With its mild-hybrid and recharge variants, Volvo has one of the best hybrid car lineups.
Since 2019, every car Volvo produced has been either a hybrid or electric model. Volvo makes two types of hybrid cars: the mild hybrid and the full recharge plug-in hybrid. They use lithium-ion batteries for their electric cars. Volvo also launched a fully-electric car in 2019.
Volvo’s effort towards electrification
Volvo has always claimed to put people’s safety first. They first introduced their electrification campaign in 2017. Volvo has become the first car manufacturer to stop making completely fossil fuel-based engines. Instead, they have replaced them with electric motors, hybrids and plug-in hybrid cars. They introduced Volvo XC40 in 2019, which is a fully electric vehicle.
Volvo has become the first major luxury car manufacturer to include electric motors in all of their cars. The introduction of an electric powertrain in all of its cars shows its commitment towards environmental issues since the low or zero-emission cars will improve the air quality in cities.
Volvo’s Hybrid Technology
They have introduced all three types of electric power vehicles.
Mild-Hybrid Technology
Volvo calls hybrid cars “Mild-Hybrid” cars. Every Volvo car has a mild-hybrid variant. These Volvos use a 48-volt battery and a 12 volt/48-volt converter with a gasoline engine, giving them exceptional fuel economy. Volvo’s hybrid cars, with their outstanding fuel economy through an electric motor, give results without any performance sacrifice.
Plug-in Hybrid Technology
The batteries in this technology can be charged through a power outlet or through its regenerative braking system. In this hybrid form, they have introduced three driving modes for their customers. The “Pure mode” enables the car to drive only on battery. The “Hybrid mode” offers better fuel efficiency. The final “Power Mode” is a sports mode made to experience high performance, but it isn’t as fuel friendly.
Volvo’s electric ambitions
With their announcement in 2017, they began fulfilling their promise of shifting to electric power. Volvo’s next goal is to sell 50% of their cars as fully electric vehicles. They have even planned to stop making hybrid cars by 2030. This would mean that they would switch to fully electric vehicles by 2030. This is a big leap in going fully electric.
What are electric cars?
Electric cars use fully or partial electrical energy stored in batteries. There are three types of electric cars:
- Fully electric cars
- Plug-in hybrid cars
- Hybrid cars
Fully Electric Cars
Fully electric cars use a big traction battery pack and don’t have any internal combustion engines. They solely run on the electric battery. Electric batteries can be charged at home or via charging stations, also known as Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE). Typically, these cars come with a connector kit that is plugged into a household outlet.
The lack of fuel burned in this system gives absolutely zero emissions. Many believe fully electric cars are the future of the car industry.
Plug-in Hybrid Cars
These cars run on batteries, as well as on a fuel like gasoline or diesel. Batteries are used to charge an electric motor. Batteries can be charged through a power source or regenerative braking. They can also be charged through an internal combustion engine. When the batteries are consumed, the car automatically switches over to use the internal combustion engine.
Through this method, consumers enjoy both electric and fuel power with very little tailpipe emission. This method gives an excellent fuel average and can save a lot of money.
Hybrid Cars
Both gasoline engines and electric motors are used to run these cars. Batteries are used to power the electric motor through regenerative braking. These cars use all types of engine combinations. At low speeds, they use the only the electric engine. Other times they use just the gasoline engine or sometimes both.
This results in less gasoline burned, which gives better fuel economy. Consumers enjoy better fuel economy than conventional gas engines with the same performance.
Why are electrically-powered cars important?
With the ever-changing climate and global warming, we have to cut our carbon emissions. Car emissions count for 1/5th of the total carbon emissions in the world. This includes fuel extraction, production, and delivery. This makes it the biggest contributor to global warming.
Gases emitted through the exhaust chamber consists of:
- Carbon dioxide
- Carbon monoxide
- Unburnt fuel
- Particulate matter such as mercury
- Nitrogen
- Water vapors
We can avoid all of this by using electric power to limit our carbon emissions. We can completely cancel out our car emissions by using fully electric-powered vehicles.
FAQ
Does Volvo make any gasoline-based cars?
Volvo stopped making solely internal combustion engine-based cars and now only sells hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and fully electric cars. Volvo stopped ICE-based cars in 2017 when they announced their ambitions to cut carbon emissions to zero by 2030.
Do Volvo EVs costs more than Volvo hybrids?
Electric vehicles are normally more expensive than hybrids and Volvo is also not an exception. The Volvo XC40 fully electric car starts at $76,990, whereas its plug-in hybrid version starts at $64,990. However, with the ever-increasing production of EVs, it is likely to change from 2026 onwards.
How do hybrid batteries charge themselves?
The batteries in hybrid cars charge themselves through regenerative brakes. Regenerative braking simply turns kinetic energy into electrical energy. When we hit the brake pad, the fluid pushes the brake pads. This causes friction, which generates heat, turning it into energy. This energy is then used to charge the batteries.
What are some cheapest hybrids available on market?
Hybrids have been around for quite some time. Some affordable hybrids include:
- 2019 Toyota Prius c- pricing starts at $21,530
- 2020 Honda Insight- pricing starts at $22,930
- 2020 Hyundai Ioniq- pricing starts at $22,200
What are some problems with hybrid cars?
While there are numerous benefits of hybrid cars, there are some issues with them:
- They are costlier than their fossil fuel-based cars rivals.
- While companies provide at least eight years of warranty for the battery, this is still an inconvenience.
- Hybrid cars are not so great on highways.