Volvo V70 2010 News

The sedan is planned to go public at the Geneva Motor Show next week but the wagon, expected to continue with the V70 tag of previous models - where V stands for versatile - will be kept under wraps for a while yet.It is definitely under wraps during winter testing, where it is caught by the Carparazzi scoop crew.  The black cladding hides all of the design detail but, based on the S60, the new wagon is expected to be far more elegant than the outgoing model."The all-new Volvo S60 is sculpted to move you," says Stephen Odell, president and CEO of Volvo Cars, and Carparazzi says that also applies to the look of the wagon.  The V70 will also picked up the Pedestrian Detection system first previewed for the S60, which allows the car to brake automatically to avoid a pedestrian at speeds up to 35km/h.There is no detail yet on powerplants for the S60 or V70, but plug-in hybrids are likely and Volvo is also continuing development of other future fuels including E85 ethanol.  The best-guess debut date for the V70 is the Paris Motor Show, in France from October 2-17.

Volvo is about to hit the eco button with its first stop-start fuel savers as it also reveals plans for full-scale production of a plug-in hybrid with a diesel engine. Its longer term goal is to become a world leader in environmentally-friendly cars with a drive to zero emissions culminating in plug-in electric power. The C30 DRIVe model will lead Volvo's push on a zero-emission strategy and the first cars will be in showrooms in September. They have a stop- start system similar to the one already seen in the Smart ForTwo and the upcoming Land Rover Freelander II. There will eventually be a full range of DRIVe models as Volvo has produced seven for Europe, from the C30 to XC70, with CO2 emissions as low as 104grams/km. The drive DRIVe model is a C30 with a 1.6-litre turbodiesel engine that promises, with help from stop-start, fuel economy of 3.9L/100km and best-in-class CO2 emissions of 104g/km. The car also has low- rolling-resistance tyres with lowered suspension and a gearshift indicator. "At this stage, we can't confirm specification or pricing but should be in a better position to announce details around August," says Laurissa Mirabelli of Volvo Cars Australia. By 2011 the DRIVe program will see a direct-injection petrol turbo engine with fuel economy and emissions cut by up to 30 per cent as well as a next-generation micro-hybrid with stop-start. But the big breakthrough comes in 2012 with a plug-in hybrid, previewed this week in Sweden inside the body of a V70 station wagon. The plug-in Volvo is being developed in partnership with a Swedish energy company, Vattenfall. It uses a lithium-ion battery pack. "We're investing more than $1 billion on the joint venture, to investigate plug-in hybrids. They will be a reality from 2012," says Mirabelli. "Ideally, we'll also have them here within 12 months of production. The aim is economy of 1.9L/100km." Hitting those targets means using a diesel engine in the hybrid drivetrain, a move which has not been made yet by any maker. Most European brands are promising some form of diesel hybrid but, so far, the mass-market Toyota Prius and Honda Insight use petrol power. "The plug-in system takes five hours to charge and the electric range is 50 kilometre. That's on the demonstration car which is a V70," says Mirabelli.