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The Volvo Electric Car and rivals

3K views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  stev vanveit 
#1 ·
Nissan just introduced its own battery-alone driver car called the Leaf. It is rated at 110hp & 280nm. It does 100kph in 11 secs; and the best part is that its range is 160km.

Volvo OTOH offers just 50km range which is not even comparable to this car's range; I'm now wondering how can volvo call their to-be-built car which is scheduled for 2012-same date as nissan's and many others for the matter of fact- the ultimate car!

Please feel free to chime in
 
#2 ·
At the UK media event last week for the DRIVe cars, someone from volvo UK let it slip that there will be an all electric C30 in 2012.

By 2012, the C30 will be one year from replacement so this electric car is probably based on the next generation C30 and the new V30. Possibly another smaller volvo to fit in below as volvo's city car.

Potentially all volvos could be offered with the plug in hybrid (with Vattenfall) drivetrain but volvo also speaks of all electric vehicles and a small city car in some other interviews.

NB the 50km range you refer to is for the current version of the V70 plug in hybrid. NB the diesel engine then takes over. Expect the range to improve during development and till launch in 2012. NB the Nissan is a small hatchback.

so indeed, it looks like an all electric small car is on the way from volvo.
 
#3 ·
Re: (Shimon)

Quote, originally posted by Shimon »
At the UK media event last week for the DRIVe cars, someone from volvo UK let it slip that there will be an all electric C30 in 2012.

By 2012, the C30 will be one year from replacement so this electric car is probably based on the next generation C30 and the new V30. Possibly another smaller volvo to fit in below as volvo's city car.

Potentially all volvos could be offered with the plug in hybrid (with Vattenfall) drivetrain but volvo also speaks of all electric vehicles and a small city car in some other interviews.

NB the 50km range you refer to is for the current version of the V70 plug in hybrid. NB the diesel engine then takes over. Expect the range to improve during development and till launch in 2012. NB the Nissan is a small hatchback.

so indeed, it looks like an all electric small car is on the way from volvo.

Yeah it seems I have compared apples to oranges; but I dont think they (plug-in hybrid vs. BEV) are so different. Moreover, I dont think the range for the v70 will improve dramatically compared with the prototypes, maybe 70km at most...
Finally, the nissan is not a small car, and the wight difference can only be so much as influencing ful consumption by 25% max IMHO.
 
#4 ·
Hi

The Nissan Leaf is a 5 door hatch. The V70 will be refined over the next three years ahead of launch and battery tech will also evolve during this time. NB, using the battery packs full capacity reduces its lifetime meaning warranty or customers will need to pay for its replacement thus hindering the sales profits and vehicle ownership.

NB The Volvo system offers recharing during braking even when the engine drives the front wheels and the Volvo-Vattenfall drivetrain can be rolled out across the range. volvo is however in a number of interviews etc speaking of a fully electric smaller volvo and also of a city car concept. Further still, some designers speak of the C30 being a step in the right direction for volvo but it is still a little too big for a city car. NB the 3CC ride down concept shows volvo has pefected and patented a way to make small cars safer thus opening the oppotunity for these products and Peter Horbury's City concept from 2001/2002? (need to check) is also a plausable concept. Peter also lead a few small volvo concept projects ( I counted at least 4!) so his influence and suggestion shouldnt be underestimated.

You might find the following post from the authors of autobloggreen interesting regarding the Nissan. Nissan does have the advantage of having its own in house battery development and supplier. Smart car companies would be buying into or establishing their own battery companies given the oppotunity to earn as a supplier.

http://www.autobloggreen.com/2...estim/

Let's say right up front that we don't know for sure if Nissan's 100 mile range estimate for its new LEAF electric car is overly optimistic or not. No one outside of Nissan has actually tested the car to verify it one way or the other. However, based on what we do know, it's not unreasonable to expect the range to fall short of 100 miles in real world use.

Ex-Tesla SVP Marketing Darryl Siry has real world knowledge of the correlation between the EPA city range estimate that Nissan is quoting and reality. He has previously penned missives on the dangers of EV makers over-selling and under-delivering on range and his warning still holds true.

It's certainly possible that Nissan has created a particularly efficient EV that can actually get 100 miles per charge in normal, everyday use. At this point, we don't know much about Nissan's control strategy for the car and the battery. Based on what we do know, there is good reason to be skeptical. The LEAF's 24 kWh battery pack is considerably smaller than the 35 kWh pack in the MINI E, a small car that struggles to get 100 miles. Of course, the MINI is far from optimized. The Tesla Roadster gets about 220 miles in similar testing from a 53 kWh pack. Tesla, however, is using almost the full capacity of its pack to get its range and that is expected to yield a shortened lifespan for the pack (approx. five-to-six years). If Nissan follows the same path with the LEAF pack, the type of customers it is aiming for will not be pleased with having to replace the pack prematurely. Nissan has not ruled out will likely go with a separate battery leasing strategy, a move that could minimize customer dissatisfaction.

Only time will tell what Nissan is really planning on doing. However, as one of the leading proponents of EVs with very high-volume plans in the near term, Nissan should be wary of over-promising.
 
#5 ·
August 5, 2009, 1:08 pm
Is Volvo Building an Electric Car?
By Jim Motavalli
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.co...c-car/

Volvo is currently developing a plug-in hybrid version of the V70. But could the company also be working on a battery electric car?
There has been Internet chatter that Volvo, which has already said it will make a plug-in hybrid vehicle, will also produce an electric version of its C30. Then the other day, a source who is pretty high up in the electric car industry and who has done some work with Volvo, told me that the electric C30 was more than a rumor.

"Am I reasonably confident that the battery E.V. is a go? Yes," said the source, who asked not to be identified out of concern that it would harm future business dealings with Volvo. The source estimated that initial volumes of the two vehicles together could total 5,000 to 10,000.

When asked about the E.V., Daniel Johnston, a spokesman for Volvo, said: "I can't talk about it. Volvo is looking at quite a few alternatives."

In July, Volvo said it was working with Ener1, an American lithium-ion battery supplier, on three plug-in hybrid demonstrator cars based on the V70. Ener1 is also a battery supplier to the Fisker plug-in hybrid sports car (to be built in Finland) and to the Think Global EV company (based in Norway).

The Volvo plug-in hybrids will be "put through their paces across Europe this fall as part of a rigorous development program leading up to the planned 2012 commercial launch of a production plug-in model," Ener1 said in a press release. The company also said that the production cars will "feature somewhat different technology" from the demonstrators.

Rachel Carroll, a spokeswoman for Ener1, said it had been working with Volvo for three years and hoped that the company would be chosen to equip the 2012 production plug-in hybrid car.

A battery-only vehicle, based on the small C30 coupe, could presumably share some technology with the plug-in hybrid.

Since 2007, Volvo has had a joint venture partnership with one of Scandinavia's largest utilities, Vattenfall, which is designing both home-based and public fast-charging systems. Lars G. Josefsson, president and chief executive of Vattenfall, said in a press statement that his company and Volvo were "developing the next-generation technology based on plug-in cars and various charging alternatives."

That charging research would also benefit a Volvo battery-only car, if indeed one were in the works.
 
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