DETROIT — Volvo has been pretty quiet among the automakers developing electric vehicles, but that doesn't mean it isn't working on one. The company plans to roll out a test fleet next year and put some EVs in showrooms by 2013.
The Swedish automaker arrived at the North American International Auto Show with a prototype Electric C30, a conversion based on the C30 hatchback. The car isn't as sexy as, say, the Audi e-tron, but it's a handsome car and more attractive than some EVs we've seen lately. Besides - Volvos have always been more about practicality and safety than leading-edge styling.
And the Electric C30, which joins a plug-in hybrid in Volvo's electric lineup, is supremely practical. It'll seat four people, haul as much stuff as most any hatchback in its class and, Volvo claims, go 93 miles on a charge.
"It's überpragmatic," said Chelsea Sexton, an advisory board member of the advocacy group Plug-In America. "It's absolutely something people will want."
Lennart Stegland, president of Volvo's Special Car Vehicles division, said the company put a premium on designing a car the average person would enjoy owning -- and driving.
"We didn't want customers to have to sacrifice anything by driving an electric car," he said.
Stegland said his division dove into the Electric C30 project about a year ago. It ripped the drivetrain out of a C30 and went to work.
The team bolted an electric motor producing 84 kilowatts (or 113 horsepower) peak and 40 kilowatts (or 54 horsepower ) continuous under the hood. Stegland said the car will do zero to 100 km/hr in 10.5 seconds and top out at 130 km/hr (81 mph). Acceleration and top speed are electronically limited to maximize range and provide consistent performance regardless of how much juice is in the battery.
The 24-kilowatt-hour lithium-manganese battery pack is made by Enerdell. Stegland said it's good for 150 kilometers (about 93 miles). Plug it into a 110-volt, 30-amp outlet, and it'll charge in 8 hours. Figuring out where to mount the pack was one of the biggest challenges of the conversion, Stegland said.
"For us, the big issue was finding the safest location for the battery," he said.
The problem was compounded by Volvo's insistence that the car be practical. It didn't want to ditch the back seat to make room for the battery, as BMW did with the Mini-E electric car. So Volvo split the pack in two. One part is mounted in the transmission tunnel just behind the motor; the other is under the rear seat. The two packs are in roughly the same location as the T-shaped pack in the Chevrolet Volt.
The Electric C30 looks a lot like the conventional model, but Volvo tweaked front and rear fascias to make the car sleeker. The headlights stretch back over the fenders, and the Electric C30 got a larger rear spoiler and an undertray. The car has a drag coefficient of 0.27. That's just shy of the 2010 Prius, which sets the standard among cars currently in production. Inside, the car looks much like the C30 you'd find in showrooms right now.
Stegland says the next step is developing a test fleet of advanced prototypes to further refine the drivetrain. Volvo has promised to put at least 50 Electric c30s on the road next year to begin real-world testing. Volvo says the cars will be provided to "selected customers."
"We are launching a research program to test the technology in different climates, different topographies and under different driving conditions," Stegland said. The goal is to ensure the C30 Electric provides consistent performance in all conditions.
Volvo doesn't think the C30 Electric will suit everyone, nor does it want it to. It sees people using the C30 Electric around town and, say, a V70 for long trips or runs to Costco.
"We believe this is a commuter car, something people will drive Monday to Friday," he said. "Commuters follow predictable patterns, they know how far they're going and what they're doing."
The electric car shown in Detroit won't see mass production. Although Volvo plans to offer an electric car in 2013, Stegland said the car we'll see in showrooms will be an entirely new design, not a conversion of an existing model.
"It will be a dedicated, specific execution of an electric car," he said. "It will be designed from the ground up as an electric vehicle."
Photos: Chuck Squatriglia/Wired.com
