AIMS: Volvo plugs in

VOLVO will underline its position as Sweden’s biggest car-maker by unveiling a trio of forward-looking vehicles at the Australian International Motor Show opening in Melbourne this Friday.

The world’s first plug-in diesel hybrid, based on Volvo’s new V60 wagon, will make its Southern Hemisphere debut direct from its global premiere at the Geneva show in March.

Likely to have greater visual impact, however, is the C30 Electric that survived Euro NCAP’s torturous 64km/h offset frontal crash test, as seen at the Detroit show in January.

The all-electric C30 hatchback entered production earlier this month and is under consideration for Australian release, as is a piping-hot new version of the S60 T6 R Design that will also take star billing on Volvo’s AIMS stand this year.

Bristling with tweaks from its Polestar performance partner, the formidable new version of Volvo’s latest mid-size sedan develops 242kW and 480Nm – enough to lower the S60 T6’s official 0-100km/h time to under six seconds, compared to 6.1 seconds for the standard model.

Apart from its sexy R Design bodykit, the go-faster S60 features a high-performance Heico exhaust and wears unique alloy wheels.

Officially only a concept at this stage, the Polestar-tuned S60 is under consideration for release in Australia, as either a limited-edition or a full-time member of the local Volvo model line-up.