Volvo Shows Off Plug-In Battery EV, Names EnerDel as Battery Supplier
By John O'Dell September 17, 2009
By John O'Dell, Senior Editor
GOTHENBURG, Sweden - Volvo Cars unveiled its new C30-based prototype electric car today and said that Indianapolis-based battery maker EnerDel is supplying the lithium-ion battery pack for the vehicles, which will be used in a series of on-road test programs in Europe over the next year.
The deal is EnerDel's second with Volvo, following this summer's announcement that the subsidiary of New York-based Ener1 Corp. was teaming with the Swedish automaker to supply batteries for a pair of plug-in diesel-electric hybrids.
The C30 BEV, or battery-electric vehicle, uses a 24 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack with 22 kilowatt-hours of usable energy and a predicted range of 75 to 93 miles depending on driving conditions.
Test Track Trial
Green Car Advisor got a chance to take one of the two existing C30 BEVs on a short spin around Volvo's demonstration track outside Gothenburg in southwest Sweden earlier today and found the four-seater - based on Volvo's smallest car - to be a sprightly, well-mannered package.
The nearly 700-pound (estimated) battery pack, made of hundreds of flat lithium-ion cells for easier cooling, is tucked beneath the C30's sporty body, fitted between the frame stiffeners to give the small car a low center of gravity and to protect the battery from damage in an accident.
Volvo, which is testing the car for possible European rollout in a couple of years (sorry - no plans for the U.S. market at this stage of the game), says the 82-kilowatt, 115-horsepower (maximum output) front-wheel-drive electric motor is capable of pulling the car to 62 mpg from a standing start in under 10.5 seconds, an acceptable speed for a city commuter car.
The C30 BEV has an electronically capped top speed of 81 miles an hour.
Volvo's vehicle electrification strategist, Paul Gustavsson, told us that the company doesn't have specific plans yet for the test program but could roll out as many as 100 to 200 of the battery-electric C30s in coming months.
Niche Market
They'll be spread around Western Europe for use in private and pubic fleets in markets, such as Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany, that are welcoming to BEVs with an already installed network of public chargers and government policies that promote use of low- and zero-emissions vehicles.
We don't figure in Volvo's test plans because the C30 BEV is designed as a short-haul commuter, or city, car. Volvo doesn't see much of a market for such cars in the U.S. right now, said specialty vehicles program director Lennart Stegland.
He said the company sees battery-electric city cars such as the C30 BEV as "second cars in a family," to be used for daily commuting but taking a back seat on weekends and during vacation periods to larger, family-friendly sedans and wagons with conventional engines or,perhaps, rechargeable plug-in hybrid-electric powertrains.
PHEVs First
The latter is a role Volvo sees its plug-in diesel-electric hybrid filling after it enters the public market in 2012. While the test mules are built on the V70 wagon (right), the powertrain is likely to be shifted from the wagon to a sedan such as the S60 for the launch.
The plug-in hybrid,or PHEV, system uses Volvo's 205-horsepower,5-cylinder turbo diesel to drive the front wheels, with a 50 kilowatt (70 horsepower) electric motor powering the rear wheels and augmenting the diesel when extra power is needed for acceleration.
The plug-in's EnerDel batteries are flat-pack lithium ion cells bundled into a 12 kilowatt-hour pack, with 8 kilowatt hours of usable energy - sufficient, a loop around Volvo's track today showed, to boost the wagon to nearly 60 miles an hour on all-electric drive.
We weren't able to test the car to its limits, but Volvo PHEV program engineer Henrik Jarlebratt told us the system is designed to provide up to 35 miles of all-electric drive - although not at a sustained 60 mpg but under the more leisurely European combined driving cyclke which includes 4 kilometers of city driving and 7 kilometers of highway speeds.
While the C30 BEV looks and feels to be a ready-for production model, the plug-in systems in the V70 mules were still in the initial phase - ready for early testing but not with a well-packaged system.
750 Miles
Although the electric motor and power electronics package were out of sight, the 330-pound battery packs were mounted in the V70s' cargo areas, encased in a steel crash cage and clearly visible through the rear glass.
Volvo says the system will provide up to 280 combined diesel and electric horsepower when needed, with 713 miles of range on diesel fuel adding to the 35 miles of all-electric range for total of almost 750 miles on one battery charge and a full tank of diesel fuel.
Fuel economy, the company said, is estimated internally at an overall combined average of 120 mpg.
EnerDel CEO Ulrik Grape, a guest at Volvo's media preview today, told us the company was happy to be teamed with Volvo despite its so-far limited plans for electrification.
The automaker intends to offer more hybrid-electric and fully electric cars as time goes on and while the V70 plug-in mules still are a bit rough, the C30 BEV "is a really well-done package that shows Volvo is committed and can do a well-thought-out electric vehicle," Grape said.
We agree - and just wish Volvo had a more faith in the U.S. market.
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