Jacksons Accelerator Electric Edition Accelerator Electric Edition | Page 84

The fully electric
XC40 SUV –
Volvo’s first electric
car and one of the
safest on the road.
The advance of electric cars constitutes the
biggest change in the history of the automobile.
For the first time in over a century, cars move
without a petrol or diesel engine in the engine
bay and have a battery in the floor, changing the
car at its core.
With the introduction of the forthcoming fully electric
Volvo XC40 SUV next month, Volvo Cars is not just
launching its first fully electric car – in true Volvo
tradition, it is also introducing one of the safest cars on
the road, despite a fresh set of challenges presented by
the absence of an internal combustion engine.
“Regardless of what drives a car forward, be it an
electric machine or combustion engine, a Volvo
must be safe,” says Malin Ekholm, head of safety at
Volvo Cars. “The fully electric XC40 will be one of
the safest cars we have ever built.” To help keep passengers safe and the ba
of a collision, Volvo Cars also developed
structure for passengers and battery alike i
While building on the excellent safety standards of
the original XC40, Volvo Cars safety engineers had to
completely redesign and reinforce the frontal structure
to deal with the absence of an engine, meet Volvo Cars’
high safety requirements and help keep occupants as
safe as in any other Volvo. The battery is protected by a safety cage
of extruded aluminium and has been em
the car’s body structure, creating a built-
the battery. The battery’s placement in the
the benefit of lowering the centre of gra
protection against roll-overs.
“The fundamentals around safety are the same
for this car as for any other Volvo. People are
inside, and the car needs to be designed to be
safe for them,” says Malin Ekholm. Meanwhile, the car’s body structure has not
front, but also at the rear. Here, the electric pow
in the body structure to realise a better dis
away from the cabin and reduce the strain o