At the IAA in Frankfurt, Volvo will present the "Volvo ReCharge Concept" car. A 1.6 4-cyl Flexifuel engine (can use bio-ethanol) + an electric motor that has enough battery capacity to drive the car approx. 100km. You can plug it in and recharge it in 3 hours. If necessary, it also recharges from the gas engine. It does 0-100km/h in 9s and has a top speed of 160km/h. Sounds great to me! The only question that remains: when can I buy it. Link(in Dutch....)
Ford currently owns Volvo, so this could be their fast ticket to a PHEV to keep up with GM et al.... ....except they've just announced that they are going to sell Volvo!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(clett @ Sep 6 2007, 04:27 PM) [snapback]507905[/snapback]</div> I think that, for Volvo, more is going on. By 2012, the European Union will force all European manufacturers to have a CO2 emission of no more than 130g/km for the average of their new sold cars. The details of this limitation are still very uncertain, but it is sure that some premium brands will hit that limit like a brick wall if they don't change something drastically. Interestingly, a lot is suddenly going on. BMW is constantly reducing consumption with their EfficientDynamics program. They now have a 5-series touring in their 2008 lineup that produces only 140g/km! It's amazing what a little pressure can do.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vtie @ Sep 6 2007, 07:43 AM) [snapback]507913[/snapback]</div> Amazing how they need to be pressured to do so. I'm not saying Toyota doesn't need rules to have stuff in place but at least the hybrid portion was done on their accord.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Sep 6 2007, 08:23 PM) [snapback]508015[/snapback]</div> Exactly my feeling. Almost every single aspect of BMW's EfficientDynamics program is based on simple, small improvements: shutting off a pump here, decrease some friction there, do something about the aerodynamics, etc... It makes the car more efficient, with equal performance. Why didn't they do this long before? Is fuel efficiency really so low on the manufacturer's traditional agenda? It's a shame.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vtie @ Sep 6 2007, 02:56 PM) [snapback]508087[/snapback]</div> Yes <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Sep 6 2007, 01:23 PM) [snapback]508015[/snapback]</div> The Prius was Toyota's response to hybrid research done by the Big 3 and funded by the U.S. government. The Big 3 scrapped their hybrid programs, Toyota and Honda brought theirs to market. I believe a big part of that is because the Japanese had to pay for the research themselves while the U.S. companies got their funding from the U.S. taxpayers.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(clett @ Sep 6 2007, 07:27 AM) [snapback]507905[/snapback]</div> It is interesting how things come around. Originally Volvo was going to forgo hybrid development for fuel cell technology. (I always wondered how they planned on addressing the hydrogen distribution issue, but I digress.) Now, with pressure from EU regulators, hybrid technology gets a second look (plus there is the matter of a virtual distribution resource for hydrogen....) While Ford is open to the right offer for Volvo, I tend to doubt that they will get it.
As I said in another thread about this: Swedish newspaper is reporting a production date of 2015 (!). By that time the Prius will run circles around these numbers. This is nothing more then empty PR from Ford. If this is all they have they are in trouble. Let's hope they have a more traditional hybrid in the works. A hyrbid v50 or v70 would rock!
Swedish news paper are reporting a 2015 (!) date for this car. By then the prius will out do these numbers. Still I'm glad they are attempting something green that actually works.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SomervillePrius @ Sep 8 2007, 05:46 PM) [snapback]509279[/snapback]</div> Well, Ford paid somewhere around $1.0 billion (back when they had $19+ billion in the piggy bank) to Toyota for a license to Toyota's hybrid technology. The best they could do is the Escape hybrid.... There is a reason Ford is in trouble.... If a V50 hybrid had been available, I would have got it instead of the Touring edition. Recently I was talking to the sales manager at the Volvo dealer I have done business with since 1995 about the absence of a hybrid offering from Volvo, and the response was that if Volvo had a hybrid offering, he would be able to sell 75 - 100 more cars a month....
