SUV, so as to form a new product echelon with XC40 Recharge, adding another touch to its electric transformation.

Now, the appearance of Volvo EV90 has the taste of leading by example as a European luxury brand. When everyone is still struggling with how to cut from the past, Volvo, backed by China, can make such a decision to gamble with the times, which is not another brave move.

Returning to the product itself, Volvo, which is stubborn about safety, has provided EX90 with 16 ultrasonic radars, 8 cameras, 5 millimeter wave radars, 1 Luminar laser radar, and Nvidia Orin intelligent driving chip with 254TOPS computing power, which is enough to satisfy consumers who have strict requirements for intelligent driving.

As for the use of the so-called native pure electric platform, it is needless to say that Volvo has repeatedly talked about the outside world at the beginning of EX90 research and development. Now, the visible performance parameters, such as the standard dual motor configuration, the 111 kWh battery pack, and the support for 250kW DC fast charging, are also proving this for us.

Yes, Volvo is the first automobile brand in the world to completely withdraw from the development and manufacturing of internal combustion engines. Compared with the C40 and XC40 Recharge, the EX90 at this moment will be regarded as the leader of the strategic core market. In Europe, China and even North America, the mission of the EX90 is likely to be more difficult than that of the current XC90.

Of course, as a result, whether Volvo admits it or not, a series of new problems will follow. As a luxury brand in Europe, Volvo has the obligation to respond to the strict local environmental regulations. Behind the grand goal of "becoming a pure electric luxury brand by 2030, and achieving carbon neutrality by 2040", Volvo is determined.

However, as a member of Geely Automobile Group, what Volvo needs to do is to further expand its market share while retaining its existing base. In this stage, how should Volvo, which has chosen to bid farewell to the past, solve the problem of sharing the same room with Jixing and Lutes, and how should it deal with the Chinese car enterprises that have extended their tentacles to Europe?

With ruthlessness, you don't have enough tenacity

Everyone knows Europe's enthusiasm for electrification. Previously, when Volkswagen was under the death order of Herbert Diess and faced with Tesla, they were very angry. When Mercedes Benz and BMW were not familiar with their destiny, they fought hard to catch up. We all know that this war ignited by energy changes will become a key node to distinguish between life and death in the next era.

When Norway in Northern Europe directly set its national goal to achieve 100% electrification of new car sales by 2025, it became the first country in the world to achieve zero carbon emissions of cars. Volvo, born in Sweden, cannot be indifferent.

At that time, as Volvo could not wait to disclose that the new person to succeed the XC90 would be a pure electric SUV, I firmly believed that the war of transformation had reached an irreversible stage.

In other words, when "accelerating the process of electrification" has become a challenge that the global automobile industry has to face, compared with most automobile enterprises, the word "electrification" has become the basis of Volvo Cars' decisive battle in the future. In the past, under the restriction of brand image and market share, Volvo, as a luxury brand, was often ignored. Therefore, it is the most suitable means for Volvo to complete curve overtaking by means of electrification.

Soon, Volvo EX90 will officially enter the market.

Its arrival means that Volvo will catch up with BBA, and take the high-end pure electric SUV market as a breakthrough to complete the interpretation of electrification again. As the only luxury brand that has chosen to make a full transition to electrification, Volvo also hopes to jump out of the BBA's encirclement and squeeze into the front-line camp with the birth of EX90 as the turning point.

In the past year, Yuan Xiaolin, president of Volvo Cars Asia Pacific, has been praising, "Today, one of Volvo's three vehicles sold is a new energy vehicle, leading the market sales of the plug-in product line, proving the competitiveness of Volvo's brand in the era of electrification." Obviously, for Volvo (China), Volvo's gains in the terminal market at this stage are still possible.

At the same time, Volvo radiates from Europe to China. In the process of electrification transformation, Volvo has launched round after round of industrial discussions, such as the channel expansion of the urban exhibition hall+direct sales model. All kinds of signs show that Volvo, which is strongly embracing electrification, is so tough.

But now, it is still that problem. With the global automobile pattern being completely broken by "electrification", the European battlefield is seriously involved, and the North American electric vehicle market still needs time to penetrate, China has become the core position of the development of electrification. Volvo, which is no longer the center of the storm, is facing new people? The wrestling in the inherent circle again and again?

Like most people's impression of electric vehicles made by BBA, it is not easy for Volvo to stand out in the subsequent competition if it only uses the external force to make a pure electric version of such and such model to complete the switch of the times.

After two years of market turmoil, people in the Bureau have deeply realized that in the new generation where everyone pursues high intelligence and high interactivity, the inherent image of traditional luxury brands is not only difficult to become an advantage in the era of electrification, but also likely to become a shackle to the development of traditional car enterprises in the process of electrification. BBA is still like this. Today's Volvo needs to be vigilant.

In a word, in EX90, we clearly see Volvo's determination to actively transform. In order to build its own advantages in advance, with the original logic of "constantly setting new standards and creating new technologies", Volvo almost used all available resources to arm the EX90 to the teeth. However, the drastic changes in the electric vehicle market have created new ideas for too many people. Their hunting is full of departure from tradition.

"All who fight will win by coincidence and surprise". It's always easy to say, but it's really tricky to do. It is believed that Volvo's electrification transformation is far from the preset EX90 as the beginning, and has been smooth since then.