Volvo Cars plans to open a brand new Tech Hub in Krakow, Poland’s second-largest city. It will be a key software development center and play a crucial role in the company’s strategic ambitions to be a fully electric brand by 2030 and a leader in new technology, not least through in-house software development.

The Tech hub will carry full responsibility for developing complete and key features on new fully electric cars.

The engineers in Krakow will develop software for key areas for Volvo Cars—from core safety technology based on deep understanding of what causes accidents, to perception and driver assistance algorithms and software for autonomous driving. Other engineering challenges include developing next generation connected features, or supporting all development work through data analytics.

The new Tech Hub is targeted to be operational by the end of this year, with around 120 engineers. By mid-decade, Volvo Cars aims to expand this to between 500 and 600 people in Krakow, complementing and closely linked to its core engineering centers in China and Sweden, as well as our other tech hubs around the world.

Volvo Cars’s forthcoming fully electric cars will all be software-defined. The Volvo car of the future will be fully electric, increasingly sold online, powered by core computers running in-house developed software and updated via regular over-the-air software updates.

That makes in-house software development key to achieving the strategic ambitions, which include being a leader in new technology and a pure electric car brand by 2030.