Volvo
Canvas Category OEM : Automotive
Volvo Group drives prosperity through transport and infrastructure solutions, offering trucks, buses, construction equipment, power solutions for marine and industrial applications, financing and services that increase our customers’ uptime and productivity. We are committed to shaping the future landscape of sustainable transport and infrastructure solutions. Our headquarter is located in Gothenburg, Sweden, and our shares are listed on Nasdaq in Stockholm, Sweden.
Assembly Line
Volvo Cars partners with and invests in Breathe for next generation fast charging
Volvo Cars has partnered up with Breathe Battery Technologies (Breathe), becoming the first car company to get access to the latest version of its patented, algorithm-enabled charging software for use on our new generation fully electric cars.
By integrating Breathe’s software in Volvo Cars in-house developed battery management platform to optimize and improve the performance of our charging technology, we can provide Volvo customers with even faster charging times and an enhanced overall driving and charging experience.
We will implement the new technology in our new generation fully electric cars, where we expect it will reduce the time it takes to charge your fully electric Volvo from 10 to 80 per cent charging state by as much as 30 per cent*, while maintaining the same energy density and range. Even better: the charging time improvements will last across the full battery life cycle without impacting its health status.
Smart robotic automation solutions from ABB to support sustainability targets for Volvo Cars
ABB announced the strengthening of its long-standing partnership with Volvo Cars to supply more than 1,300 robots and functional packages to build the next generation of electric vehicles. This will support the Swedish car manufacturer to achieve its ambitious sustainability targets.
This agreement includes functional packages covering various production tasks, from spot-welding, riveting, and dispensing to flow drilling and ultrasonic weld inspection. Each package is a ready-to-use, customer-proven combination of hardware, software and services and will be implemented at Volvo Cars’ facilities in Torslanda, Sweden and Daqing, China. Alongside the hardware and functional packages, ABB’s latest range of OmniCore robot controllers will help to deliver energy savings of up to 20 percent at sites due to their highly efficient power electronics and use of regenerative braking within the robot.
Fanuc and Volvo Cars sign deal to transform automotive manufacturing with sustainable robotics
Fanuc, the world’s leading manufacturer of industrial robots, has entered into a global contract with Volvo Cars, in a move to boost sustainability in the automotive manufacturing sector, according to Fanuc. The partnership outlines an extensive robot supply program, aimed at optimising production processes in Volvo’s manufacturing facilities worldwide. The collaboration further plays a crucial role in supporting Volvo’s ambitious sustainability goals.
Ford, Hyundai test Tesla supplier's Giga Press
Idra, an Italian aluminum casting machine maker and Tesla supplier, has added Ford, Hyundai and another European company to its customer base as more automakers explore this manufacturing technique. Tesla has pioneered the use of massive casting machines, also known as ‘Giga Presses,’ to make large single pieces of vehicle underbodies, streamline production and reduce the work even of robots.
The source said Idra was also about to sign a supply contract for two 9,000 presses with a premium automaker in Europe, its first with a European group. Sources said Volvo has purchased two Idra Giga Presses for their new plant in eastern Europe.
H2 Green Steel collaborates with Volvo Group for supply of near zero emissions steel
As commercial vehicles increasingly run on electrified solutions, reducing the emissions when the product is in use, the environmental footprint from the supply network and production becomes increasingly important. Since steel is one of the main input materials in the manufacturing of trucks, buses and construction machines, a shift towards green steel is a vital element for Volvo Group’s continued journey towards decarbonization. The long-term supply agreement placed from Volvo Group is for green steel from H2 Green Steel’s new plant in Boden in Northern Sweden. Start of production is planned for end of 2025. Deliveries to Volvo Group will start mid-2026.
RemotiveLabs secures funding for automotive software platform enabling iteration and speed
Startup RemotiveLabs is set to ensure that all software engineers, independent of industrial background, can solve challenges and collaborate in the cloud using best-practice approaches in software development. The Malmö-based AutoTech company has secured funding of 900k Euro and is now ready to scale internationally.
Investors include Volvo Cars Tech Fund, Almi Invest and private investor Anette Saleskog. The new funding will be used to continue to develop the platform and to grow awareness in the global marketplace. “The status quo tooling is not only expensive, but also hindering innovation and lowering productivity. We see a great response to what we’ve built so far and now we are set to grow a global community with a developer-first mindset to software in automotive” adds Per Sigurdson, Co-Founder and CEO.
Varjo Raises $40 Million Series D Funding to Build a True-to-Life, Industrial Metaverse
Backed by EQT Ventures, Atomico, Volvo Car Tech Fund, Lifeline Ventures, and new strategic investors Mirabaud and Foxconn, the new capital will enable Varjo to build a true-to-life, industrial metaverse for all professionals. Varjo will use the funds for its R&D cloud services, namely Varjo Reality Cloud, the company’s XR streaming platform that was announced in April. The new capital will help the company continue to scale its software and hardware offerings across new enterprise verticals such as design & manufacturing, engineering, education, and healthcare.
Emulate sensors and mechatronics systems with Unity SystemGraph
Unity SystemGraph is a new graph-based authoring tool that represents systems through its components, such as lidar sensors and cameras, in Unity. Now robotics and engineering teams can more easily prototype systems, test and analyze their behavior, and make optimal design decisions without access to the actual hardware.
Circular Car Factories
The next big shift will be an environmentally friendly movement dubbed the “circular auto factory.” According to some experts, the circular cars initiative will reshape the auto industry during the next two decades, as OEMs and suppliers attempt to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across the entire vehicle life cycle.
The term “circular car” refers to a theoretical vehicle that has efficiently maximized its use of aluminum, carbon-fiber composites, glass, fabric, rubber, steel, thermoplastics and other materials. Ideally, it would produce zero material waste and zero pollution during manufacture, utilization and disposal.
One of the key elements of a circular car factory is a closed-loop recycling program where disassembly lines are housed in the same facility as traditional final assembly lines. All vehicle components and materials are remanufactured, reused and recycled at the end of life.
FourKites Secures $100M Series D Funding from THL, Qualcomm Ventures, Volvo Group and Zebra Technologies
FourKites, the #1 real-time supply chain visibility platform, today announced a new $100 million Series D financing round. The growth financing is led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. (“THL”), with participation from Qualcomm Ventures, LLC, Volvo Group Venture Capital AB and Zebra Technologies, as well as existing investors August Capital, CEAS Investments, Hyde Park Angels, Hyde Park Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures, bringing total capital raised to over $200 million. The funding heralds the advent of a new era in supply chain management, where automated, interconnected and collaborative global supply chains — spanning transportation, warehouses, stores, trucks and more — are powered and optimized by real-time visibility data and machine learning.
Custom-Made Volvo Trucks | Mega Manufacturing
Automotive – Production Schedule
Hercules is a system used by the Volvo Car Corporation (Volvo) for planning car production. Its main output is the monthly Master Production Schedule (MPS) – a detailed plan on how many cars are to be produced per market, factory and week during the following 13-15 months. Migrating such a comprehensive and vital system from an APL2 Mainframe to a Dyalog Microsoft Windows platform is no small task. Working with experienced and expert APL programmers from Aplensia in Gothenburg together with Mahindra Satyam, the project was completed in record time, with no disruption to the users or the operations, saving a substantial amount in the process. Peter Simonsson from Aplensia takes us through the process of the successful Hercules migration project, which was completed in the autumn of 2012.