Continuing with its efforts to achieve its goal of making 50 percent of its total sales electric by 2025, Swedish auto marque Volvo has now unveiled its second-ever all-electric model: the C40 Recharge.
The C40 Recharge represents the future of Volvo and shows where we are going. It is fully electric, offered online only with a convenient care package and will be available for quick delivery. Getting a new Volvo was never this attractive.
Henrik Green, chief technology officer at Volvo
No doubt based on similar design sensibilities as the previously unveiled XC40 Recharge, the new car takes on a slightly more coupe-esque aesthetic, the rear end of its roof curving downwards to meet its tail. While details regarding its performance specs remain scarce, we know that it utilizes a twin-motor setup powered by a 78kWh battery that can be fast-charged to 80 percent in roughly 40 minutes. It’ll carry a range of 420km initially, with future software updates expected to increase that figure. Much like the XC40 Recharge, it’ll also be equipped with a sophisticated infotainment system jointly developed with Google. Based on the Android OS, the system will support a whole range of Google apps and built-in services including Google Maps, Google Assistant, and the Google Play Store.
Pricing for this sharp little Swedish number isn’t available as of this writing, but expect it to be a modest step up from the XC40 Recharge, which starts around $55,000 before incentives. Our bet is the C40 Recharge hangs a price tag from the rear mirror closer to the $60,000 mark before incentives.
The C40 Recharge will go in production this fall and will be built alongside the XC40 Recharge at the Volvo Cars manufacturing plant in Ghent, Belgium.
While there’s no precise release date for the Volvo C40 Recharge, Volvo says production will begin this fall alongside its XC40 sibling. You need not line up outside your local dealer to grab your own, either; in another first for Volvo, the C40 Recharge is available exclusively online. Production begins later this fall, so you’ve got plenty of time to warm up that clicking finger.
Volvo will showcase a stunning shooting brake concept at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show. The Concept Estate follows after the Volvo Concept Coupé and Concept XC Coupé. The Concept Estate is the third and final model in a series of concept cars, each in their own way representing the next generation of Volvo models, starting with the all-new Volvo XC90 in 2014.
Volvo indicates its future design direction with a trio of study models. The Concept Estate is the third and final concept car in the series. The Concept Estate previews technologies and styling themes that the Swedish carmaker will apply to its future cars.
This three-door shootingbreak not only indicates the design direction for the next generation V70 but also looks back. The sides and back are clearly inspired by those of the 1800 ES from the 1970s. It is clear that that inspiration fits better with this Concept Estate than with the C30 from a few years ago.
A strong silhouette with strong proportions and a lively, bright and cozy interior – a nod to the Swedish living room, a place where you feel so comfortable that you never want to leave.
The front end is almost identical to that of the previous concept cars and thus gives a very clear hint of what the front of the new XC90 – the first car on the new platform and with the new family design – will look like. The most interesting thing about the Concept Estate, however, is the interior, never before have we been able to look inside the concept cars.
Inside, Volvo has developed a lively, bright and cozy interior – a nod to the Swedish living room, a place where you feel so comfortable that you never want to leave. The interior of the Concept Estate also shows what the inside of future Volvo models will look like. With quality materials to highlight every beautiful detail.
The dashboard clearly shows where Volvo wants to go with future designs. Volvo reduces the number of buttons to the most important, such as those for temperature control, volume and window heating. The belts are placed on the opposite side of the seats. There is a huge touchscreen for the other functions. Volvo says the Concept Estate’s ‘user interface’ gives a very realistic picture of that in future models.
To us it is obvious; this Concept Estate is ready to go into production. Uh… it has to be in production! And if enough people share that opinion, then maybe that will happen.
The Volvo Concept Estate will be on display for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show next week. Come into the wonderful world of Volvo.
Swedish DIY projects don’t always have to be frustrating. The renowned private car manufacturer Leif Tufvesson proves this with the Caresto V8 Speedster. The car is completely made of aluminum and carbon fiber and equipped with a Volvo V8 mid-engine.
