Volvo announces two important technological innovations for its entire range

Volvo begins 2025 by presenting some of the new features that will soon arrive across its range, to which more innovations will be added throughout the year as they are revealed and introduced. For now, let’s start with the two that have been previewed and relate to the technology side, and which will therefore affect the XC40, EX40, EC40, S60, V60, V60 Cross Country, V90 and V90 Cross Country.

Both relate to the technology that will be fitted to its models. The first of them was already seen with the arrival of the EX30, EX90 and the new XC90: the next-generation user experience called Volvo Car UX, which focuses on the central infotainment screen to offer a safer and more pleasant way of interacting with it. It is highly customisable compared with its predecessor and integrates several Google services.

Thanks to Volvo Car UX, users will be able to pin the apps they use most often, usually maps, multimedia and phone, to the home screen for quicker and more convenient access. The contextual bar also changes what is shown depending on the situation, displaying the most recently used apps. It is also worth noting that the digital instrument cluster has updated the way it displays navigation, with a clearer and wider view.

Volvo will begin rolling out Volvo Car UX this same year across all the models I mentioned in the first paragraph. It will also bring it to all its vehicles with integrated Google through a wireless software update. With this, Volvo expects that by the end of 2025, 2.5 million vehicles will receive this update, including those manufactured from 2020 onwards, namely: C40, XC40, EX40, EC40, S60, V60, V60 Cross Country, XC60, S90, V90, V90 Cross Country and XC90 with the Android operating system.

The second major technological innovation that Volvo will introduce across its range also concerns the infotainment system and, in a way, is not entirely new, as it is inherited from the EX90 and EX30. The infotainment system across the entire Volvo range will now be powered by the latest-generation Snapdragon platform, thereby increasing the speed and responsiveness of the system based on Google Android Automotive and, in fact, it will be more than twice as fast as the outgoing system, with a graphics generation speed up to 10 times higher.

Taking advantage of these innovations, Volvo has also announced that the Plug & Charge function will arrive on the EX30, EX40 and EC40 sold in Europe this year. Thanks to Plug & Charge, we can charge at a compatible charging point automatically, without authentication processes or additional cards, while payment is processed seamlessly. The Plug & Charge function is configured and activated from the vehicle itself, while compatible charging points can be located through the Google Maps app on the infotainment system or in the Volvo Cars app.