Volvo C30 News

With the twin-built Toyota GR86 and Subaru Impreza carrying over their (albeit now larger) shared engines into the new generation, a conversation was sparked in the CarsGuide office about unexpected cars that share an engine.

The new family of engines will give 15 Toyota and Daihatsu models an efficiency gain of up to 30%, including Toyota's new Yaris due in 2015.The Yaris will be battling for top spot in light car sales with the upcoming Mazda 2 and Ford Fiesta, which will have similar efficiency gains from its skyactiv and EcoBoost technology respectively. The new engines could also help the rumoured upcoming Toyota Rush become the one of the most efficient SUVs in Australia.The 1.3-litre and 1.0-litre power plants have been co-developed with Toyota's small car brand, Daihatsu. Both units take advantage of an Atkinson cycle, which increases the compression ratio and reduces waste heat to operate more efficiently. However, the Atkinson cycle produces less power than ordinary engines, which has limited its use mainly to Hybrid cars until now.But Toyota has packed both engines with technology to help retain maximum power while optimising economy. A range of new developments will help the engines breathe better, achieving optimal efficiency. For example, the 1.3-litre will have a cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system, a redesigned intake port and electronically controlled variable valve timing (VVT-iE).Both engines are designed to be compatible with stop-start technology, which cuts out the engine in traffic to save fuel. This system is currently limited in small cars to premium offerings, such as the Mini Cooper or the Volvo C30. However, Toyota and Daihatsu could be utilising this feature in the most basic entry level cars.Both engines will commence production in coming weeks, but we may only get the larger 1.3-litre engine in Australia initially. However the efficiency gains in the 1.0-litre engine could increase the incentive for Toyota to offer a cheap entry level car sourced from Daihatsu, to rival the Suzuki Alto, Nissan Micra and Mitsubishi Mirage. 

Volvo Car Corporation has announced the latest step in its 'DRIVe towards Zero' emissions strategy with the launch of an automatic gearbox option in four Volvo DRIVe models - the S60 DRIVe, V60 DRIVe, V70 DRIVe and the S80 DRIVe.For the first time, these DRIVe models can now be ordered with Volvo's Powershift dual-clutch automatic gearbox. And buyers of these cars won't compromise on environmental care or economy as the automatic gearboxed cars deliver exactly the same fuel economy and emissions as the class-leading manual boxed variants."For the first time ever, we have managed to bring the fuel consumption in variants with an automatic gearbox down to the same level as in the manual versions. An impressive achievement by our powertrain experts," says Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President Research and Development at the Volvo Car Corporation.

Last drinks have been called for the thirsty six- and eight-cylinder engines in the Swedish carmaker's line-up.Volvo says its future lies in more efficient four-, three- and even two-cylinder units, with power levels raised by technology such asturbocharging, supercharging and the addition of electric motors. Global CEO Stefan Jacoby says the smaller, smarter engines are the only sensible way to go. "This is a logical step you only engineer logically for four cylinders," he says. "We can with a modern top-of-the-class engine technology get the same performance as a high-performance six-cylinder engine." "The technology available brings you the same fun to drive as with the classical six or eight cylinders," he says. "The time of (six and eight) cylinders are over.It goes into the direction of four cylinders three cylinders or even two cylinders which are powered by turbochargers and twin-chargers and compressors and all these things." The four-cylinder wave will come in with the arrival of a modular platform strategy, called Scalable Platform Architecture, which can be adapted for vehicles across the entire range. Some aspects of the SPA platform will be seen in the extended C30 architecture used for the new V40 that will arrive next year to start edging out the S40 and V50, but the first vehicle to be fully based on the new development will be the 2014 replacement for the aging XC90 SUV.

While the full powertrain line-up for the new model - which will go on sale next year in Europe - isn't confirmed yet, Polestar is already working on tweaking an engine for it. The Swedish performance specialists - who are Volvo's motorsport partner in the World Touring Car Championship - are using the T5 2.5-litre four-cylinder from the C30 and C70. While the engine will also sit in the line-up as a standard unit with 169kW of power and 320Nm of torque, in Polestar's hands those outputs will be upped to 184kW and 370Nm, similar to the tuned version of the C30 T5. However other characteristics will be changed for the new car, which is built on an extended version of the C30 platform. "Even if it's the same engine, we want to adapt the 'personality' to the car," Polestar marketing manager Hans Baath says. "We will probably not change the numbers, but there is a huge difference we can make in characteristics . how it drives, whether the torque comes in earlier and how steep it is. There are so many variables - it's about throttle response, it's about how you get the transmission to work in. It's about how it will feel for the driver." The car was sitting under wraps in a corner of Polestar's Gothenburg headquarters when we visited last week, but the silhouette confirms that under the camouflage of recent spy shots is a fast-angled five-door hatch that has been built on an extended version of the C30 platform. The new model will be unveiled the Geneva motor show in March - along with  a new treatment of the Volvo naming convention, with V40 likely to turn out to be just an internal working title. It will go on sale in Europe next year, eventually edging out the S40 and V50 in the mid-sized segment. Volvo Australia has confirmed that the car will be here within 15 months, and will be strategically priced to win buyers from German and top-level Japanese brands, possibly starting around $40,000 for the base model. While managing director Matt Braid says it's too early to determine Australian spec or price, he suggests that "ideally we'll have a couple of petrols and potentially a couple of diesels". If the local line-up follows the pattern of the C30, we'll get the T5 - and the Polestar version too, if we're lucky.

