Volvo Cars has really upped the ante since Chinese automotive giant Geely took ownership of the Swedish brand. There have been a stunning set of concepts unveiled at motor shows over the past year and now reports have surfaced that those concepts will heavily influence future Volvo products, while a raft of exciting technologies will also make their way into the new cars.
What has everyone talking at the moment is the drop-dead gorgeous Concept Estate that debuted at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this month. According to Autobild, Volvo plans to update its station wagon line-up with a shooting brake that will draw on the Concet Estate for inspiration and be called a V90.
But rather than position the new V90 between existing offerings as an alternative to a sedan with just more utility room, Volvo is reportedly aiming to market the V90 as a luxury wagon that will boast model-specific features – so hopefully the Swedes won’t tamper with what the Concept Estates previewed in Geneva too much.
Two other design studies from the Scandinavian brand, the Concept XC Coupe and Concept Coupe will spawn the next XC90 SUV and C90 coupe, but that’s not all that’s coming because Volvo is also co-developing a new range of small cars with owner Geely, which will include a C40 (the C30’s successor) and the next generation V40.
Turbocharged four-cylinder motors are known to be in the pipeline as well as hybrid powertrains for more exclusive models. But Autocar has also reported that Volvo has been testing a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) in the UK. This system is currently driving the rear axle in a S60 test mule, and can provide the driver with a 60 kW boost for up to 10 seconds, even though it takes just eight seconds of gentle braking to recharge the flywheel-based unit. While the current set-up is unlikely to make production, a front-wheel drive system with some kind of KERS is believed to be available by 2020.
