Volvo Automobiles CEO Jim Rowan photographed in Nov. 2022. The corporate desires each automobile it sells to be absolutely electrical by the 12 months 2030.
Anders Wiklund | AFP | Getty Pictures
Volvo Automobiles doesn’t plan to make use of autonomous driving expertise from Tesla and can as an alternative concentrate on creating its personal programs, in response to the corporate’s CEO.
Again in June, the Gothenburg-headquartered carmaker mentioned it had inked an settlement with Elon Musk’s agency that might give its electrical automobiles entry to 12,000 Tesla Superchargers within the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Talking to CNBC’s “Squawk Field Europe” on Thursday morning, Volvo Automobiles chief Jim Rowan was requested whether or not this meant the enterprise would think about using Tesla’s autonomous driving tech sooner or later.
“We have already made that call when it comes to what we need to management internally, when it comes to our expertise stack,” Rowan mentioned.
“And we have chosen that we need to be in full management of our ADAS [advanced driver assistance systems], all the way in which as much as full AD [autonomous driving] software program,” he added.
“So we’ll proceed to write down that, we’ll proceed to put money into that, and we’ll proceed to develop that.”
In an indication of how the corporate’s technique is taking form, Volvo Automobiles introduced late final 12 months that it had taken full possession of Zenseact, a enterprise specializing in AD software program.
Rowan was talking to CNBC after Volvo Automobiles reported second-quarter outcomes. The corporate mentioned earnings earlier than curiosity and taxes have been 5 billion Swedish krona (round $487.5 million) in comparison with 10.8 billion Swedish krona within the second quarter of 2022.
“In the course of the quarter, the corporate reported a continued sturdy gross sales efficiency in electrical vehicles,” it mentioned in a press release accompanying its earnings report. “Gross sales of absolutely electrical Volvo automobile fashions elevated by 178 per cent year-on-year throughout the quarter and accounted for 16 per cent of its whole share.”
Volvo Automobiles’ longer-term electrification technique is centered round each automobile it sells being absolutely electrical by the 12 months 2030. This could imply a phase-out of automobiles utilizing inner combustion engines, a class that features hybrids.
Provide chain challenges
The previous few years have seen the automotive trade endure points associated to produce chains and the price of supplies essential to the manufacturing of electrical automobiles.
Throughout his interview with CNBC, Rowan gave an outline of the present state of play. “Final 12 months we noticed lithium spike fairly dramatically, that is now come down considerably from its peak,” he mentioned.
“It went from about 10 to about $110 per kilo and now it is down … under, someplace between 30 and 40 [dollars],” he added. “So we’re beginning to see that normalize, and I believe that can maintain lowering via the course of this 12 months.”
Rowan additionally described semiconductors as being “patchy” in 2022 however “a lot, a lot better this 12 months.”
This had been proven in Volvo Automobiles personal output, he mentioned. “We manufactured over 50% extra vehicles this quarter than we did in the identical quarter final 12 months.”
He added that 2022 had additionally been affected by Covid lockdowns. “In case you keep in mind, Shanghai was locked down for nearly 60 days — we had a variety of the suppliers in Shanghai, and that was an impact there,” Rowan mentioned.
“So we’re seeing that bounce again actually rapidly for us.”
