After a wait of about eight months, Volvo’s factory in Ridgeville, South Carolina, has started making the EX90 electric SUV. Originally, Volvo planned to start making this new flagship SUV toward the end of 2023, so dealers could have it in showrooms early this year.
The reservation list for the car filled up quickly, so Volvo had to close it earlier than expected. But after revealing the car in November 2022, Volvo faced unexpected problems with integrating the EX90’s Iris lidar system and Sentinel software, which are provided by Luminar Technologies. In May 2023, Volvo officially delayed the start of production until the first half of this year.
The Iris lidar system, which uses laser-based sensors, will be standard on all EX90 models. Volvo’s CEO, Jim Rowan, talked about how important it was to include this technology. He said, “We wanted to make sure that the first time we put lidar into our safety stack … it operates in the way it should.”
Part of the problem was that the software had to work with Volvo’s new VolvoCars.OS platform, which runs on a new “core computing” system developed with Nvidia. This system uses Nvidia’s Drive Orin chips, which are the same chips used by Rivian for its new electrical architecture in the Gen 2 R1 models.
According to Volvo, this new core computing system consists of three main computers that support each other in different tasks like vision processing, artificial intelligence, and infotainment. This change in the vehicle’s brain layout allows Volvo to introduce new hardware more frequently, so new Volvo models can have the latest available hardware.
Rowan believes that the delay will make things easier for future projects. With lidar planned for more Volvo cars, the software developed during this delay will be useful in other models too. And the lessons learned during the delay will be helpful when Volvo transitions to the Global Product Architecture that will come after the EX90’s SPA2 architecture.
The first EX90 customer car, painted in Denim Blue, will be delivered later this year. The factory in South Carolina also has good news about the S60 sedan, another car it makes. Sales of the S60 sedan have increased by 255% compared to last year.
