Volvo Cars is outlining its ambition to offer its customers of Recharge cars comprehensive and easy access to public charging. It aims to do so by continuously lowering charging costs across the board for its customers, improving the charging experience and expanding its charging networks.
Through a new and deepened collaboration with charging point platform Plugsurfing, Volvo Cars will offer its customers a heavily reduced charging price at Ionity charging points across Europe. Starting on 1 July 2021, drivers of pure electric Volvo cars will pay 0.35 EUR/kWh (£0.30/kWh) at Ionity’s more than 340 high-power charging stations across 24 European countries, during the first 12 months of ownership of a pure electric Volvo car*.
“We are excited to offer our customers one of the most competitive prices for charging at Ionity, one of Europe’s largest public fast-charging networks,” said Olivier Loedel, Head of Electrification Ecosystem at Volvo Cars. “This collaboration is a first step in our global ambition to help our customers of Recharge cars travel quickly at a much lower charging cost, wherever they are.”
“The bottom line is that customers want easy access to public charging infrastructure,” said Tatu Kulla, Plugsurfing CEO. “Price and quality of digital infrastructure are key aspects of an excellent user experience. We value the strategic partners who share this vision and seek collaborative solutions.”
To offer its customers a seamless charging experience, Volvo Cars will soon make its refreshed smartphone app, Volvo Cars app**, one consolidated digital charging platform.
It will integrate functionalities including navigation to charging stations, remote control of charging, charging notifications and payments, making every step of charging easier and a trip with an electric Volvo car more convenient than ever before.
“Volvo Cars aims to change the current fragmented public charging landscape into an all-in experience that is convenient and hassle-free,” said Olivier Loedel. “We want to achieve this by providing an integrated digital charging platform for our customers, and easy access to the largest charging networks globally.”
The Volvo Cars app is an updated version of the widely appreciated Volvo on Call app and is designed to offer Volvo Cars’ customers a convenient and continuously updated platform with access to various functionalities and services.
Notes to editors
*The preferential prices will become effective via the Plugsurfing card or the Plugsurfing app for customers of pure electric Volvo cars as of 1 July 2021. They will be applicable to new customers for the first 12 months of ownership and to existing customers for 12 months starting from 1 July 2021.
**The availability of the Volvo Cars app differs across markets. Specific compatibility is dependent on car model, year and factory-installed equipment.
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Volvo Car Group in 2020
For the 2020 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 8.5 BSEK (14.3 BSEK in 2019). Revenue over the period amounted to 262.8 BSEK (274.1 BSEK). For the full year of 2020, global sales reached 661,713 cars (705,452), a decline of 6.2 per cent compared to 2019.
About Volvo Car Group
Volvo Cars was founded in 1927. Today, it is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world, with sales of 661,713 cars in 2020 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of Zhejiang Geely Holding since 2010.
As of December 2020, Volvo Cars employed approximately 40,000 (41,500) full-time employees. Volvo Cars’ head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars’ head office for APAC is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), South Carolina (US), Chengdu and Daqing (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China), and body components in Olofström (Sweden).
Under its new company purpose, Volvo Cars aims to provide customers with the Freedom to Move in a personal, sustainable and safe way. This purpose is reflected in a number of business ambitions: for example, by the middle of this decade it aims for half of its global sales to be fully electric cars, to sell half of its global volume online and to establish five million direct consumer relationships. Volvo Cars is also committed to an ongoing reduction of its carbon footprint, with the ambition to be a climate-neutral company by 2040.
About Plugsurfing
Plugsurfing is pioneering a new wave of sustainable mobility by making car charging easy. Plugsurfing brings energy to EV drivers with a platform that serves more than 650,000 drivers and connects EV drivers to more than 200,000 charging points across Europe. We serve leading charging point operators, car makers and fleets with our digital services platform that has already processed more than 17 million charging sessions. Plugsurfing was founded in 2012 in Berlin and was acquired fully by Fortum Oyj in 2018.
