Volvo Recharge concept (copy)

Volvo Cars recently unveiled a concept of its next-generation, all-electric SUV, which will be built at the automaker's South Carolina campus. It will be the first Volvo to be identified by a name rather than a combination of letters and numbers. Volvo Cars/Provided

The letter-number combinations that have identified Volvo Cars vehicles for decades will soon be as extinct as the automaker's internal combustion engines.

The manufacturer known for safety and environmental awareness — its lineup will feature electric-only cars by 2030 — said it will start using real names to identify its vehicles rather than the production-type nomenclature that differentiates an S60 from an XC90.

Hakan Samuelsson

Hakan Samuelsson is president and CEO of Volvo Cars. David Wren/Staff

"We’re not going to have numbers and letters — an engineering type of name," Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson said during a recent news conference. "We’re going to give cars a name as you give a newborn child. We have a very interesting and creative discussion going on about this now."

Samuelsson hinted at what amounts to a culture change for Volvo during a stop at the automaker's training center in Ridgeville, just a short drive from the automaker's South Carolina manufacturing campus off Interstate 26. Volvo will start building the next generation of its largest sport-utility vehicle, now known as the XC90, at the plant beginning in 2023. It will be the first of Volvo's all-electric vehicles — and Samuelsson said it deserves a special moniker.

"We should mark that by deviating from our normal way of giving our cars names," Samuelsson said at the June 23 event. "So to mark this is the first of its kind, the first of the next generation, this car will have a name more like a child."

Volvo hasn't said what the new XC90 will be called.

"We will come back to you when we present the car and we will surprise you with that," Samuelsson told those attending the training center's opening.

Samuelsson didn't say at the time whether all other Volvos would be getting new names — that announcement came during a mid-year financial presentation on July 23.  

Currently, Volvo — based in Sweden and owned by China's Geely Holding Group — uses the letters S for sedan, V for wagon and XC for sport-utility vehicle. The letters are typically followed by a number designating the size of the vehicle. For example, an XC90 is bigger than an XC40.

Volvo hopes that by giving its cars names instead of a series of letters and numbers, consumers will be able to better identify with the brand. After all, it's difficult to generate the excitement of a name like Viper or Mustang with a production code name like S60.

The names might not be the only change consumers will see as Volvo makes the switch to electric vehicles.

"There will be more cars to follow, and I think we should start thinking about new body shapes," Samuelsson told U.K.-based AutoExpress. "It’s not just sedans, wagons and SUVs. Electrification will also change the shape of the cars; they need to be more aerodynamic, so maybe we will surprise people a bit there in the future. It’s not just the conventional cars as we have had so far."

Nexans plant in Goose Creek (copy)

The Nexans high-voltage cable plant in Goose Creek will complete an $80 million expansion this year that will add a shipping terminal and the capability to manufacture underwater cables. Nexans/Provided

Cable company

With its Aurora vessel ready to sail, French high-voltage cable manufacturer Nexans is putting the finishing touches on an $80 million expansion at its Goose Creek plant to build the undersea wiring needed to power offshore wind farms in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Nexans said in a July 28 earnings report that work at the Charleston International Manufacturing Center site will be completed during the third quarter of this year. The company said the plant's conversion from making above-ground to underwater cables is on track "despite slight delays due to COVID-19 travel disruptions and material supply constraints."

Once completed, the Nexans site will be able to load cable onto the Aurora from its site along the Cooper River. Among its first duties will be to supply the Empire Offshore Wind Farm off the New York coast with deep-sea cables connecting to the onshore grid that powers much of the state. Nexans also is building undersea cables to transport electricity from an offshore wind farm to Scotland.

The nearly 500-foot-long Aurora has the capacity to haul more than 10,000 tons of cable, and it is fitted with state-of-the-art instruments for cable transport, installation and protection. It was delivered to Nexans earlier this year by Norwegian shipbuilder Ulstein Verft and a naming ceremony was held June 8 in Paris.

Production of the underwater cables involves lowering a copper conductor into a 426-foot-tall tower at the Goose Creek plant. Once inside the tower, the conductor is encased in melted plastic and then cured and cooled with nitrogen. The landmark tower is among the tallest structures in South Carolina.

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Reach David Wren at 843-937-5550 or on Twitter at @David_Wren_

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