Volvo to Extend Driving Range of its EVs
Electric Vehicles, or EVs, are the future. Or so the automakers say. And they would be correct, if it wasn’t for a significant disadvantage over petrol or diesel powered models: their abysmal range which makes them suitable only for limited city use. Volvo is taking measures to solve this problem and make its EVs attractive to the public by adding an extra 1,000 km (621 miles) to their range. The solution, which has also been adopted by other models such as the Chevrolet Volt and the Audi A1 E-Tron concept , is the addition of a “range extender” internal combustion engine. The project, which has the support of both the EU and the Swedish Energy Agency, has three possible combos and tests will begin in the first quarter of 2012. The first two are based on the C30 Electric , in which the battery pack has been reduced in order to make room for the fuel tank. All three concepts can run on either petrol or ethanol (E85) and emit just 50g of CO2/km, or even le...