Volvo’s new XC60： smarter, for safety.

When it comes to Volvo, "safety" will almost be the first word in everyone’s mind. With the advantages of brand history, reputation and safety performance, Volvo has achieved double growth in brand and sales in China. Among them, XC60 is Volvo’s most popular and highest-selling model. In 2020, XC60 accounted for about 30% of Volvo’s sales in China.

Facing the luxury medium-sized SUV market which is already in the Red Sea, Volvo XC60 (parameter picture) has a place in the highly competitive market with its distinctive Nordic brand label and excellent safety performance.

On June 11th, the new XC60 was officially launched, with a total of 9 styles including 1 B4, 5 B5 and 3 T8. The official guide price is 373,900-603,900 yuan. The new car continues to strengthen its competitiveness to cope with the upgrade of its competitors. The key word this time is "intelligence".

Intelligence is the only way for Volvo to be safe.

"Intelligence" is the only way for Volvo to achieve the ultimate safety in the new era, but people are the starting point and end point of all Volvo technologies. Therefore, the upgrade focus of the new XC60 is intelligence.

In fact, in the intelligent tide of the automobile industry, the safety of automobile products is constantly approaching this aspect, including intelligent and safe driving, pedestrian safety, and car networking. As a representative in the field of automobile safety, Volvo also demonstrated its future layout of intelligent safety technology through the launch of the new XC60.

The first is the intelligent cockpit. The new intelligent concept and technology have further changed our car life and made the car operate like a smart phone.

Volvo’s new XC60 has a built-in native Android car, which is based on the standard version of the car Android system jointly developed by Volvo and Google, which can achieve better adaptation and effectively promote the establishment of an open intelligent ecosystem.

On the other hand, Volvo cooperates with the best partners in various fields, such as Ali, Tencent, Huawei, Iflytek and Gaode Map, to create the best application and service, and it can be accessed through the ONE ID account system. The most intuitive example is the WeChat scan code login machine, which is the only model that can be achieved at present.

The upgrade iteration of intelligent driving technology is the top priority of Volvo safety.

In 2015, the Volvo industry first introduced the Pilot Assist navigation assistance system, equipped with three world-first intelligent safety technologies. The whole system comes standard with City Safety urban safety assistance system, which has been iterated for many times in the past ten years, covering travel safety to every participant on the road and making safety to the extreme.

At the same time, Volvo is constantly approaching the advanced stage of intelligent driving-automatic driving, which is realized by cooperating with a series of technology companies. For example, to become the first automobile brand supported by NVIDIA OrinX chip, the powerful chip provides enough computing power for the automatic driving system, and the brand-new electronic and electrical architecture based on the central computing platform and Ethernet will ensure the high-speed data throughput required by the automatic driving function.

Volvo plans to achieve highly automatic driving assistance functions such as navigation assistance and automatic lane change according to the route set by navigation in 2023. Around 2025, automatic driving without human intervention will be realized on closed road sections. At present, it has reached a strategic partnership with Waymo, the world’s leading autonomous driving company.

In China, Volvo cooperated with Didi Chuxing to launch XC60 self-driving taxi service in Shanghai last year, and in April this year, Didi provided hundreds of XC90 self-driving cars equipped with redundant systems supporting steering and braking functions.

With the upgrading of the three strengths, the new XC60 is more competitive and has more cards.

The XC60 model has been recognized by many elite consumers in the city and established a good reputation. Therefore, the internal and external design of this annual change has not changed much. After all, this design is excellent enough. Choosing fine-tuning will be more rational and safe, mainly through the adjustment of details and materials to improve the overall texture and grade of the car.

For example, the straight waterfall chrome plating on the front face of the luxury model adds a broken line design, and the C-shaped chrome trim on both sides of the old bumper is replaced with a long strip design on the new model, which stretches the visual width of the front of the car. The sports version is replaced with a more radical bumper, and the net adopts a sharper and more dynamic blackened dot matrix style.

There are also many changes in the new XC60. All electronic gear bars have replaced the old mechanical gear bars, and the luxury version has used the Swedish royal national treasure Orrefors crystal gear bar. In addition, the medium-high configuration version will be equipped with or equipped with B&W Baohua Weijian audio system, and the whole system is still the only CleanZone? Nordic clean cockpit at the same level. On the whole, the cockpit of XC60 has a very distinctive temperament and luxury label compared with BBA of the same level and competitors of second-tier luxury brands. Many consumers choose XC60 for this set of interior.

Intelligent cockpit and safety upgrade are all reflected in the new XC60. For example, the only native built-in Android car system at the same level, the open Ali/Tencent/Huawei open ecological full coverage and Iflytek natural speech semantic recognition system provide drivers and passengers with a more convenient travel experience. In addition, the threshold of City Safety urban intelligent safety system is further lowered, and all XC60 models are equipped.

In terms of performance, the power control chassis of the new XC60 has been fully upgraded.

In terms of power, the whole new car is upgraded with 48V light mixing system, which further improves the overall performance and fuel saving level, and also significantly improves NVH and ride comfort.

Volvo Cars has formed a complete electrified product matrix including pure electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles and light hybrid vehicles. According to Volvo’s timetable for electrification transformation, all product lines will be electrified in 2021; In 2030, it became a pure electric luxury car enterprise; Strive to become a climate zero-load benchmark enterprise in 2040.

In terms of chassis control, the damping adjustment of the shock absorber of the new car tends to improve comfort, and with the seat jointly developed by the Royal Swedish Medical College, the driving comfort is further improved.

In addition, the new XC60 adopts an electronically controlled braking system to achieve a braking response of 0.15 seconds, and the braking response speed is increased by 2 times; There is also a full-time intelligent four-wheel drive system +4C adaptive chassis and air suspension equipment, which greatly improves the driving safety and handling.

Zero integer ratio is the best, attracting more rational users.

In the current market, XC60 still focuses on mainstream rivals such as Mercedes-Benz GLC, BMW X3 and Audi Q5L. In terms of brand power, Volvo may not be as good as it is, but in terms of product quality, XC60′ s advantages lie in more complete safety equipment and more cost-effective configuration advantages. There is also the tonality and connotation of Volvo’s unique brand.

Another thing I have to mention is the zero integral ratio. In the 12th Vehicle Zero-integral Ratio System Data released by China Automotive Technology Research Institute, the zero-integral ratio coefficient of BMW Brilliance X3 is 700.72%, that of Beijing Benz GLC is 614.69%, that of FAW Audi Q5L is 479.20%, and that of Volvo XC60 is only 466.60%, which is obviously the lowest among competing products of the same level.

The lower the zero integral ratio, the lower the maintenance cost of this model, not only the XC60, but also the models under the Volvo brand have lower zero integral ratio than the same level, which is a big attraction for the rational luxury car consumers, and many users who choose Volvo are actually rational buyers.

Zhong Shu

Nowadays, the competition of luxury medium-sized SUVs is becoming more and more fierce, and the "differentiation" characteristics of products will become a breakthrough. The unique Nordic design and people-oriented safety concept of XC60 will attract more and more attention. At the same time, fully accessing the online ecosystem of Ali, Tencent and Huawei, and Volvo embracing local suppliers in China to further meet the domestic market demand will become Volvo’s competitive advantage.