Initial deliveries to leasing customers, mainly companies, authorities and governmental bodies, will take place immediately from August, 2011. The Volvo C30 Electric will be manufactured and delivered to leasing customers throughout Europe, including in Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway. Tests on a fleet of about 50 cars have been conducted since September 2010, mainly internally at the Volvo Car Corporation. A Volvo C30 Electric was also part of the "One Tonne Life" project in which a family was given the task of living as climatesmart as possible for a period of six months. About 250 cars will be built by end 2012, possibly more if market interest takes off. The Volvo C30 Electric is built on the regular assembly line in the Ghent factory and then transported to G#adioteborg for installation of the motor, batteries and other modelspecific electronics. The batteries are installed where the fuel tank normally sits and also in a special compartment in the car's central tunnel. As a result, the luggage compartment is unchanged. The car is recharged from a regular household power socket. A full recharge takes about seven hours. The operating range is up to 150 kilometres per full charge. Top speed is 130 km/h and the C30 Electric covers the 0-100km/h sprint in 10.9 seconds. The Volvo C30 Electric project is part of the Volvo Car Corporation's highly ambitious electrification strategy for the forthcoming years. The electric car has attracted considerable international attention. Volvo Car Australia has expressed interest in the car. "The C30 Electric car offers the very same comfort, interior space and safety as the standard version of the C30 but can operate on 150km on pure electricity for zero emissions, " says Volvo Car Australia Public Affairs Manager, Jaedene Hudson. "Currently we offer our small car customers the C30 DRIVe which uses just 3.9L/100km and emits just 104g/km CO2. The C30 Electric is the next step in green motoring from Volvo. We've seen the initial information from Volvo Cars Corporation and have expressed interest in the car. The next stage will be to put together a business case to see if the car will be viable in our market."

... when the Australian International Motor Show opens in Melbourne on July 1. At least four plug-in battery cars will be at the show, with Mitsubishi headlining its baby $49,000 iMiEV again, Nissan going public in Australia with its Leaf, and Renault racing to airfreight its new Fluence Z.E. from France for its first public appearance since a down under sales confirmation. But it's Volvo which is adding the impact - literally - with its C30 Electric. The car for the show is the survivor of the first public crash test involving a production-ready battery-powered car. It was hit with a 40-per cent offset-frontal impact at 64km/h, one of the toughest crashes anywhere in the world, to highlight the work done by Volvo to protect its safety-first reputation as the world moves towards electric cars. Volvo says there was no deformation of the battery pack, no severing of crucial cables and computers, and no leakage of battery fluids during or after the impact. "Our tests show it is vital to separate the batteries from the electric car's crumple zones to make it as safe as a conventional car," says the president of Volvo Cars, Stefan Jacoby. The results of the crash test were no surprise at Volvo, which has already moved on from the single-frontal test with development of its C30 Electric. "The test produced exactly the results we expected. The C30 Electric offers the very same high safety level as a C30 with a combustion engine. The front deformed and distributed the crash energy as we expected. Both the batteries and the cables that are part of the electric system remained entirely intact after the collision," says Jan Ivarsson, senior safety manager at Volvo in Sweden. While the crash-survivor C30 Electric stars for Volvo at the show, the company also has its V60 plug-in hybrid for display and is also previewing a new go-faster car to put some variety into its display. The newcomer is the S60 T6 R Design, which is coming to Australian showrooms in limited numbers from August. Volvo Australia is still finalising details, including the price, but promises a car that's been tweaked by its Polestar motorsport partner to produce 242 kiloWatts and 470 Newton-metres of torque, enough to slash the sedan's sprint to 100km/h to around 5.8 seconds. It also has unique wheels, some new trim pieces, and a high-performance Heico exhaust.

