Here goes the resale value of Volvo’s down the toilet
https://www.wsj.com/articles/volvo-to-phase-out-conventional-car-engine-1499227202
…of Volvo’s…what?
In any event, this is essentially a duplicate of another thread:
I ain’t buyin’ it. I was able to read the other link in its entirety WITHOUT subscribing and that is not what Volvo said.
Something is very fishy here.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
The Wall Street Journal has been owned by Rupert Murdoch for several years, and as a result of that takeover, that august publication has lost a lot of its objectivity. But, because good old Rupert has never been known to lose any money, reading any of his publication’s online articles has required a subscription ever since he took control of that once-mighty publication. That is why I posted a link to BBC News, rather than a link to The WSJ.
Yeah, sorry, I noticed yours after I posted this one.
@cdaquila Hey Carolyn, could we close this thread down since it’s an accidental duplication?
Yup, same thing with NYT, WaPo, Minneapolis red star and Tribune, and even our local paper. But they do give you like 5-10 free reads a month until they cut you off. So far they haven’t caught on to incognito though.
Wonder if this was the idea of the Chinese owners or not so they could sell more in China?
4 posts were merged into an existing topic: Volvo will phase-out gas-powered vehicles in a few years
I heard this on the radio news today too. Volvo going all electric. Seems to make sense. Folks who were a little weary of buying an all electric car, but took the chance and did it anyway, must be saying it turned out to be a good decision. They didn’t have the range worry they thought, b/c they seldom drive more than 30-40 miles per day. Here in the San Jose area electric cars are very common. Not just Tesla, a whole slew of make/model versions. There’s quite a few shopping places where they provide several spots in front where you can recharge for 2 hours for free, complements of the store. That makes the all electric cars very visible. They are all there in a line in the front row of the parking lot shining in the sun and getting their free charge boost while the owner is inside buying some artichokes or something.
Wonder if their trucks will do the same, doubt it and do not blame them.
No, they aren’t. This is an excerpt from Volvo’s press release.
"The Chinese-owned firm, best known for its emphasis on driver safety, has become the first traditional carmaker to signal the end of the internal combustion engine.
It plans to launch five fully electric models between 2019 and 2021 and a range of hybrid models.
But it will still be manufacturing earlier models that have pure combustion engines.
Geely, Volvo’s Chinese owner, has been quietly pushing ahead with electric car development for more than a decade."
The journalistic types have made a mess of what Volvo actually said. Now the myth has taken on a life of its own.
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It didn’t sound like they were going all electric but would just have electric assist on them all. At any rate count me out at this point. Last week I put on two thousand miles. I can’t imagine stopping every few hours for a re-charge. Even our second car will travel more in a day at times and I can’t see having a car that can only be used for short in town trips. Just a waste not to mention again the perilous state of our grid as we put more load on it.
Oh, so they’re going to continue to sell existing models with ICE, but all the new models will be electric or hybrid. That’s different from what I heard on the radio. But either way, the industry direction seems to be the electric car.
This is a strange thread for this site seeing as Volvo owners ( me are one ) don’t seem to be a trend here.
I absolutely agree. I continue to believe that 15 years from now almost all new vehicles on the market will be either EVs or hybrids, with about 40% EVs. There still might be a few purely ICE engines for the wealthy faithful, but I’ve noticed that even the highest-end Ferraris and other supercars are going hybrid. A leap in battery technology, which I expect (hope) to see soon may change that estimate to 40% hybrid and 60% EV.
EVs and hybrids make too much sense not to happen. Traction control systems become much easier to integrate, electric motors have the immediate high torque that supercars have always pursued, charging stations are becoming ubiquitous, high-efficiency motors are commonplace now, and there’s no longer any downsides apparent. Besides that, Toyota has made the world totally comfortable with the daily reliability and usability of hybrids via the Prius. The fears people had 20 years ago are no longer a barrier.
As to the battery technology, until Tesla came along recently there was little demand for a technology leap in batteries. Now there is. I’m optimistic that it’ll happen.
In addition to hybrids with batteries I think manufacturers will introduce a configuration I’ve mentioned before:
Replacing multi-speed automatic transmissions with a dual electric motor/generator, plus planetary gear, functioning as a CVT.
Essentially the Toyota Synergy drive without the battery; energy transfer directly from one mo-gen to the other.
No CVT tricky belts or cone rollers; far simpler mechanically than a 6+ speed automatic.
You can’t store braking energy without a place to store it - batteries or super-capacitors or flywheel. The way the hybrid system works is to collect braking energy and then spit it back out to help acceleration.
You don’t have to store braking energy.
This system would have no regenerative braking.
It’s not a hybrid.
It is only a replacement for the transmission of a conventional drivetrain.
I would respectfully disagree with that statement. What about smart phones, tablets and laptops? These have been pushing Li-ion battery technology harder than Tesla or any car battery. What about handheld power tools? These also have been pushing for better and better batteries to replace AC cords.
To give Tesla credit, they helped push large-format Li-ion battery technology and the controls those batteries need to charge manage and current limit. I’d also give credit to Boeing for that as well for using Li-ion in the 757 Dreamliner. Yeah, they had some initial problems but so did the Tesla Roadster (i.e. “Bricked” cars)
OK, I understand. Sorry 'bout that. I got confused with it being in the hybrid stream…