Volvo presents an aggressive roadmap to reduce the CO2 emissions

Today at Motor Show in Paris, the Volvo Car Corporation has unveiled a bold plan to launch a hybrid vehicle and greatly reduce the CO2 emissions of its vehicles before 2012. In 2011, a micro-hybrid motor skills will presented with function start / stop the engine for combustion. A year later, the company will unveil a diesel hybrid that will be followed in the future a hybrid plug. No decision has yet been made regarding price or countries in which systems will be offered.

"Environmental filiere is naturally a high priority, says Stephen Odell, President and General Manager of Volvo Cars. In parallel work on a diesel hybrid, we perform a search for accelerated reduce emissions of CO2 for all our transmissions. "

The engineers and designers work has refined the transmission and current vehicles the company to improve aerodynamics and reduce rolling resistance.

"Together, these measures offer a huge potential and will achieve significant results over the next three years," says Odell.

Micro-hybrid technology

Volvo Cars will unveil a micro-hybrid in early 2011 incorporating a start / stop function which switches off the combustion engine when the vehicle is stationary.

"A micro-hybrid delivers a fuel economy of 4 to 5% in a mixed driving cycle, says Magnus Jonsson, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Volvo Cars. However, the real effect is multiplied when driving in town or temporary stops are frequent. Our system also has the advantage of being able to adapt to most of our transmissions. "

In conjunction with a manual transmission, the driver can control the function start / stop by choosing a gear ratio to keep the engine running or the neutral position for automatic stop.

GTDi technology in petrol engines

At petrol engines, Volvo Cars will begin to present in 2009 a new generation of 4-cylinder turbo engine has direct injection, a condition called GTDi (turbo gasoline direct injection).

"GTDi technology can reduce the size of the engine, that is to say, from 5 to 4 cylinders without loss of performance, but with a reduction of 20 to 30% of fuel consumption and CO2 emissions" says Jonsson.

Hybrid diesel electric motor on rear axle

In hybrid diesel Volvo Cars under development, the front wheels are driven by an advanced variant of the D5 turbo diesel engine has 5 cylinders of the company at this time offered in Europe, with rear wheels driven by independent electric motor.

Cooperation between the two sources of motor skills and the distribution of power between the two pairs of wheels is electronically controlled to provide a both an effective four-wheel drive and the lowest possible fuel consumption in all situations. The diesel hybrid will also incorporate start / stop engine function.

"The diesel hybrid is a very interesting solution as it is based on a sophisticated combination of electronic components and ultra-efficient diesel existing already, said Odell. Unlike a hybrid essence, our solution will offer considerable environmental benefits, both for city driving than on the highway. "

At its launch in 2012, the hybrid should be able to reduce diesel consumption by 10 to 15%.

The next step: the hybrid plug

The next step is a hybrid plug, whose launch is planned after 2012. The power of this hybrid pack is recharged overnight on a standard wall outlet, providing the vehicle a range of about 100 km using only electric power. If necessary, the combustion engine of the vehicle will begin to recharge the batteries while driving.