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Updated Volvo V50 2.0 Powershift launched

January 28, 2010 at 2:18 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, Local News, Volvo

Following the introduction of the S40 2.0 Powershift last year, Volvo launched the V50 wagon with the same drivetrain this morning. The V50 2.0 Powershift is powered by a 145 bhp/185 Nm 2.0-litre engine (which is essentially the Duratec engine found in the Ford Focus) mated to a six-speed dual-clutch transmission called Powershift, also from Ford. Like the S40, this variant replaces the 2.4-litre five-pot V50 – fuel consumption is reduced by up to 11% with this new drivetrain, says Volvo.

Compared to the V50 2.4i, this new variant has a few new features, such as Blind Spot Information System (BLIS), Dynamic Stability Traction Control (DSTC), bi-xenon headlights, keyless entry and a new Brilliant Blue colour. BLIS is a Volvo innovation which alerts the driver of vehicles “hiding” in his/her blind spot. A warning light inside of the side mirrors illuminate in such a case, so you know when not to change lanes.

The locally assembled V50 2.0 Powershift is priced at RM185,950 (OTR without insurance), which is RM16,000 more than the equivalent S40. The blue car you see here comes with optional extras such as roof rack, a subtle bodykit and blue dials from Volvo’s R-design catalogue – the latter looks good and works well in breaking up the monotony of an all-black cabin.

More pictures after the jump. For more info on the 2.0 Powershift drivetrain, check out our previous post here.
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New Volvo dealership opens in Sabah

January 18, 2010 at 1:27 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Local News, Volvo

Volvo now has a dealership in Sabah, operated by Angkatan Hebat Sdn Bhd. The new showroom is located at the 1 Borneo Lifestyle Hypermall on Jalan Sulaman and will serve the entire Sabah market, since it is the only dealership there. The Angkatan Hebat dealership is in fact the only Volvo dealership in the whole of East Malaysia. Now the people of Sabah will be able to enjoy the Volvo XC90 with a dealership to support the repairs and maintenance.

This was bound to happen. Early last year we got news of the Sabah government replacing their fleet of executive Perdanas to 2.5 litre Volvos through Angkatan Hebat, a majority state-owned company. Angkatan Hebat manages the state’s fleet and last I checked, they are 70% owned by the state government’s investment arm.

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Geely boss: “Nothing will change for Volvo”

December 30, 2009 at 1:46 pm By Danny Tan Filed Under Geely, International News, Volvo

After Ford announced that it will sell Volvo to Geely, many have raised concerns on the future health of the Swedish carmaker. As a response, Li Shufu, founder and chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, parent of Geely Auto says that Volvo’s current production, R&D facilities, union agreements and dealer networks will all be left intact, quotes a Reuters report.

“If the deal succeeds, nothing will change for Volvo, except the boss turns to Li Shufu,” the head honcho told Xinhua news agency. “Volvo and Geely will be two independently-managed brands.”

He said the Volvo purchase would help Geely, which is China’s largest private automaker, develop “new energy vehicles”, and that Geely would help Volvo reduce production costs and expand in China. “The new energy-powered vehicle will be the future of the world’s auto industry. But based on current investment in research and development, China will be left far behind the pace of developed countries,” the 46-year old Li said.

Ford expects the deal, which is estimated to cost Geely $1.8 billion, to be signed in the first quarter of 2010. Ford paid $6.45 billion for Volvo in 1999.

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Volvo’s sale to Geely on track, major issues resolved

December 23, 2009 at 9:31 pm By Harvinder Sidhu Filed Under Cars, China, Ford, Geely, International News, Volvo

Ford has officially announced that all substantive commercial issues relating to the sale of Volvo to the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group have been resolved. The current owner of Volvo revealed that it expects the deal to be signed in the first quarter of 2010 and the deal is expected to be fully finalized by the second quarter of next year. The sale is said to be worth about US$ 1.8 billion and it would be the largest acquisition of a foreign automaker by a Chinese company.

Ford also said that some work still remain before the deal can be completed and these include final documentation, financing (from Geely’s end) and relevant government approvals. Ford will focus on its core brand and also revealed that it will still continue to cooperate with Volvo in certain areas after the sale but confirmed that it does not intend to retain a shareholding in the Swedish brand.

