The company says that it will ramp up production to 4,000-6,000 units from 2014, since order books are already beginning to fill up. The project, which has been developed and financed by Volvo and Swedish electricity supplier Vattenfall, is the world’s first diesel plug-in hybrid.
Incorporating the hybrid’s manufacture in the Torslanda plant’s production line, which also builds Volvo’s regular models, has required certain parts of the assembly line to be modified in order to integrate the more than 300 different parts that the V60 Plug-in Hybrid encompasses compared to the conventional models.
For example, the electric motor and its drive shafts are fitted on the same station as the final drive on the standard all-wheel drive versions. Additionally, the lithium-ion battery pack, which according to Mertens is “the single most complex system in the car”, is lifted through the tailgate and then spun a quarter of a turn in the passenger compartment in just 60 seconds and with less than 20 mm clearance.
Posts
