Volvo Develops ‘Range Extenders’ for Electric Cars

Though electric vehicles are stealing the spotlight due to zero emissions, these cars are seeing a downfall due to poor driving range. Especially in urban America, an electric car can only travel not more than 100 miles on a full charge. Volvo Car Corporation is making an attempt to change the above situation by developing range extenders that are more traditional.

The developers of this technology have said that, all electric cars have their relative operating range, but with the range extender, the effective range of an electric car will be increased by a thousand kilometers. But still the carbon dioxide emissions will be below 50 g/km. These ‘Range Extenders’ are nothing but simple combustion engines.

Volvo is currently testing the three combinations engines and electric motors. All three combinations include three-cylinder gasolene engines that can run either on E85 ethanol or petrol. Two of the concepts use C30 electric as their base. One of them is series connected extender and the other one is parallel extender. The third concept is based on the V60 and used as a parallel-extender.

The C30 with the series-connected extender allows the combustion engine to operate like a generator. It is designed with an aim of powering the electric motor, which is very similar to how a train locomotive operates. This combination has the capacity to produce 300 horsepower, which allows the car to hit 62 mph in less than six seconds. It also increases the electric car’s driving range by 1,000 kilometers.