2004 Volvo Xc90 T6 Wagon 4-door 2.9l on 2040-cars

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12-year-old golfer wins Volvo for hole-in-one [w/video]

Some people just have all of the luck. Natasha Oon, a 12-year-old girl in Malaysia, was recently attending the 40th RSGC Ladies Amateur Open Championship at the Royal Selangor Golf Club with her parents. On a whim, she teed up a shot with her eight iron and scored a hole-in-one. That would have been impressive for a girl her age by any standards, but she didn't see the sign that said making the shot also won her a new Volvo XC60 T5. Not a bad prize for a tween who won't be allowed to drive for at least a few years.
So what does any good 12-year-old do with a CUV? Give it to her parents of course. According to website Paultan, she plans on giving the crossover to her mom and told her, "this is the car that you will use to drive me to school every day." Scroll down to watch video of Oon receiving the oversized key to the Volvo with her family and a brief interview with her about what she was thinking when she found out she won a car for sinking a fantastic shot.

Russian auto boomtown grinds to halt over Ukraine sanctions

Thousands of auto workers have been furloughed and food prices are soaring as Western sanctions pummel the small Russian city of Kaluga and its flagship foreign carmakers, with more sanctions likely to come. The Kaluga region, 190 kilometers (120 miles) southwest of Moscow, says it has attracted more than 1.3 trillion roubles ($15 billion) in investment, mostly foreign, since 2006. But Western sanctions imposed in recent weeks after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine have exacerbated lingering component shortages and halted production at two flagship car plants, Germany's Volkswagen and Sweden's Volvo. A third, the PSMA Rus plant that is a joint venture between Stellantis and Mitsubishi and employs 2,000, may halt production soon due to a lack of parts, Stellantis' chief executive said last Thursday. "It is not clear what will happen. They don't give us any concrete information," said Pavel Terpugov, a welder at the PSMA Rus plant. Terpugov said he needs twice as much money to buy groceries than before the sanctions. Analysts have forecast Russian inflation could soar to 24% this year, while the economy may shrink to 2009 levels. The United States and Europe are weighing more sanctions against Russia after Ukraine accused Russian forces of civilian killings in northern Ukraine, where a mass grave was found in Bucha, outside Kyiv. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" and the Kremlin categorically denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians, including in Bucha. One source of hope for some in Kaluga, with its 325,000 residents, is the West may be reluctant to hurt its own companies. "Does it make sense to impose sanctions on its own plant and lose money?" said Valery Uglov, an auto mechanic at the Volkswagen plant. "Does it make sense to lose the Russian market?" "We hope to return to work as soon as possible and everyone will have confidence in the future again," Uglov said. Volkswagen, whose factory employs 4,200 people, in early March suspended operations. A spokeswoman said production remained frozen. Volvo Group, which employs over 600 people to build trucks, also suspended production. Even before the sanctions, Russian car sales had contracted from 2.8 million units from when the Volkswagen factory opened in 2007 to 1.67 million units last year, damaged by both sanctions after the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Volvo Car partners with Northvolt to develop and produce batteries

STOCKHOLM — Volvo Car Group, owned by China's Geely Holding, announced plans on Monday for a joint venture with Swedish battery maker Northvolt to develop sustainable batteries for its electric cars and set up a factory for production. The companies aim to set up a research and development center in Sweden to begin operations in 2022 and start a factory in Europe with a potential capacity to produce up to 50 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year in 2026. "Working closely with Northvolt will also allow us to strengthen our in-house development capabilities," said Hakan Samuelsson, chief executive at Volvo Car Group. Northvolt will become Volvo Cars' exclusive battery cell production partner in Europe. The factory will be powered by clean energy and is expected to employ around 3,000 people. The location of the plant has yet to be decided. Northvolt raised $2.75 billion in equity this month to expand capacity at the factory it is building in northern Sweden, and Volvo plans to source battery cells from that battery plant starting in 2024. German carmaker Volkswagen is Northvolt's biggest shareholder, and the battery maker has also got contracts worth billions from the likes of BMW and Scania. Battery makers are scrambling to keep up with demand as carmakers switch to electric in order to reduce planet-warming carbon emissions. Volvo Cars aims to sell 50% pure electric cars by the middle of this decade, and by 2030 it aims to sell only fully electric cars. Electric successor to Volvo's XC60 model will be the first car to feature battery cells developed through the joint venture.