Volvo Doing Alright Under New Management

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

„Let’s see what Volvo has with Jacoby as chief and the Chinese as owners.”

If I would have a Euro for each time that sentence is uttered in Geneva, I’d be rich by now. Volvo shows a V60 plug-in hybrid wagon. It uses a 215 horsepower 2.4L diesel 5-cylinder engine to drive the front wheels, while a 70 horsepower electric motor powers the rear.

Three power modes are on tap: Pure electric, hybrid driving and one named “Power”.

In electric mode, the V60 can go as far as 30 miles without using any diesel. It can be charged in as little as 3 hours.


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • BlueEr03 BlueEr03 on Mar 01, 2011

    It looks like a stretched, 4-door C30.

    • JMII JMII on Mar 02, 2011

      Yes it does... sort of. But something about it just doesn't look right. And as someone who just test drove a C30 I sure hope it has Volvo's patented blind spot warning system, because despite the C30s size the combination of high doors (for safety?), wide wheel arches (very stylish) and small mirrors (better areo?) makes seeing what is over your shoulder a touch tricky.

  • Kristjan Ambroz Kristjan Ambroz on Mar 03, 2011

    Who knows, if they are serious about it (i.e. if it is actually reliably running), they could be the first ones to offer a diesel-electric hybrid, with the added bonus of a plug in. I still somehow recon Peugeot will probably beat them to it, at least with the diesel part.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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