Sleek Volvo XC60: Bioethanol-ready

Volvo XC60 will be making its world debut next month at the Detroit motor show. Earlier, Volvo has given a preview of what its newest crossover would look like. But XC60 is not just about improving the looks of Volvo’s crossovers. It is also about high-tech innovations coupled with the use of environment-friendly fuel. Volvo flaunts that the new crossover is bioethanol ready.
“The XC60 Concept features a number of innovations that indicate how our cars will look in a few years time. It is time to once and for all forget about boxy Volvos,” said Steve Mattin, Volvo’s design director. “Instead, we will make our Scandinavian design heritage more emotional and radiant by adding sculptured, exciting shapes and innovative features.” He continued, “With more expressive and emotive shapes, if you can recognize a Volvo from 50m today, I want to get to the point where you will instantly spot a Volvo from twice that distance in the future.”
XC60 boasts its Volvo fuel system which covers the six-cylinder, 3.2-litre bio-ethanol engine. Said engine offers forceful performance with 265bhp and 340 Nm of torque. It also offers with 80 percent reduced carbon dioxide emissions than engine running on petrol. "We believe that the FlexiFuel also has great potential for larger engine sizes and we are planning to expand our range of bio-ethanol-powered engines in the coming years," said Magnus Jonsson, senior vice president, Research & Development at Volvo Cars.
Bioethanol can be produced by corn, wheat, and sugarcane or cellulose fermentation process. They grow steadily in Europe. As a fact, there are about 23 plants producing ethanol in said territory and the number is expected to increase in time. Within the European Union, approximately 720 million gallons of ethanol are produced every year. In the United States, there are 101 bioethanol plants with a capacity of 4.8 billion gallons annually. Further, there are over 1,000 filling stations for E85 in the United States.
The engine of the crossover was formerly introduced along with XC90 and Volvo S80 parts. It is optimized for E85 - 85 percent bio-ethanol and 15 percent petrol. The fuel economy when using E85 reduces to 19.2 mpg. This is because ethanol’s energy content is 40 percent lower than that of petrol.
Bioethanol fuel is renewable. "One single renewable fuel will not be able to replace today's fossil fuels, and the range of alternative fuels will probably be far wider in the future. Many different fuels and technologies are therefore being developed in parallel. Ethanol reduces dependency on fossil fuels and Volvo's FlexiFuel programme makes a vital contribution to our strategy of environmental sustainability," said Fredrik Arp, president and CEO of Volvo Cars.

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Kenneth McKinley is a 35-year old marketing specialist of voparts.com, a leading Volvo parts dealer in the country today. Working in the car parts industry for a long time now and being a car enthusiast himself gives him a wealth of knowledge on anything automotive.
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