Although the Volvo S60 model for the year 2011 was presented only just seven months ago, what is most surprising is that the model has already gone into production at the company’s Torslanda plant. This would be the last model to have been designed whilst the company was still under Ford’s leadership. It will however, also be the first model to enter production under the ownership of Geely, its new Chinese owners. Thus, the model is at the crossroads of entering history though the production of the car is actually taking place a bit later than what was earlier envisioned.
Volvo is intending to expedite the process of production to make up for the delay. In future the company is planning to increase the production by over 100 cars in the coming few weeks. Currently the company produces according to the earlier set production target of 60 cars a day. The expectation is to reach 24 V60 in early November. The 2010 target, as set by the company, however, has gone down from 90,000 cars to 50,000. It may be worth noting that the ninety percent of this new target would be offered for sale in the European market. The choice for potential buyers would be from five petrol engines and three diesel engines.
Volvo has planned to offer the first lot of the car with two petrol engines and two diesel engines version. The first petrol engine will be a 3.0l T6 unit, which shall churn out a total of 304 bhp and 440 Nm of toque. The second engine is going to be a 2.0T unit which will have a power rating of 203 bhp while the torque produced by the engine would be somewhere at 300 Nm. The first lot will also have the diesel engine version, which includes a 2.4 D5 unit capable of producing 205 bhp of peak power along with 420 Nm of torque. As against this the 2.0 D3 engine will only be able to produce a total of 163 bhp in power whereas the toque levels produced by the engine would be at over 400 Nm.
In the forthcoming batches, the company has planned to include the other petrol engines and diesel engine. The next lot will have a 2.0 T5 producing 240 bhp power with 320 Nm of toque. Similarly, 1.6 T4 engine shall equip the car with over 180 bhp in power while the peak torque will also be reduced to 240 Nm. The third type of engine in the series would be a 1.6 T3 engine. This engine would produce maximum power of 150 bhp while the torque level will remain at 240 Nm. As mentioned earlier the second and other upcoming lots will also have the remaining diesel unit. The diesel version of the sport vehicle shall have the 1.6 D DRIVe capable of producing over 115 bhp in total power keeping the torque levels at over 270 Nm.
To enhance the security features of the upcoming production batches Volvo would install the latest safety features in this model, which would include corner traction control and pedestrian detection with full auto brake.
Source: 4wheelsnews
