Volvo’s upcoming electric vehicles will have ethanol-powered heaters to avoid draining battery power on cold winter days.
Temperature in the passenger compartment of the Volvo C30 Electric will be boosted by an ethanol powered heater. The car’s ethanol tank can carry 14.5 liters of ethanol. The filler cap is located where the fuel filler cap is located in a conventional Volvo C30.
A separate unit heats or cools the vehicle’s battery pack so that it does not lose charge (when cold) or over-heat under intense driving conditions.
It is also possible to heat the passenger compartment on short trips, using electricity from the batteries.
"The driver can program and control the climate unit to suit the trip. Ethanol is the default mode that is used when the battery capacity is needed for driving as far as possible. However, on shorter distances electricity can be used to power the climate system," said Lennart Stegland, director of Volvo Cars’ Special Vehicles.
Drivers can even program the system to cool or heat the car in advance, so that the temperature is pleasant when they begin driving. Pre-programming is done in the menu for the car’s settings or remotely via mobile phone.
Volvo will begin delivering an initial batch of 250 C30s to select customers in Europe during the second half of 2011. Volvo says the vehicle has a range of up to 150 kilometers per charge and is the first vehicle to use aluminum rear brakes to cut down on weight.
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Is this such a good thing? I tend to think of ethanol as a wasteful short-term solution for a long-term problem.
We’re reporting on the news, but we don’t consider ethanol a positive for the environment or for food supplies.
Fair enough.