Volvo says production of its new EX60 SUV is “taking longer than planned to ramp up” because of the challenges associated with its radical new technology and construction.
The company says it has taken more than 50,000 orders for the electric equivalent to the best-selling EX60, which entered production in April, but has so far built just 5000 units - and CEO Håkan Samuelsson has warned that the crucial new model’s “financial contribution will be delayed as we are not ramping up to the plan we had before”.
Delays to the EX60’s full-scale launch are particularly poorly timed as Volvo has today (23 October) posted losses of nearly £280 million in a “very disappointing” third quarter of 2026, and announced plans to cut its workforce by 2500 as part of a drive to rebuild profits.
Samuelsson said the EX60 will play a crucial role in Volvo’s turnaround plan, eventually serving as “one of the company’s best profit-contributing models” - but its impact on the bottom line will not be fully realised until output reaches capacity at the Swedish firm’s Torslanda plant near Gothenburg.
BMW recently announced that it had taken 100,000 orders for the iX3 – a close rival for the EX60 which launched last October – with its new Hungary factory ramping up more quickly than any BMW plant in history to meet demand. Production of the iX3 was boosted recently with a third shift at the Debrecen facility, which is now running at capacity 24/7.
Volvo’s chief commercial officer Erik Severinson said it has been “difficult to start production as we want” with the EX60, as the new SPA3 platform on which it is based requires significant adaptation to the production process.
Volvo has invested around £750 million in its Torslanda facility near Gothenburg to build EVs based on the architecture, which introduces a radical new mega-casting production method – reducing the number of individual bodywork components – and uses an innovative cell-to-body battery packaging arrangement.
Volvo cited the battery packaging as the main reason behind the delay, and said the setback is completely unrelated to the software issues which delayed the roll-out of the larger EX90 in 2024.
Samuelsson said the slow start highlighted the differences between the EX60 and Volvo’s existing EVs, and said the firm was steadily accelerating output.
“If you want to have class-leading new technology, it means a higher risk to implement than continuing with more conventional technology. In this new car, its mega-casting has caused us no headaches - it is really the assembly of batteries directly into the underbody of the car, which is a highly automated process.”
He said the EX60 battery’s circa 100 cells cannot be inserted manually, but rather by an automated process which makes for “a highly complex mechanical assembly line”.
However, he added that he was “quite confident that we will master that”.
“We were maybe too optimistic in the ramp-up, but we are improving.”
The EX60 will be joined by a more affordable SPA3-based EV in autumn next year, thought to be a successor to the ageing EX40 crossover.