Volvo will have Tesla rival by 2019
Swedish car-maker to jump on the pure electric bandwagon. Will also roll out plug-in hybrid on all modelsVolvo has announced it will have its own all-electric car on sale by 2019 and offer plug-in hybrid version of every car it makes in a bid to lower emissions.
Little is known about the new Tesla rival Volvo is working on, other than it will have a range of at least 500km and offer both “premium performance and rapid charging”.
The image that accompanied the announcement a pure electric car is in the pipeline appears to show the nose of a large, luxury sedan, hinting that Volvo has Tesla’s Model S in its sights.
The reason Volvo is now racing to release an all-electric vehicle is said to follow improvements in battery technology -- both the costs of the cells and the introduction of rapid charging and growth of the infrastructure.
Customer acceptance has also played a part, says Volvo President Hakan Samuelsson: "The time has come for electric cars to cease being a niche technology and enter the mainstream”.
Samuelson says that by 2020, 10 per cent of all Volvo cars it sells will be electrified cars.
As well as pure electric, the Swedish firm will offer plug-in hybrid versions of every model it makes. This began with the XC90 T8 Twin Engine and will continue following the introduction of the S90.
The rolling out of plug-in hybrids will also include the all-new XC40 SUV that’s been confirmed for production and all other small Volvos underpinned by the all-new Common Modular Architecture (CMA), including the next-gen V40 hatch.
The XC90 T8, which goes on sale in Europe this January and soon after in Australia, is said to be a prime example of how advantageous Volvo’s new plug-in tech can be.
Claimed to be the “world’s most powerful and cleanest SUV”, the XC90 plug-in hybrid comes with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder triple turbocharged petrol engine that, combined with a front- and rear-mounted electric motor, produces maximum outputs of 299kW/640Nm. This helps it hit 100/km/h from standstill in just 5.6 seconds while averaging only 2.1L/100km and emitting just 49g/km of CO2.
The hybrid powerplant also allows 40km of pure electric range when fully charged via a plug socket or rapid charger.
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