Aug. 14, 2014—Volvo announced Tuesday it will launch the 2015 XC90, a vehicle built on Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which is a modular chassis technology developed by the company.
SPA has been under development for the past four years at Volvo and the company plans to begin rolling out the technology in other products in the future.
The benefits of SPA are twofold, Volvo said in a press release, highlighting the flexibility of the technology—which will allow the company’s engineers to release new design features—along with the ability to create a range of cars of differing complexity to be fitted on the same architecture.
“SPA gives us a fresh technological start,” said peter Mertens, senior vice president of research and development at Volvo. “Around 90 percent of the components in the all-new XC90 and upcoming models are new and unique. We are raising the bar to the very top of the premium league when it comes to quality and technology level in every vital area.”
In addition to creating more freedom for designers and being more economical by using the samejoint modules, interfaces and scalable systems across various products, Volvo says the technology should increase safety.
“We have created a single nerve system with full control over all the connections in the vehicle. This is unique in the industry,” says Dr Mertens.
Visit Volvo online for more information about the SPA technolgy.
