Volvo, which will soon pass on to the hands of China's Geely Motors, has released very little information on the car but the company did say that the new S60 will be more driver orientated that its predecessor.
While it is not clear yet how the sale will affect the S60's engine range, it is believed that Ford's new EcoBoost 1.6-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine featuring turbocharging, direct injection and outputs ranging from 150 to 180 horsepower will be amongst the offerings.
Via: Autoblog.com
Ford added that while some work still needs to be done before the deal is sealed such as final documentation, financing and government approvals, the company anticipates that a definitive sale agreement will be signed in the first quarter of 2010, with closing of the sale likely to occur in the second quarter of the same year.
"The prospective sale would ensure Volvo has the resources, including the capital investment, necessary to further strengthen the business and build its global franchise, while enabling Ford to continue to focus on and implement its core ONE Ford strategy," Ford said in a statement,
The Detroit automaker added that it would continue to cooperate with Volvo Cars in several areas after the sale, but it does not plan to retain any shares in the business.
It is said that Geely is offering the U.S. automaker somewhere around $2 billion dollars for Volvo Cars which is less than a third of what Ford paid for the Swedish brand a decade ago.
With the prospected sale of Volvo, Ford will offload the last brand in the Premier Automotive Group that also included Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin.
The Swedes first showed us an electric C30 prototype in September 2009. Aside from being based on the facelift C30, the Detroit Show model has been further refined and now features both a complete interior and full instrumentation, as well as enhanced battery packaging.
"The first prototype helped us identify the main technological challenges, such as battery packaging and safety issues." said Lennart Stegland, Director of Volvo Cars Special Vehicles.
"We have addressed these challenges without compromising the C30's cool and fun-to-drive personality. I am very happy with the result. The electric C30 in Detroit is a much more complete product," Stegland concluded.
The latest plug-in C30 uses an electric motor fitted under the bonnet while the Lithium-Ion batteries (24 kWh) are installed in the propshaft tunnel and in the space normally occupied by the fuel tank, outside the passenger compartment and away from the deformations zones for safety reasons.
The Lithium-Ion batteries that can be recharged via either a regular household power socket or special roadside charging stations. The Swedes said that a full recharge takes about eight hours
The three-door hatchback has a top speed of about 130 km/h or 81 mph, while Volvo said that it can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (96km/h) in less than 11 seconds. The car's driving range is up to 150 km or 94 mile, which Volvo claims covers the daily transport needs of more than 90 percent of all motorists in Europe.
Aside from the special graphics, colors and wheels, the electric C30 looks no different on the outside than a regular C30 while inside, the most obvious changes concern the new trim, revised instrument panel and the new gear selector.
Remember blind Turkish artist Esref Armagan who was invited by Volvo to the company's headquarters in Sweden back in October to paint the, as yet unseen by the public, 2011 S60 executive sedan? Well, Volvo has now decided to auction off Armagan's painting of the car on eBay with all proceeds going to support the World Blind Union which is a non political, non-religious, non-governmental and non-profit-making organization, representing more than 160 million blind and partially sighted persons in 177 member countries.
"It was an amazing experience to work together with Esref Armagan. He truly embraces life and we think that his approach matches exactly how we at Volvo embrace life. Through this auction and the donation to World Blind Union we will take this rewarding corporation even one step further", says Lukas Dohle, director of Live Communication and Social Media at Volvo Cars.
Volvo said that the auction of the painting will take place on eBay Canada but will be accessible globally on www.ebay.com/volvo. The auction starts on December 7 at 8pm and will run for ten days until December 17.
How much sense does it make to offer a performance package for an eco-friendly diesel car model that has been specifically designed to deliver maximum fuel efficiency and low CO2 emissions? Not much if you ask us but anyways... This here is Heico Sportiv's tuning package for the recently unveiled 2010 Volvo C30 1.6D DRIVe.In factory form, the new Volvo C30 1.6D DRIVe is powered by a 1.6-liter diesel with 109HP and 240Nm of torque. Combined with a wide range of fuel saving technologies such as start/stop system with brake-energy recovery and aerodynamically optimized components, this C30 returns an average fuel economy of 3.9 liters/100 km or 60.3mpg US.
Heico Sportiv's package includes new software for the diesel unit's ECU that increases output to 125HP and 280Nm. As a result, the tuned C30 1.6D DRIVe sprints from standstill to 100 km/h in 9.2 seconds, beating the series-production model by 2.1 seconds while achieving a top speed of 200 km/h (124mph), 10 km/h more than the series version. The tuner did not release any fuel economy figures for the model.
Also available is a sport suspension that lowers the vehicle's ride height by about 30mm.
The Volvo tuning specialist gives the C30's exterior a new look with a front spoiler that replaces the original lower base section of the bumper and a rear apron with an integrated diffuser housing quad tailpipes. Five or ten-spoke alloy wheels in sizes 18- and 19-inch that are available in various colors complete the looks.
The interior can also be decked out with numerous applications in aluminum or leather, such as the door pin set, shift stick grip, parking brake handle, pedal set and foot rest.