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Volvo’s lithium-ion powered EV to hit streets in 2011

December 19, 2009 at 9:26 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, Hybrids and Alternative Fuel, Volvo

volvo c30 ev

Another day, another electric car previewed ahead of the 2010 Detriot show – this time it’s Volvo with an electric C30. Volvo – with USD 20.7 million support from the Swedish government – will build 50 units that will hit the streets in 2011 for a two-year trial with selected users.

Volvo presented a driveable EV prototype back in September and this C30 goes a step nearer to production reality with a complete interior as well as enhanced battery packaging.

Its lithium-ion batteries can be recharged via regular household power sockets or special roadside charging stations. Full charging takes about eight hours (230V), giving a range of up to 150 km, which meets the daily needs of over 90 per cent of European motorists, says Volvo. Top speed is about 130 km/h while the century sprint takes less than 11 seconds.

Being a Volvo, safety is guaranteed. “The batteries are well encapsulated and the structure around them has been reinforced. An electrically powered Volvo must be as safe as all other new Volvos. And the very same standards also apply to ownership, driving and protection in the event of an accident,” said Thomas Broberg, Volvo’s Senior Safety Advisor.

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Geely targets Volvo annual sales up to 1 million by 2013 – possible?

November 18, 2009 at 12:58 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, China, International News, Volvo

Geely already has some grand plans for Volvo when it finally takes over the Swedish brand known for safety. It’s a twist of irony for many as Chinese car companies are rather infamous for their iffy crash safety, thanks to the widespread publicity of how badly their dirty cheap models perform in crashes.

A new Volvo factory in China built by Geely will churn out about 300,000 cars per year for the Chinese market, while other Volvo factories around the world will help bring up the total annual output to a whopping 1 million cars! Yes, you can produce all you want but will you be able to sell all the cars you produce? Apparently this is their aim, to sell a million cars a year by 2013, up from 458,323 they recorded in 2008. That’s an increase of about double.

Our very own Volvo assembly plant in Malaysia produces the S40, V50 and the 2.5T variant of the S80 for the local market. The Malaysian plant exports the S40 and the V50 for sale in Thailand. Hopefully Volvo is being rewarded in terms of various incentives appropriately by our government, otherwise there’s just no point for manufacturers to come in and do anything here if the case studies all go wrong.

The other thing that’s bugging people is of course the possibility of Volvo just going down the drain after Chinese ownership. That seems to be what happened to Ssangyong, look where it is now post-SAIC ownership? On the verge of bankruptcy, recovery plan rejected by creditors, and there is even a lawsuit going on now involving Ssangyong hybrid technology being leaked and transferred illegally to SAIC.

Despite Ssangyong being owned by SAIC, as the Ssangyong hybrid tech was developed using some Korean state grants, the tech is registered as state-owned in Korea and cannot be shared without government approval.

Will something similiar happen to Volvo? Will it be siphoned dry and then left to rot, or does Geely have an actual plan to bring Volvo to new heights? A Geely spokesperson today assured that Volvo would be keeping the rights to its technologies but did say Geely would get the right to use those technologies.

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First official images of new Volvo S60

November 10, 2009 at 11:18 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Local News, Volvo

volvo-s60-2
volvo-s60-1
Click the images above for larger hi-res view

These are the first few product photos of the new Volvo S60 officially released by the Volvo PR team as a preview to a full-fledged unveiling soon. The car will make its public debut at the Geneva Motor Show 2010 in early March next year, and production will begin early summer 2010 at Volvo’s Belgian plant.

No other details or specifications have been revealed other than the fact that you can specify an optional feature called Pedestrian Detection that can detect pedestrians in front of the car and brake automatically if the driver doesn’t react in time.

Looking pretty good I must say, though I would prefer if the front end were to be a little sharper. It’s a little soft now, especially with the big soft ‘eyes’ (headlamps) and all. What do you think, do you like it?

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Malaysian Volvo S40 updated with 2.0 liter engine and Powershift twin clutch transmission!

October 15, 2009 at 9:22 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Local News, Volvo

Volvo S40 2.0 Powershift Malaysia

Volvo has updated the specifications for the Volvo S40 here in Malaysia. The 2.4 litre engine has been replaced by a 2.0 litre unit which is essentially the Duratec unit found in the Ford Focus and the Mazda 3 here in Malaysia. It makes 145 PS at 6,000rpm and 185Nm of torque at 4,500rpm.

