It was the green car of the year even before it went electric, and now Volvo is planning to introduce a battery powered version of the C30.
The Swedish manufacturer is teaming up with energy company Goteborg Energi to co-operate on electric vehicles and recharge infrastructure. The former Ford brand will now provide 10 Volvo C30 electric cars as part of a test fleet with delivery to start this autumn.
The cars are equipped with advanced measuring instruments that gather data about driving habits and charging patterns and look into how these factors affect the battery and its lifetime. The Volvo C30 battery electric vehicle uses a 24kWh lithium-ion battery pack and can be recharged using a household supply in around eight hours.
As for the battery itself, it has been designed and developed in the US by EnerDel Inc and offers the car a range of about 93miles. It also has a top speed of 81mph and can accelerate from 0-62mph in 10.5seconds.Â
The existing project includes around 250 vehicles but Lennart Stegland, the director of Volvo Car Corporation’s Special Vehicles Division, believes that with more customers the production series can be expanded. He thinks that by 2020 five-10 per cent of cars in Sweden will be electric and by 2020-2025 they will account for three-10 per cent of the market share in EU countries. Volvo is targeting a broader release of the C30 Electric in 2013.
