Volvo Cars, Semcon, ETC, Vattenfall, and the Swedish Energimyndigheten has been sharing expertise and technology to produce hybrid plug-in concept vehicles in the Volvo concept facility.
Completion of three concept vehicles is expected this fall. These prototypes will be used by the companies to gain more knowledge of how consumers will need 
plug-in units in the future. They will look into how people want their cars to feel in terms of performance and functionality. Another important item to address is how people want to charge their rides.
The tie-up formed a six-man team which converted a standard combustion engine vehicle into a hybrid plug-in. The team installed an electric motor and batteries, and tweaked on the car’s configuration to make everything work together.
The collaboration proved to be very cost effective since there are experts from all the fields needed to come up with a viable concept car. The members of the team contributed their own inputs for project management, electronics, engineering, and powertrain.
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At the upcoming Geneva auto show, Volvo cars will be introducing seven latest DRIVe models, in which three of them bear start/stop and regenerative charging systems.
The Volvo DRIVe cars line is categorized into three, according to the three emission levels.
The first category is the 120 g level. The Volvo S40, C30 and V50 1.6d DRIVe will be equipped with the Start/Stop function this spring 2009. The Volvo 1.6D can produce 109 horsepower and a torque of 177 pound-feet. This feature aids in lowering the emissions up to 107 Gco2/km for the S40 and V50 models, and 104 Gco2/km for the Volvo C30.
The next emission level is the 140 g level. Volvo V70 and S80 are now featured with the DRIVe editions. The vehicles are still furnished with 1.6-liter engine configuration and manual gearbox. The optimized engine unit helps a lot on the Volvo’s large scale sedans to trim down fuel consumption and emissions of CO2.
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Volvo has always been known for being on the front lines of innovation, and their bus department (or is it the alternative fuels department?) has proven once again that they’re top notch when they launched the Volvo 7700 bus earlier this week…
The 7700 will apparently consume about 30% less fuel than a standard street bus which could have a huge impact on any city should they decide to use this system. Microdust and other particles emissions will also be reduced by about 50%.
That’s one green bus — and that’s what Volvo must have thought painting it Brittish Racing Green. Hybrid cars can have a huge impact, but think about what all the green buses could do!
Click images for full size view.
plug-in units in the future. They will look into how people want their cars to feel in terms of performance and functionality. Another important item to address is how people want to charge their rides.