General Motors may have some competition to the Chevrolet Volt from Volvo. AutoblogGreen has details of a press release from Volvo announcing the upcoming unveiling of their Recharge Concept car based on their C30 model (Flash site) at next week’s Frankfurt Motor Show. From the press release:
The ReCharge Concept is a specially designed Volvo C30 with individual electric wheel motors and batteries that can be charged via a regular electrical outlet. When fully charged the Volvo ReCharge Concept can be driven approximately 62 miles on battery power alone before the car's four-cylinder 1.6 Flexifuel engine1 is needed to power the car and recharge the battery. The concept car also retains the Volvo C30's lively and sporty drive thanks to an acceleration figure of 0-62mph in 9 seconds and a top speed of 100mph. The only extra cost will be the electricity used during charging. The Volvo ReCharge Concept can be charged at any regular electric plug socket at convenient locations such as at home or work and a full recharge will take three hours. However, even a quick one hour charge provides enough power to cover just over 30 miles.
Note that the charging times are with European 220 volt outlets, so double the times for Canada and the US. Introduced in 2006, the C30 is a 3-door hatchback currently available in Europe with a 2008 model year car being introduced to the US later this year.