VOLVO C30

Two Volvo C30 Electric cars to be tested in the community of Jiading outside Shanghai.

Volvo Cars 09 Nov 2011

Volvo Cars China and Shanghai International Automobile City Group - a local government supervision authority - has decided to undertake a fleet demonstration programme with a test fleet of two Volvo C30 Electric cars in the community of Jiading outside Shanghai.

"We are very proud to bring the first Volvo C30 Electric cars to China and contribute to the electrification of the country", says Freeman Shen, chairman of Volvo Cars China.

The purpose is to gain better understanding of customer behaviour and expectations from operating electric cars.

In January 2011, Shanghai was selected as an international electric vehicle pilot city by the Chinese government and the Jiading district of Shanghai was announced as an electric vehicle demonstration zone. An infrastructure with over 13,000 charging stations and 15 battery swapping stations is being built, in order to support the real life use of electric vehicles.

Electrification of cars is a clear strategy for the Chinese Government in order to reduce the country's dependency on oil and longer term also to reduce CO2 emissions from transports.

"The Volvo C30 is the first electric car from an international brand that will be presented and involved in various activities here. Its performance fulfills the expectations of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Municipal and District governments to make the demonstration zone a truly international one", says Ni Yaomin, Deputy Governor of Jiading District, Shanghai. He continues:

"It will promote cooperation and communication between international and domestic auto makers on new energy vehicles."

In June 2011, Volvo Car Corporation started the production of the Volvo C30 Electric as a part of the company's highly ambitious electrification strategy for the forthcoming years. The Volvo C30 Electric is manufactured in the Volvo Cars Ghent plant in Belgium and finalised in the Torslanda plant in Sweden.

The cars are leased to customers in selected European countries and they are also currently operating in demonstration programmes in Sweden and Belgium. In China, it is the intention to introduce additional Volvo C30 Electric cars into demonstration programmes, including the one in Jiading.

The Volvo C30 Electric has a 20 kWh battery that is recharged from a regular household power socket. A full recharge takes about 7 hours. The operating range is up to 150 kilometres per full charge. The top speed is 130 km/h and acceleration from 0-50 km/h takes four seconds.

http://evworld.com/news.cfm?rssid=26820

Volvo C30 DRIVe Electric Concept Car would be given hydrogen fuel cell range extende

Biofuel Watch 07 Nov 2010

Volvo has been planning to take its C30 DRIVe Electric concept into the next level and having a hydrogen fuel cell to develop the electric vehicle’s 94 mile range making a hybrid hydrogen electric plug in. The fuel will have another 155 miles of range, however the really interesting thing is the way Volvo had been planned for sourcing the hydrogen: from gasoline. But depending upon the promised highway to be developed Volvo they are discovering the use of an on-board reformer for the process of gasoline into hydrogen gas.

The fuel cell will also use the hydrogen gas to power electric motor during C30's 24kwh battery has been depleted increasing the vehicle’s range to double without increasing the size of the battery. Making the hydrogen from gasoline may be something like robbing from Peter to pay Paul but the main process around 85 percent efficient as per the reports from article in the Green Car Reports. By powering the electric motor with the hydrogen there are two efficiency from gasoline powering the internal combustion engine losing a lot of energy in the heat.

It will also solve many problems of the hydrogen transportation infrastructure which is lagging behind the vehicle technology. The hydrogen is made on an as-needed basis that could minimize the storage problems presented by hydrogen vehicles and it will slowly leak gas over time, it cannot be stored in the garage or other enclosed spaces for the safety reasons.

Volvo during its first phase Range Extender project that will be conducted with the Powercell Sweden AB and the car maker may test these fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle which will start in 2012 that also has the same timeframe the Volvo has planned to introduce the C30 Electric stateside along with plug-in hybrid the company has been promising

http://www.biofuelswatch.com/volvos-new-hybrid-hydrogen-ev/