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Volvo Car Corporation to start demonstration programme of electric cars in Shanghai

Friday, 11 November 2011 15:44
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b_100_74_16777215_00___images_Autot_38548_1_5.jpgVolvo Cars China and Shanghai International Automobile City Group - a local government supervision authority - has decided to undertake a fleet demonstration programme with a test fleet of two Volvo C30 Electric cars in the community of Jiading outside Shanghai.
"We are very proud to bring the first Volvo C30 Electric cars to China and contribute to the electrification of the country", says Freeman Shen, chairman of Volvo Cars China. The purpose is to gain better understanding of customer behaviour and expectations from operating electric cars.
In January 2011, Shanghai was selected as an international electric vehicle pilot city by the Chinese government and the Jiading district of Shanghai was announced as an electric vehicle demonstration zone. An infrastructure with over 13,000 charging stations and 15 battery swapping stations is being built, in order to support the real life use of electric vehicles.

Electrification of cars is a clear strategy for the Chinese Government in order to reduce the country's dependency on oil and longer term also to reduce CO2 emissions from transports.
"The Volvo C30 is the first electric car from an international brand that will be presented and involved in various activities here. Its performance fulfills the expectations of the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Municipal and District governments to make the demonstration zone a truly international one", says Ni Yaomin, Deputy Governor of Jiading District, Shanghai. He continues:
"It will promote cooperation and communication between international and domestic auto makers on new energy vehicles."

In June 2011, Volvo Car Corporation started the production of the Volvo C30 Electric as a part of the company's highly ambitious electrification strategy for the forthcoming years. The Volvo C30 Electric is manufactured in the Volvo Cars Ghent plant in Belgium and finalised in the Torslanda plant in Sweden.

The cars are leased to customers in selected European countries and they are also currently operating in demonstration programmes in Sweden and Belgium. In China, it is the intention to introduce additional Volvo C30 Electric cars into demonstration programmes, including the one in Jiading.

The Volvo C30 Electric has a 20 kWh battery that is recharged from a regular household power socket. A full recharge takes about 7 hours. The operating range is up to 150 kilometres per full charge. The top speed is 130 km/h and acceleration from 0-50 km/h takes four seconds.