A Short Interview with the Head of Volvo’s Safety Centre

• Åsa Haglund has worked for Volvo for over 20 years and has been the head of its safety centre since 2023.

• She was present at the Toronto Auto Show to highlight the brand’s latest safety innovation: the Multi adaptive safety belt.

• We also had the opportunity to speak with Tara Powadiuk, Director of Product and Technology for Volvo Cars Canada.

As part of the 2026 Toronto Auto Show media day last week, Volvo Cars gave us the opportunity to speak with a few of its organization’s key people, including the head of its Safety Centre in Sweden, as well as the director of product and technology for the automaker’s Canadian arm.

2026 should be a significant year for Volvo Cars Canada has the company will introduce two new models in the coming months: the EX30 Cross Country, and the all-new EX60 electric SUV. The existing XC60 has also received a mid-cycle refresh for the current model year.

While both the EX30 Cross Country and the modernized XC60 are expected to be fairly popular, the EX60 will be the big story this year.

Indeed, this model will be Volvo’s first entry into the country’s most popular EV market, and it will introduce the new SPA3 platform on which many of the brand’s future products will be based.

In addition, the EX60 will be the first model to use the new multi adaptive safety belt, which uses various sensors to understand the driver’s height, weight and their position within the vehicle in order to determine the appropriate level of force needed in each unique accident.

This innovation is the reason Åsa Haglund, head of the Volvo Cars Safety Centre in Göteborg, Sweden, was present at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where she gave a short presentation.

Here are her answers to our five questions:

Åsa Haglund, Head of the Volvo Cars Safety Centre

Q- What was the development process of the multi-adaptive safety belt? What is making it possible now that wasn’t there before?

A- The laws of physics tell you that if you’re heavy and the violence [of a collision] is heavy, you need more force on your belt to stay within the distance you have available [in the vehicle’s driver compartment] versus if you are lighter or the crash is lighter, but we also know that the less force we can use on you, the less likely you are to be injured.

So, the need [for the multi-adaptive safety belt] was always there, but what made it possible?

First of all, you need to solve the multi-adaptiveness in the seat belt, that mechanism has to be invented, but then, of course, for that to actually matter in the car, you need the exterior understanding of what’s going on outside [of the vehicle] and the interior understanding of what size of person is this, and where is this person sitting, and to be able to do the maths in real time.

To make sure you make the right calls, you need to train that for a while.

I’d say what made it possible is the modern core compute capabilities that can now be built-in and powered in a car, as well as the quality of the sensor sets and the intelligence you can get out of that.

Q- Are there other ways in which the EX60 will move Volvo safety forward from current models?

A- We always try to push ways to improve safety. Another thing we worked hard on within the EX60 is the front structure to make sure we distribute the force [of an impact].

Also, whenever you have an opponent facing you, you can make sure to trigger their crash protection as well [to reduce the force of the impact]. So we worked very hard on compatibility, where you make the situation better for both cars.

Then, of course, we found a way to integrate the battery straight into the body, basically making it part of the structural safety [of the EX60]. It doesn’t necessarily make it safer than the previous cars, because we always protected the battery, but it makes it more efficient and takes weight off.

The same goes for the mega casting in the rear, where instead of having hundreds of sheet metal parts being put together, we found a way to make lighter mega castings that still handle crash forces.

So the EX60 is more about advancing safety in efficient ways.

 

Q- Are there plans to bring Lidar sensors back? How does their removal [from the EX90 and subsequent models] affect the overall vehicle safety?

A- So when we look at it, it’s never about tech for the sake of tech, and saying we need a certain sensor. What we need is the insight to understand what is going on outside the car and how we can handle that to avoid crashes. We have a state-of-the-art sensor set on the EX60, where we find we can still push safety and advance the situation we can detect and protect from. I would never say yes or no to any technology in the future, but it will always be: What do we need?

Q- What is the place of computer simulations and actual crash tests in safety development?

A- Computer simulations have become very advanced and we now have human body models [instead of dummies]. What that allows us during development is to crash the car several hundred thousand times with actual people in all the different seats and develop even better safety.

Of course, throughout development, we are making sure that these computer simulations are correct [with actual crash tests].

With the mega casting, for example, we do component tests on those parts, we run it in the computer and we compare it to make sure that what we are simulating corresponds to what would happen in the real world.

 

Q- How do you see automotive safety evolving over the next 10 years?

A – We are in a very interesting era. We have this capability of collecting data, of understanding and reacting in real time in the cars. It opens a sea of possibilities and the main thing with that is that we can learn so much more in detail what is going on and we can adapt. We can learn more about driver reaction and occupant protection, and the more we learn, we can actually send it to the cars [via over-the-air updates] and it can actually improve how it responds.

I think the whole data loop will enable us to save a million more lives because we will learn and we can evolve and we can adapt.

 

To get a Canadian perspective on Volvo’s operations and the challenges it faces, we also talked with Tara Powadiuk, president of Product and Technology for Volvo Cars Canada.

Tara Powadiuk, President of Product and Technology, Volvo Cars Canada

Q- What is the expected impact of the EX60 on Canadian sales?

A- The EX60 is part of the D segment, a really important segment for us. We’re bringing it in in the second half of this year and we think it’s going to be very popular. We should be seeing very strong sales and It will be a complement to the plug-in hybrid as well as our mild-hybrid sales.

 

Q- How was 2025 for Volvo in Canada?

A- 2025, for us in Canada was another growth year both in retail sales and for the XC90. Globally, Canada is one of the top 5 volume selling markets for the XC90, which is a really big accolade that we’re proud of.

We also have an electrified version of all of our models and we saw that our electrified sales continue to hold strong, accounting for over 30% of all sales.

 

Q- How do you see the situation between Canada and the United States affecting sales, especially since the EX90 has been put on the back burner for Canada?

A- We brought in the 2025 EX90 in advance of the current situation, so we do still have limited inventory for Canadians to purchase, and we’ll continue to assess the situation and see what the right opportunity for us is.

Hopefully things will be in a better place when it comes to tariffs in short order.

Q- The Canadian government recently announced a tariff reduction for up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles. Since the EX30 was previously manufactured in China, could Volvo use that measure?

A-  We are in the midst of assessing what is the right thing to do for Volvo in Canada, so that’s underway.

 

Q- How do you see Volvo standing out from its competitors in Canada?

A- When we continue with our global safety standards, we’re really looking at the real-world collision data, the real-world scenarios. We have over 50 years of collision data that help drive our design and safety standards and I think, when it comes to the electrification journey, we’ve brought that importance into our batteries and how we structure the vehicles.

With the EX60 that we’re going to be bringing in later this year, the battery is entirely in the floor, which allows a lot of design opportunities, but it also centers the gravity and the weight of the vehicle, so there’s some opportunities there that gets presented. We’re also focussed on having the battery be entirely encased in isolated chambers so that in the event of a thermal incident, the driver and passengers are protected and safe.

So I think the red thread in terms of how we’re going to continue to differentiate ourselves is in safety standards that we bring to every model and our electrified future.

 

The Volvo booth at the 2026 Toronto Auto Show features a model of the multi-adaptive safety belt as well as two crashed EX90 test cars brought in from the Safety Centre in Sweden, along with examples of the brand’s current models, such as the XC60, the XC90, and the new EX30 Cross Country.

The Toronto Auto Show is currently taking place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre until February 22^nd.

Our thanks to Ms. Haglund and Ms. Powadiuk for their time.