Volvo Cars, which will have aggressive plans to electrify its line-up from next year, has acquired an interest in the vehicle-charging company FreeWire Technologies.
Volvo buys the San Francisco-based specialist in mobile fast charging solutions through its recently launched technology fund.
No terms of the deal have been released.
The purchase of the FreeWire stake comes four months after Volvo has invested in Luminar, a maker of lidar, a key technology for autonomous vehicles.
CEO Zaki Fasihuddin of Volvo Tech Fund said he and his team could soon make a new announcement.
"There are quite a few companies that we are currently looking at in Europe, and because we are constantly looking for investments, it is quite possible that we will make a new investment before the end of the year," Fasihuddin told Automotive News Europe.
Commitment to e-mobility
Although Volvo does not intend to directly own charging stations, Volvo says in a statement that the investment in FreeWire strengthens its overall commitment to the transition to electric mobility.
One of the unique services that FreeWire offers is a mobile charging unit that can be used in an apartment complex, giving people the opportunity to provide their batteries with energy again without having to add an infrastructure.
The mobile units can also be used to assist a motorist who gets stuck during a trip.
One of the unique services that FreeWire offers is a mobile loading unit (pictured) that can be used in an apartment complex or a shopping center.
Fasihuddin said that Volvo has invested in FreeWire to gain more insight into consumers' concerns about electric cars, such as where they can pay a fee and how the charging technology will communicate with the car. He said that Volvo wants answers to those questions and much more before its fully electric cars reach the market.
"There are so many things to think about and we want to get ahead, because we think there is a tsunami coming in. And we are part of creating that because in the coming years half of the car & # 39; s will be completely electric, "Fasihuddin told ANE.
In June, Volvo said that half of its global sales would come from fully electric cars in 2025. This announcement came about a year after the Swedish automaker announced plans to offer only electrified drives in brand new models starting from 2019, a move that indicated its intention to gradually remove the combustion engine from its set-up.
Another goal of Volvo is to sell a total of 1 million electrified cars in 2025. That would include soft hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fully electric models.