Volvo will debut the near-production-ready V60 Plug-In Hybrid at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show next month. The hybrid uses a super-efficient diesel-electric powertrain that provides up to 124 mpg and emits just 50 g/km of C02. That powertrain consists of a 215-hp 2.4-liter five-cylinder turbodiesel in front and a 70-hp electric motor out back. The car is capable of around 31 miles of all-electric driving before the turbodiesel engine kicks in.

Other equipment includes a 12 kWh lithium-ion battery pack and a six-speed automatic transmission hooked to the turbodiesel.

Volvo plans to give the market its first diesel-electric hybrid when it launches the V60 plug-in next year. More info should follow next month. [via Volvo]

As a whole, Volvo vehicles have come a long way from their ultra-boxy, stackable roots. Do a quick comparison of Volvo’s current line vs. its line from 25 years ago, and you’ll see just how much style Volvo has injected.

Despite how far Volvo come, designer Nouphone J. Bansasine has decided that the limits need to be pushed exponentially. His SC90 concept looks like what might happen if Volvo and Aston Martin had a wild, purely superficial affair that resulted in a beautiful love child. Bansasine created the concept for an internship for Volvo Monitoring and Concept Center, so it’s not quite as far-fetched as many independent designers’ concepts. However, it still seems like a stretch for a company that used to be known for its ugly-as-sin refrigerators-on-wheels. [via Yanko Design]

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There’s rarely ever anything funny about car crashes, but this one is downright hysterical. Volvo was in the middle of holding a big, ol’ press event at which it wanted to demonstrate the Collision Warning with Auto Brake system on the new S60. Sounds like an interesting little event to see some impressive, if entirely contrived, new hardware at work, right? Wrong. The S60 came flying out of the gate at around 35 kmh, only Volvo’s system, which is supposed to auto-brake in the event the car approaches an object and the driver doesn’t hit the brake pedal, didn’t do anything, letting the car slam right into the back of an 18-wheeler. Maybe hay bails would be a better test the next time.

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The handsome Volvo S60 sedan made its grand debut at the recent Geneva Motor Show, and Volvo has designed a suped-up, red-white-and-blue racing version for the upcoming Belgian Touring Car Series.

Developed by a Volvo S60 Belgian racing team to meet standards of the BTCS Silhouette S1 regulations, the race-ready  S60 features a 3.5-liter V6 engine mounted in the middle of the car. The engine is worth 410 hp and is paired to a six-speed sequential transmission.

The new racer had its first test last week and is scheduled to make its racing debut on April 11. Enjoy more pictures in the gallery after the jump. [via Carscoop]

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Primed for the Geneva Motor Show, the 2011 Volvo S60 is now official. Not holding back in PR-speak, Volvo is calling it the “most dynamic car model” to ever roll out of Volvo’s garage. Looking at it, it’s clearly not your grandma’s Volvo.

The dynamics are brought in part by a choice of chassis, which includes a comfort chassis and optional sport chassis in North America. The options are differentiated by softer front and rear dampers on the comfort variant.

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2010 Volvo C70

It looks like today is officially “Make a Deal for Swedish Automakers” Day. In news on the other pending Swedish auto deal, Ford will reportedly get $1.8 billion from Geely for Volvo. This fire-sale price is significantly lower than the $6.5 billion that Ford paid for Volvo back in ’99. But all things economic have certainly taken a dive since then.

The reported target date for the sale is February 8. The new report comes from China’s Economic Observer.

It’s also likely that once the deal has been finalized, Geely will begin producing Volvos in a Beijing-area plant beginning with everyone’s favorite vampire-mobile: the XC60. [via LeftLaneNews]

The Geely/Volvo deal still isn’t complete, so this could all end up as fruitless speculation, but according to a report on LeftLaneNews, U.S. Volvo dealers are entertaining the possibility of selling vehicles from the Chinese automaker in the future. The purchase of Volvo by Geely could be used as a means of breaking into the U.S. market. It’s estimated that it will take Geely another five years to get a vehicle up to U.S. standards.

We won’t really know anything for sure until well after the ink has dried, but the future U.S. auto market could be a rather diverse place. [via LeftLaneNews]

It appears that the path is clear for Ford to sell Volvo to the Chinese company Geely–or Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, if you want to get technical. If you’re not familiar with the company, Geely, the largest private automaker in China, has brought us some pretty sweet, little rides in the past.

Though the companies have not yet confirmed a price, it’s expected that Geely will pay $2 billion for the Swedish automaker, well below the $6 billion Ford paid to acquire the company back in the economic heyday of ’99. Details like financing and government approval still need to be sewn up, but the two companies are expected to ink the deal in the first quarter of next year.

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2007 C30 ReCharge Concept

Volvo let the world know about its full-electric C30 concept months ago, but so far hasn’t shown it off in any obvious public venues. That’ll all change this January when the Swedish automaker will show the car at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The all-electric C-30 will use a 24 kWh li-ion battery pack that will juice the car up for 93 miles of driving on a charge. Charging of the pack takes eight hours. The car is capable of an 11-second 0 to 60 and around an 81 mph top speed.Volvo has yet to give all the details on the electric’s powertrain, so we’ll have to wait until Detroit draws nearer. [via LeftLaneNews]