Volvo S60 tagged posts

Today Volvo announced that the S60L Plug-in Hybrid sedan will be officially on sale two weeks later (04/22). Currently this is for the Chinese market only, no plan for the US market at this moment.

The production version of this new S60 variant will be very similar (if not identical) to the previous S60L PPHEV Concept Car, first shown in the 2014 Beijing Auto Show. Below are highlights of the specification:

– 2.0L turbocharged 4-cylinder gasoline engine (front wheels), 238hp and 258 lb-ft of torque
– Electric motor (rear wheels): 68hp and 148 lb-ft of torque
– Gasoline engine mated to the Aisin-sourced 8-speed automatic transmission
– 0-100 km/h time: 5.5 seconds
– Charg...

Three months ago, we have reported that Volvo will start to provide the long-wheelbase version of the S60 sedan (the S60L) to the US market in 2015. More importantly, the S60L will be assembled in Volvo’s Chengdu factory, in Sichuan Province, China, and exported to the US dealerships. This is a first time a major automobile brand in US market that are importing fully assembled passenger cars from China.

As the date is coming, we provide you some of the detailed live photos of the Volvo S60L...

If you are still thinking only using 4-cylinder engines across the 4500lb+ SUV product line is a very revolutionary behavior, you are apparently not on the same page as Volvo’s upper management.

In fact within Volvo, they are thinking 4-cylinder engines to be equivalent to V6/V8, and they have even planned to use 3-cylinder engines to replace 4-cylinder engines.

According to Volvo’s product plan, in 2016 they are going to use a 1.5L turbocharged 3-cylinder engine in the S60 and V60. However, the 3-cylinder engine will not be used in heavier models such as the XC90, due to its physical property limits its low-end torque delivery.

In the future years, Volvo cars will see tw...

The trend of long wheelbase version seems to affect US market considerably in the recent years, for example the upcoming 2015 Infiniti M70L, also the news that Tesla is considering LWB version of the Model S.

The same thing happens to the Volvo’s entry level compact car: the S60. The long wheelbase version of this model (S60L) is available in China market starting from last year. Now news coming from Volvo management saying that, the Swedish auto maker has made the decision to export the S60L to the US market starting next year. Despite the standard S60 which is made in Sweden, the LWB S60L will be made in Volvo’s Chengdu factory, in Sichuan Province, China...