Volvo Cars on Friday reiterated it is evaluating the viability of a C30 battery electric vehicle but, as in September, still hasn’t decided where to put the batteries. However, plug-in hybrids will be its main focus for now.
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“The electric motor is housed under the bonnet. One of the priorities within the BEV project is to find the optimal placing of the battery. Most likely the best places are the prop shaft tunnel and the place where the fuel tank normally is located. These locations are within the car’s optimised crumple zone in the most common collision scenarios,” the automaker said in a statement issued ahead of the car’s Detroit motor show display.
Since the car runs solely on electricity, it requires a larger battery with higher capacity (24 kWh) than in the case of a plug-in hybrid (12 kWh).
“The C30 is the first model we will try out with electric power. This car’s excellent properties in city traffic and its relatively low weight make it particularly suitable, since electric cars are primarily expected to be used in and around cities and for daily commuting,” said special vehicles director Lennart Stegland.
The car has a lithium-ion battery charged via a regular domestic power socket found in most homes through which an entirely depleted can be recharged in about eight hours.
The BEV is limited to a top speed of about 130km/h which Volvo insists “will be more than sufficient for most users of this type of car”. Acceleration from zero to 100km/h will take about 11 seconds and the car will have a range of up to 150km, just short of 100 miles. This range is longer and far more than the distance 90% of European motorists drive per day, Volvo claims.
Its “main electrification track” over the coming decades is plug-in hybrids, the automaker added.
“This applies in particular to the company’s larger car models. The combination of electric motor and combustion engine is the solution that probably has the greatest potential from both the technical and commercial viewpoints. Plug-in hybrids offer long range, good environmental performance and at the same time limit dependence on expensive battery technology.”
“The consumer must feel that this type of car is attractive both to drive and own. In order to ensure this, we feel that electric cars will have to be as comfortable and safe and offer similar levels of performance as cars with other power sources,” director of electrification strategy Paul Gustavsson said.
