Plug-ins to fill green niche: Volvo

Volvo Australia Managing Director Alan Desselss is not ruling out anything else just yet, but he believes the local market is ripe for hybrid-drive vehicles -- not battery-electric vehicles or conventional cars operating on ethanol.

Speaking at the launch of the C30 DRIVe and the upgraded C30/C70 ranges, Desselss said that Volvo will have a plug-in hybrid car on sale in Europe 2011 and that car would be coming to Australia the following year.

"We will have our first hybrid vehicle here in 2012," he confirmed to journalists attending the launch. "That's quite well advanced and very exciting."

The company is also well advanced on the development of battery electric vehicles -- there are already 30 undergoing real-world testing in Gothenborg, Sweden -- but without the infrastructure to support them here, they remain a distant prospect at best in Australia.

Since the plug-in hybrid, being co-dependent on internal combustion to recharge the batteries storing and supplying electricity for motive power, isn't completely reliant on recharging stations the way a pure battery-electric vehicle would be, it's a relatively easier business case to mount for Australia. As for customising the plug-in hybrid to suit Australia, it's merely a matter of "changing the powerpoint [plug]," according to Volvo Australia Public Affairs Manager, Laurissa Mirabelli.

"We haven't got any charging stations, there's no talk about what governments are doing, there's no incentives, it's going to be expensive technology..." says Mirabelli, by way of explaining how the importer sees nothing but stumbling blocks in the way of battery-electric vehicles.

"I think that's where the discussions with government have to come into play," says Desselss, "in terms of what is the infrastructure that they are going to create...

"Very similar to ethanol; we could have brought in a whole range of ethanol cars and simply, we haven't done it, because [Australia doesn't] have the infrastructure for it. We certainly, through the FCAI [Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries] and our own lobbying, are pushing governments at both state and federal [level], as regards what they're going to do to help all manufacturers to bring these kinds of vehicles in."

Desselss insinuates that government policy is trending towards development of electric recharging infrastructure, but it's on a slow train.

"I think it would be wrong to say that there's concrete confirmation. I think that there's a willingness to embrace it, but we're looking for the concrete [confirmation]... and having plans put in place...

"There is a working committee between government and the FCAI -- and I think that [infrastructure development] will come, but it's very important that it comes as quickly as possible, because in 2012 we'll be ready."

Some companies plan to move sooner than that, too.

Desselss expressed concern about Nissan's reported approaches to each of the state governments in respect of developing the necessary infrastructure to support that company's LEAF electric vehicle.

"At this stage I think we're going to stick with the FCAI and move through that... lobbying both at state level and federal -- because one of the dangers that we do have is the states doing a lot of things in isolation of each other," he said.

In other words, the FCAI and Volvo seem less trusting than Nissan that states can work together on a common specification of quick-recharging infrastructure and the bureaucracy to go with it.

Returning to the question of ethanol, has Volvo been monitoring efforts by Coskata, Holden and Caltex in Australia? Would ethanol infrastructure pave the way for Volvo to bring in ethanol-capable cars sold overseas? Finally, would ethanol-fuelled cars be a better fit in the local market than battery-electric vehicles? 

"My understanding is that there's not a lot being done at this stage, but in Sweden, or Europe as such, we have ethanol across the entire range," Desselss responds.

"In fact, we have the largest range of ethanol cars. We could bring those in tomorrow if we had the infrastructure..."

But Desselss explains that the creation of ethanol infrastructure is almost academic; Volvo must remain on song where energy diversity is concerned.

"I think the most important message is that we're of the opinion that there isn't one single fix, that there's going to be the absolute silver bullet for the world. I think it is going to be a little bit of this, a little bit of that, maybe a little bit more of something else -- and that's why we're making sure we've got ethanol covered, we've got plug-in hybrids covered, we've got battery-electric vehicles covered. We've got some very, very fuel-efficient diesels engines now and in the future.

"We're really making sure we've got everything covered."

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