{"id":244138,"date":"2023-06-09T11:46:49","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T15:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=244138"},"modified":"2023-06-09T11:47:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T15:47:00","slug":"qa-volvo-ceo-jim-rowan-talks-hitting-targets-future-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2023\/06\/qa-volvo-ceo-jim-rowan-talks-hitting-targets-future-vehicles\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Volvo CEO Jim Rowan Talks Hitting Targets, Future Vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With this week\u2019s unveiling of the compact Volvo EX30, following the debut of the big EX90 last winter, the Swedish automaker effectively bookends its line-up of battery-electric vehicles. It\u2019s now well on its way to shifting to an all-EV line-up by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Volvo
Volvo CEO Jim Rowan said the company is tracking to meet its electrification goals.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a big deal,\u201d proclaimed Jim Rowan, who took over as Volvo CEO in March 2022. He\u2019s confident Volvo has a significant opportunity to grow, based on the initial response to the EX30 and EX90 models which go into production in 2024, as well as the EVs Volvo is already selling, such as the C40 Recharge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TheDetroitBureau.com joined a roundtable discussion with the Scottish-born Rowan to discuss the new EX30, as well as the challenges and opportunities presented by going all-electric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> The EX30 is not only your smallest, but also least expensive all-electric model, at a starting price of $34,950 (before delivery fees). Who are you targeting with it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rowan:<\/strong> It\u2019s a great addition to the portfolio for a couple reasons. For one, it\u2019s going to allow us to talk toi a different demographic to bring younger people into the brand. Our (current) age demographic is older than we\u2019d like it to be. Everything about the car has been designed not only to talk to the current, loyal Volvo customer (but also) Gen-Z. They are going to be the biggest single purchasing power in the history of this planet. If you don\u2019t talk to them in a meaningful way then you\u2019re going to suffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> So, you\u2019re not targeting the traditional Volvo customer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rowan:<\/strong> What is really interesting is the loyal customer who may have traded up through the (years) \u2026 they\u2019re getting older, they want to downsize as they get older. They still like a high SUV ride height but they want a smaller car. Our research tells us we can pick up a ton of olrder people who want a modern connected car with a smaller footprint. So, I think we\u2019re going to find a lot of new customers as well as retaining a lot of our older customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rowan said he expect to get new Volvo buyers as well as loyalists with the EX30.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> You\u2019ll be offering a Cross Country version of the EX30. It\u2019s the first time you\u2019ve had a Cross Country model in a while. And it\u2019s first time it\u2019s been applied to an SUV and to an EV. Are you testing the idea to see if you can expand the (off-road-oriented) Cross Country concept further?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rowan:<\/strong> I really like the idea of having Cross Country as part of the brand (to appeal to) customers who want to be a bit more outdoorsy, which we\u2019re seeing post-COVID. People want to get out into the countryside. They want to enjoy their cars in slightly different ways. And here\u2019s the biggest thing: when you have a fully electric car and you go camping for the weekend, you can run a small fridge for the weekend, or charge up an electric bike. You can do a bunch of things you could never do (before) because you have a massive electric power source. You know the old tagline, \u201cVolvo for Life.\u201d We\u2019re bringing that back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New product coming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> What are you going to do with the rest of the existing line-up? Will it all be going electric, even the current hybrid models?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rowan:<\/strong> Yeah, of course. We need to look at the range. We\u2019ve talked about going to an all-electric range. You can figure that out. Some of it will be easy. And with some we\u2019ll have to make choices. Can we do a proper electric wagon? I get so many e-mails (asking for an electric wagon), mainly from Northern European people, and people in Maine. But we have to look at that and see if it makes sense for our portfolio. The question is not whether we can do that (wagon). Of course we can. The question is whether we should do it. I\u2019m not going to give you an answer on that right now. Another question is whether we should go bigger than the EX90 or smaller than the EX30? All of those questions have come into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Volvo's
The EX90 represents half of the bookend products for Volvo’s new set of electric SUVs.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> Do you plan to target young buyers with other products?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rowan:<\/strong> It\u2019s not just about young buyers. It\u2019s about attracting people from different brands. I think there are different brands we can take customers from because we have nicer cars or more electrified cars. And they see our company is more aligned to their lifestyle choices. And remember, we\u2019re not a volume car company. We\u2019re 1% of the total (global) car market. And if we get to 2% we\u2019ll be massively successful. Massively successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> Small cars tend to mean thinner margins and lower profitability. How do you balance between being a sustainable company and a profitable one with products like the EX30?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rowan:<\/strong> I think some Ferraris (are) pretty small and my guess is their profits are pretty good. This is a thing of the past. Just because (your cars) are small doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t make as much money if you add enough value for the customer \u2026 especially if you\u2019re a premium company and they care about safety and sustainability. Then, I think you can balance that equation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hitting the target<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> You\u2019re targeting going all-electric by 2030. Is that really going to happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Rowan said the company could build an all-electric wagon \u2014 but hasn’t yet.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Rowan:<\/strong> I get asked that all the time. We\u2019ve got places like Sweden and the Netherlands (where EVs account) for 40% now. We have two EVs at this point and we\u2019re going to have five, six, seven. Ask yourself the question: By 2029, are you going to spend $50,000 on old ICE (internal combustion engine) technology that you don\u2019t know how long you\u2019ll be able to drive. I\u2019m sure by 2029 buying an ICE engine is going to be a bad investment. You already see that with diesels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> So, how fast will you be making the switch to electric?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rowan:<\/strong> All we have to say is that we\u2019re going to do a brand new electric car every year for the next five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> It was mentioned during the EX30 debut that you\u2019re going to use over-the-air updates to add expanded features. There weren\u2019t many details. Can you elaborate a bit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rowan:<\/strong> You\u2019re going to see a plethora of different things. Some will just tidy up (existing functions) to make them work faster or better. And there\u2019ll be new options for entertainment. But I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a massive business model to keep charging your customer for software updates unless they are meaningful. You can say there\u2019s a business car for those who want full autonomous driving (capabilities added later). And if you want to fine tune engine performance through software, that\u2019s going to be an upgrade, as well. Charging (a subscription for) heated seats? Probably not. Some companies have tried and that didn\u2019t work out very well. A software update has to be meaningful and increase the performance of the car but, in most cases, without charging the customer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volvo’s new CEO Jim Rowan sat down to talk about the Swedish automaker’s future and TheDetroitBureau.com was there for the chat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244138"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244166,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244138\/revisions\/244166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244138"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=244138"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=244138"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=244138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}