But what’s most interesting is the fact that the engine is now mated to a Ford Powershift transmission, which is basically a 6-speed twin clutch transmission. This makes it the first locally assembled (CKD) twin clutch car in the country. Powershift is a development of Getrag Ford Transmissions GmbH, a 50:50 Ford and Getrag JV.

Like VW’s DSG, there are two versions of the Powershift transmission out there – one with wet clutches and another with dry clutches. The unit installed in the S40 is the wet clutch version. Generally dry clutch versions like Volkswagen’s 7-speed DSG (the 6-speed used a wet clutch) are more efficient and lighter because an oil bath is not necessary, Ford/Volvo says wet versions have reduced wear and tear and thus last longer. Ford will use its dry clutch version on smaller cars like the Fiesta.

Ford Powershift

A twin-clutch transmission basically means the gearbox works like a manual transmission but it has two clutches, one for the odd gears and one for the even gears. While the odd clutch is in 3rd gear and is currently the active gear selected, the even clutch pre-selects 4th gear, so that when the time comes to shift, the switchover is much faster and smoother – an almost continuous flow of power.

0 to 100km/h with manual transmission takes about 9.5 seconds in a 2.0 litre Volvo S40 which is really quite far from blazing. The Powershift model is rated at 9.8 seconds, just fractions of a second slower than a true blue manual. As for fuel consumption, the car is rated for 11.3 litre per 100km in the city, 6.4 litres per 100km on the highway, and 8.1 litres per 100km on combined usage.

Other than the engine change, this new S40 specification also adds dual xenon headlamps and the Blind-Spot Info System that notifies the driver (with a blinking light) of objects in the car’s blindspot zone, which personally I feel is a little too sensitive.

The new Volvo S40 2.0 Powershift retails for RM169,950.00 OTR without insurance, which just happens to be the exact same figure as the 2.4 litre model. But what you’re paying for the Powershift is actually just slightly more than the 2.4 by a couple of hundreds of ringgit. This is because the OTR without insurance price includes road tax, and the 2.0 model naturally has cheaper road tax at RM379.50 as opposed to the 2.4 litre model’s RM815.

Look after the jump for a PDF brochure and pricelist of the new car.
[Read more...]

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Ex-Ford man to lead new Volvo takeover bid

October 7, 2009 at 12:54 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Volvo

Things have looked like Volvo was going to fall into the hands of a Chinese auto group for a few months now but here’s some good news for those who for some reason have been opposing such a takeover, mainly due to intellectual property and ‘brand bastardisation’ issues.

There is a new interested party that will be bidding for a Volvo takeover – a new consortium called Crown led by ex-Ford man Michael Dingman. Dingman was a Ford board member for 21 years until he left in 2002. He has partnered up with engineering man Shamel Rushwin, who is both ex-Ford and ex-Chrysler.

So far the Crown offer is reported to be lower than Geely’s US$2.2 billion bid but Crown says they intend to invest another US$3 billion in Volvo if it succeeds in taking over the company. Talk is cheap of course – I hope this is written down in black and white somewhere. Crown is backed by some US investors currently and are looking for some Swedish investors and partners – Volvo being Swedish and all.

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Volvo C30 hatchback receives facelift

September 9, 2009 at 3:00 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Videos, Volvo

Volvo C30

The C30 hatchback has been updated to feature Volvo’s new front-end look, as per the convertible C70 recently. Most of the changes are aesthetic and also include new colour choices for the exterior and interior – total configurations thanks to the various options results in 2,561,328 possible combinations.

Other than the looks, the other most significant change to me is the new ‘sports chassis’ option which basically means stiffer bushes, a 10% lower steering ratio, and suspension parts (these include new monotube stiffer dampers, stiffer springs and stiffer roll stabilizers) that are stiffer by 30%.

Volvo C30

The star engines of the range are the T5 and D5 models. The petrol T5 puts out 230 horses and 320Nm of torque from its 2.5 litre inline-5 while the D5′s 2.4 litre turbodiesel makes 180hp and 400Nm of torque, yet consumes only 6.2 litres per 100km.

Look after the jump for photos and videos of the C30.
[Read more...]

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