In a foreseen twist of events, hybrids have come to overshadow regular cars while electric vehicles have already plugged into a network of furor at the Paris Auto Show with many makers having announced such releases for the following years. Audi, Nissan and Mitsubishi are only a few of them, surprisingly followed by AMG who have recently announced they will deliver their first hybrid vehicle sometime in 2010.
While American builders have poured plenty of resources into such projects, such as GM's 2010 Chevy Volt, European-based workshops have laid back until now when all of the sudden, many have abruptly made the same announcements.
After having recently fired its 6000th employee, Volvo brakes the silence harder than a Depeche Mode song, announcing that a diesel hybrid is already on its way with an expected release set close to 2012. The company has already taken on new technology with start-top system ready to be fitted on vehicles as of next year.
Targeted at both European and US markets, the Volvo hybrid tech will first take on the company's larger vehicles such as the crossovers, SUV's and some of the sedans before being implemented on smaller vehicles. So far, the Swedish manufacturer boasts that their hybrids will be able to operate solely on battery power at low speeds.
According to Volvo's r&d senior vice president, Magnus Jonsson, plug-in version will be made available shortly after the arrival of the hybrids, offering buyers the intensely discussed possibility of charging their vehicles at home through special sockets connected to a household's power grid.
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