The Prius is synonymous with eco-conscious motoring, but its maker Toyota comes in second on the list of Europe's cleanest carmaker. The cleanest brand in 2010 was, again, Fiat with 123.1g/km. down from 127.8g/km. All of Europe's top 20 brands improved their emissions last year. Outside the top 20 brands, Ferrari was again the most improved brand with relatively high average CO2 emissions of 326.8g/km, 46.3 g/km lower than in 2009. EU regulations have set a target for all new cars in Europe of 130g/km by 2015. Volvo reduced its emissions more than any other European manufacturer in the past year, however the Swedish brand is still a lowly 19th in the European emissions rankings. Its fuel-economic DRIVe models have pushed average CO2 emissions down to 157.5g/km in 2010 from 171.2g/km in 2009. In Australia, DRIVe technology is available only in the C30 model, says Volvo Car Australia spokeswoman Jaedene Hudson. "Currently, there are no plans to expand the range beyond that," she says. "We launched the C30 here as an experiment and we are watching how it is performing to see if there is opportunity to bring in other DRIVe models down the track.'' DRIVe is Volvo's name for a combination of technologies such as low rolling resistance tyres, regenerative battery charging, engine management systems, low friction oils, aerodynamics and stop-start technology. EU regulations have set a target for all new cars in Europe of 130g/km by 2015.

... despite a raft of ultra-efficient innovations that deliver an official best-in-class fuel consumption figure of just 3.8 litres per 100km.  The Australian International Motor Show in Sydney is a perfect opportunity to see this incredibly efficient car, which emits just 99 grams of CO2 for every kilometre driven.  The C30 DRIVe is the first Volvo to reach Australia featuring the latest generation of Volvo’s fuel-efficient diesel technology – a 1.6-litre four-cylinder with miserly thirst acting in concert with strong performance in the form of a flat torque curve delivering 240Nm at its peak.  The result is sporty performance plus an enviable cruising range of more than 1300km on a single 52-litre tank of diesel fuel. Performance with economy is possible thanks to a range of efficiency advances like intelligent stop/start technology that switches off the engine automatically whenever the car is at a standstill in traffic – increasingly a feature of driving in our congested cities. Volvo says this innovation alone can cut consumption by as much as 4-5 per cent depending on the prevailing driving conditions. The system uses an auxiliary battery that enables fast, smooth and unobtrusive automatic restarts, leaving other vehicle systems – like lights, wipers and audio systems – fully operational. The C30 DRIVe also incorporates regenerative charging to keep the battery topped up. Basically, the system utilizes the car’s otherwise superfluous kinetic energy to recharge the battery – which means additional fuel doesn’t have to be burnt to perform this essential function, realising a fuel saving of 2-3 per cent. Incremental savings like these can make a big difference. Designers that can recoup just two per cent from 10 different aspects of a car’s performance can bask in a 20 per cent total fuel saving. When you add electro-hydraulic power steering, an efficient cooling system, and even low-friction oil for the transmission, you can see how the C30 DRIVe achieves outstanding economy without blowing the budget or compromising on driving enjoyment.

It's a motor show, but not the way we've ever known them in the past.  This one is limited to just 17 cars.The reason why there are so few cars involved is that they must all be green cars.  And that's the reason it has such a big future.As time passes, and carmakers expand their green fleets with all sorts of lean-burn petrol engines, high-tech diesels, hybrids and electric cars, the Green Zone Drive promises to become a significant event for people who want to change their motoring priorities.The event is the idea of a couple of motor industry veterans led by John Kananghinis, formerly a public relations chief and marketing boss at BMW Australia.  It's not just a stand-and-look show, either.The idea behind the Green Zone Drive is to have people get behind the wheel and actually drive the cars, around a special circuit laid out in the centre of Melbourne.  It's claimed as a world first and a major innovation in green motoring.The event has picked up a lot of backing, from the Victorian government and Melbourne city council to EPA Victoria, Future Climate Australia, Shell and even the driver training experts at Murcotts.  Nine carmakers are involved, which is not very many with more than 50 brands on sale in Australia today.But the number is sure to grow and the current list - Audi, BMW, Citroen, Ford, Hyundai, Mini, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Volvo - shows a good spread across sizes, prices and classes.The obvious hero car is the first plug-in electric car on sale in Australia, the Mitsubishi iMiEV.  But the spread of cars runs from the locally-made Toyota Camry hybrid to the Volvo C30 DRIVe, the super-economy Ford Fiest ECOnetic and a range of diesels wearing Audi, BMW, Mini and even Hyundai badges.Of course, the Toyota Prius is also there.  The course for the drive takes green car fans around Melbourne's Docklands region and its no coincidence that it starts and finishes outside the Fox Classic Car Collection, home to one of Australia's best lineups of landmark cars.The event runs for just eight days but it's a start and has obvious potential to expand in coming years, not just in the car lineup but also its location. It could easily go on an Australia-wide tour and perhaps even head overseas.If you want to know more, take a look at www.greenzonedrive.com.au