Volvo has been synonymous with safe cars, but now they intend offering us safe electric vehicles too. PADDY COMYNtravelled to Gothenburg to try some of the Swedish firm's future technology
IT HAS been a period of uncertainty for Volvo. This week, there have been reports that Chinese firm Geely Automotive is preparing a bid for the Swedish company, thought to be in the region of $2.5 million (€1.7 million), and the firm now awaits news of the investment that could take the company from domestic triumph to international success.
Volvo enjoyed strong sales in the US in particular, but sales there have dropped 25 per cent and it is only really in its home market in Sweden that Volvo has performed strongly.
Over the years, their products have evolved from weighty, square, mobile crash helmets to stylish and reasonably slick Scandinavian family vehicles, with the odd SUV thrown in for good measure. Owning a Volvo even became Ikea-cool.
But there are difficulties. The C30 small hatchback just hasn’t worked in most markets, and with a backlash against SUVs, at least two models in their range are starting to look redundant. With all brands improving safety standards, Volvo can no longer trade off its safety message alone. Green and clean variants have been added to the Volvo menu to make the brand more palatable and to stem the tide of falling sales.
In fairness, the firm’s line-up has an impressive CO2 report card, with it possible to buy a C30 that coughs up just 99g/km, and S40 and V50 models that emit just 109g/km, making it a cheap car to run even on our tax-laden shores.
But they are hoping to do better with the addition of the new saviour of the motor industry, electricity.
That is why we will see a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle from Volvo in as little as three years. We tried it, fitted to a humble-looking V70.
Many readers of Motorswill be familiar with hybrids and electric vehicles. In the case of the Volvo plug-in hybrid, the lithium-ion battery is capable of powering the considerable bulk of a V70 estate for 50km under "normal" driving conditions, before transferring to regular diesel or petrol propulsion. Unlike General Motors's extended range electric vehicle, which uses the petrol engine to charge the battery, the Volvo uses the engine to power the wheels when the battery is exhausted, the hope being that – as the majority of European's commute is within that magic 50km figure – between home charging, office top-ups and on-street charging, many of the owners of this plug-in hybrid will have zero tailpipe emissions. Volvo also point out that, in Sweden at least, they will only be working with Vattenfall, a power company that guarantees clean electricity.
The plug-in model is expected to have a range of 1,200km, tailpipe emissions of 49g/km and fuel consumption of just 1.9g/km. Volvo says that their electric motor uses one-fifth of the energy of a normal engine and that one medium wind power station can produce enough electricity for the annual consumption of 1,000-2,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles. Volvo’s engineers went on to say that if 15 per cent of Europe’s cars were plug-ins, it would only increase Europe’s electricity requirements by between 1 and 3 per cent.
There is, no doubt, more to sort out – the cost being one issue and the slight question mark over the future of the company being another.
And if the plug-in hybrid isn’t sci-fi enough, how about one that doesn’t require an internal combustion engine at all?
Well their C30 BEV (battery electric vehicle) does away with a standard engine to be replaced by a stack of batteries which, when fully charged (six to seven hours from a domestic outlet, less than an hour from a fast-charging outlet) can propel its owners for 150 eerily silent kilometres, a range, says Volvo, that is longer than the daily drive of 90 per cent of Europe’s motorists.
The car felt urgent enough; 0-100km/h took 11 seconds and the top speed is limited to around 130km/h, which is above the highest speed you can drive legally in Ireland.
Volvo aren’t saying when this full electric-powered vehicle will come to market, but we would expect to see it within five to seven years, given the speed the technology is progressing.
Safety first: Volvo's new technology that aims to cut pedestrian deaths
VOLVO’S record on safety might be a bit of a cliche but when you see how commendably obsessive they are when it comes to examining the causes of crashes involving Volvos and looking at future ways to prevent them, you don’t even scoff at their stated aim that , by 2020, nobody will be killed or injured in a Volvo.
We saw the award-winning City Safety technology unveiled in the XC60 last year, which itself had used radar to prevent low speed city shunts, and this has now been extended to prevent collisions with pedestrians. In Ireland this year, 15.5 per cent of the fatalities on the road were pedestrians. Cameras scan the road and, via a series of clever algorithms work out what is a pedestrian and what its “threat” for want of a better word, to the vehicle might be. If the car is travelling under 25km/h, a pedestrian that walks out in front of the vehicle can be recognised and an audible warning will sound, followed by the car coming to a complete stop. At this speed, there should be enough space to avoid the collision, something demonstrated to us using mannequins dressed up as children.
Being asked to drive straight at a child – albeit a plastic-dummy representing of one – is very disconcerting, but if the speed is under 25km/h (although we drove, rebelliously, at 30km/h) there is enough time for the car to stop short of the mannequin. The system, sadly, doesn’t work yet with cyclists and wheelchair users, an expert explaining that, rather unfortunately, the algorithms haven’t figured out how to deal with those just yet.
To hear an interview with Johan Konnberg, the head of product development of hybrid technologies at Volvo, listen to our Irish Times Motorspodcast:
irishtimes.com/motors/podcast