2004 Volvo C70 Ht Convertible 2d on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Volvo's latest export from Sweden: paid parental leave

STOCKHOLM — Volvo Cars will offer all its employees worldwide 24 weeks paid parental leave in a bid to support female executives and equal parenting. The carmaker, which is based in Sweden but owned by China's Geely Holding, has over 40,000 employees. From next month, all staff who have worked in Volvo plants and offices for at least a year will be entitled to the leave each time they have a child and will receive 80% of their base pay during the period, the company said on Tuesday. Sweden is one of few countries that already offers leave by law for either parent. "Some countries do not offer any paid leave to new parents, or exclude certain groups of parents – the latter is particularly true for fathers," the company, which previously did not have a global policy but adapted to local regulations, said in a statement. Around a third of Volvo's senior managers are currently female. The company aims to raise that share to 50%, a spokeswoman said, adding that Volvo's new policy will improve conditions for staff on parental leave not least in China and the United States. "When parents are supported to balance the demands of work and family, it helps to close the gender gap and allows everyone to excel in their careers," said Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson. The global policy applies to either parent and the leave can be taken anytime within the first three years of parenthood. In Sweden, new parents are in general entitled by law to around a year of parental leave on up to 80% pay.  

Watch Volvo's V8 Supercar drivers play with the Polestar S60 in the Arctic

The Volvo S60 Polestar may not seem like a natural fit for the V8 Supercars series that runs throughout Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania. After all, the all-wheel-drive production-spec car isn't even available with a V8. But the rear-wheel-drive racing version has acquitted itself well in the early races of the season, even scoring an overall win at a race in Melbourne. Currently at seventh place in the championship, the S60 the most successful car that isn't a Holden or Ford.
To celebrate its burgeoning success, Volvo sent its V8 Supercars drivers Robert Dahlgren and Scott McLaughlin to home base in Sweden to have some fun driving in the snow and to visit Polestar headquarters. The two of them do some big power slides on an icy lake and then taker a deeper look into the company's performance division. Scroll down to watch the video full of sliding Swedish sedans.

Volvo Recharge models get more power and electric range

Volvo Belgium announced a few big improvements for plug-in hybrid models on the automaker's Scalable Product Architecture, meaning the 60 and 90 series Recharge models — S60, V60, XC60, S90, V90 and XC90. First, the battery's been given another layer of cells, upping capacity from 11.6 kWh to 18.8 kWh. At the moment, Volvo's UK site advertises two figures for all-electric range on the WLTP cycle for the XC60 and XC90, and says the S90 can already do 90 kilometers on a charge. The spec pages, however, say the XC60 can do 32 kilometers maximum, the XC90 able to go 30 kilometers. With the new battery, Volvo says all-electric range has improved to up to 90 kilometers (56 miles) on the WLTP cycle, but that will surely depend on model. Our U.S.-market XC90 PHEV is EPA-rated at 18 miles of battery-electric driving. A 62% increase would put that at about 30 miles. Just as good as the battery boost, the 87-horsepower e-motor that powers the rear axle on the Recharge trims is goosed to 145 hp. The T6 Recharge powertrain will make 350 combined horsepower, ten horses more than currently, and the T8 Recharge powertrain will make a combined 455 hp, a considerable 65 horses more than now. That makes the coming T8 the most powerful Volvo ever put into series production. The T8's 2.0-liter twin-charged engine has also been engineered for more efficiency as well as "higher engine power at low revs and at start-up," but Volvo hasn't offered specifics on that yet.  Finally, drivers will be able to control all that go with just the accelerator pedal, Volvo adding single pedal drive on the XC60 Recharge, S90 Recharge, and V90 Recharge. There's no word on when we might see them; introduction sometime during the 2022 model year seems sensible. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.