Leif Tufvesson is one of Sweden’s most skilled specialist car constructors, with many of his cars having received serious international acclaim. The hottest of them all right now is the new Caresto V8 Speedster, a mid-engined car with an ethanol powered Volvo V8 unit. With the advent of the V8 Speedster, the term Sport Rod has been born. The car will be given its premiere public outing at the SEMA show in Las Vegas.
Leif Tufvesson, who in 2004 won the prestigious ‘Hotrod of the year’ award from Hotrod Magazine, now returns with a completely new car. Leif previously worked for the Volvo Concept Center, and for 6 years was responsible for the development department of the Swedish sports car manufacturer, Koenigsegg. He has now started to construct and manufacture his own cars. His cars have won innumerable prizes over the years and, among others, have received a great deal of acclaim at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, the largest exhibition platform for specialist car constructors in the world.
The latest project is a mid-engine Hotrod powered by a Volvo V8. The car is completely constructed in aluminum and carbon fiber with an advanced sports car chassis fitted with Öhlin shock absorbers. The question is whether or not this is a genuine Hot Rod that Leif has now built.
“Actually, it’s a sports car with a design idiom that is a further development of the classic Hotrod. Perhaps it could establish a new school of thought and coin the term Sport Rod. My idea was to build a car that was as much fun to drive as it was to look at. Road-holding characteristics have never been the hallmark of traditional Hotrods,” says Tufvessson. The cars are designed with just this in mind, excellent road holding with an ideal 60/40 (back/front) weight distribution.
The car is extraordinarily well built, with millimeter precision in every part of the bodywork. The leather interior is exquisitely crafted with a nostalgic retrospective feel. The steering wheel, instruments and gear selector come from Volvo, as does the V8 engine, the 6-speed automatic transmission and the car’s electrical system. The engine is tuned with the environment in mind, and has been converted to ethanol by Scandinavia’s leading car tuning company BSR.
Leif Tufvesson has built and designed the entire car himself, though he has taken advantage of his wide contact network of sub-contractors in terms of paint finish, interior fittings and CAD-milling. Everything else is manufactured and assembled in his workshop in the old brickworks outside Ängelholm in the south of Sweden.
It has taken Leif less than two years to build his SEMA display car and one similar to it, which is residing back home. The two cars are identical, though in different colors. Leif and his company, Caresto, a name also sported on the grill of the car, had two objectives when building the cars: “On one hand the aim is to sell the cars and it is my hope to build at least six examples of this particular model. On the other hand it is, in fact, for my own enjoyment’s sake, because I love building cars. It’s my hobby and at the same time, it’s my job”.
Good news: the Caresto V8 Speedster is for sale, but the manual work drives up the price: An interested buyer would have to be prepared to pay around 2.5 million Swedish kronor (approximately $338,000). But then, he would also have a tailor made and unique car, manufactured in extremely high-tech materials and with the high performance of an advanced sports car.
Many experts within the motoring world have praised Tufvesson for the high level of quality and attention to detail on his cars. The whole exterior and interior design has also received equal amounts of acclaim an area where Leif has collaborated with car designer Per Gyllenspetz, who, with his 20 years of design experience, has guided the design.
A number of the car’s different components deserve special mention. The removable composite hardtop is a great example of Tufvesson’s craftsmanship. The three integrated rear-view cameras, the advanced techniques of the rear lights as well as the CAD-milled aluminum details such as wheel spindles, exhaust panel, interior details and the lamp housing for the Hella Xenon headlights. A detail such as the temperature controlled hood that opens automatically for additional cooling just shows how everything has been completely well thought through.
And finally, Tufvesson has also succeeded in producing an extremely inspiring exhaust note from Volvo’ss new V8 engine. It sounds more racing than cruising, which is perhaps the hallmark of a real Sport Rod.
Yakymour 