Tag Archives: Our

Volvo Cars makes use of biogas to realize its first climate-neutral plant in China

Our Taizhou manufacturing plant has switched to biogas, making it our first plant in China to obtain climate-neutral standing. The plant’s swap from pure fuel will end in a discount of greater than 7,000 tonnes of 2 per yr.


Despite being a small share of our whole Scope 1-3 emissions of million tonnes, securing climate-neutral vitality for our Taizhou plant is an necessary step in direction of our aim of having local weatherimpartial manufacturing operations by 2025 and lowering emissions throughout our international operations. This ambition is additionally a part of our broader purpose to succeed in web zero greenhouse fuel emissions by 2040.


Just like all our manufacturing crops worldwide, the Taizhou plant already used climate-neutral electrical energy, and this newest transfer makes positive that it additionally has climate-neutral heating.
It’s our second automotive plant globally to turn into local weatherimpartial after our Torslanda facility in Gothenburg, Sweden.


“We’re acting fast when viable climate-neutral energy alternatives become available,” says Javier Varela, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO at Volvo Cars. “The switch to biogas at our Taizhou plant demonstrates how each of our manufacturing locations across
the globe is developing its own climate-neutral energy mix, based on what’s available in the region.”


Our Taizhou plant
’s vitality provide includes of electrical energy and heating. It produces round 40 per cent of its electrical energy want from on-site photo voltaic panels – a share that’s set to broaden within the coming years. The remaining 60 per cent, which comes from the grid, can be climate-neutral electrical energy from solar. Its heating want is, with this newest swap, met by utilizing climate-neutral biogas.
 


Volvo Cars
recently expanded our sustainability strategy with new bold objectives for the approaching years. Our new purpose to succeed in zero greenhouse fuel emissions by 2040 builds on our previous ambition of being local weather impartial by 2040. It clarifies that our first priority is to cut back actual emissions earlier than turning to carbon removals to mitigate any unavoidable emissions. We are additionally encouraging our suppliers to do the identical.


Since the discharge of our firm’s first sustainability technique in 2019, we now have made 
good progress in direction of our local weather motion targets. On high of lowering CO
2 emissions from our whole operations by utilizing 74 per cent local weatherimpartial vitality, we’re additionally progressing properly in direction of our 2 goals 

Volvo Cars in 2023
For the total yr 2023, Volvo Car Group recorded a record-breaking core working revenue of SEK 25.6 billion. Revenue in 2023 amounted to an all-time excessive of SEK 399.3 billion, whereas international gross sales reached a file 708,716 automobiles.

About Volvo Car Group
Volvo Cars was based in 1927. Today, it is without doubt one of the most well-known and revered automotive manufacturers on this planet with gross sales to clients in additional than 100 international locations. Volvo Cars is listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm change, the place it’s traded underneath the ticker “VOLCAR B”.

“For life. To give people the freedom to move in a personal, sustainable and safe way.” This goal is mirrored in Volvo Cars’ ambition to turn into a completely electrical automotive maker by 2030 and in its dedication to an ongoing discount of its carbon footprint, with the ambition to be a climate-neutral firm by 2040.

As of December 2023, Volvo Cars employed roughly 43,400 full-time workers. Volvo Cars’ head workplace, product growth, advertising and marketing and administration capabilities are primarily positioned in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars’ manufacturing crops are positioned in Gothenburg, Ghent (Belgium), South Carolina (US), Chengdu, Daqing and Taizhou (China). The firm additionally has R&D and design centres in Gothenburg and Shanghai (China).

The finest automobiles Autocar lived with in 2023

Each 12 months a string of automobiles we are able to briefly name ‘our personal’ arrive at Autocar towers, able to be examined over a set of months and subjected to the rigour of a journalist’s on a regular basis life.

In getting attending to stay with them as in the event that they had been ours, we are able to dig into the less-obvious high-points and gritty flaws that solely increase their heads after an intensive interval of testing.

Some of our automobiles present a way more memorable expertise than others. Without additional ado (and deliberation), then, listed below are our picks of Autocar’s 2023 fleet.

The long-distance award

For the automobile we’d most wish to tackle a really lengthy journey

Winner: Bentley Flying Spur

Runner up: Toyota GR Supra

No want for a play-off or penalties right here: the Bentley Flying Spur was only a single vote away from having extra nominations than each different automobile on this 12 months’s fleet put collectively. 

Steve Cropley sorted Crewe’s best and – unsurprisingly – “enjoyed every mile”. Chief sub-editor Kris Culmer loved studying about Cropley having fun with it a lot that he voted for the Bentley with out ever having pushed it… 

Bentley Flying Spur driving

Deputy highway take a look at ed Richard Lane marvelled at “the magical combination of connection to the machine but isolation from the road”, whereas Mark Tisshaw (that’s me, by the way in which) stated “nobody does seats like Bentley” whereas pondering the grammatical protocol for quoting oneself within the third particular person. 

Lane’s highway take a look at desk colleague Illya Verpraet, all the time the iconoclast, was one to place ahead the Toyota GR Supra “for its excellent driving position, nice seats and good old ‘dumb’ cruise control that doesn’t have a mind of its own and which helps to make this a very relaxing long-distance car”. 

I used to be stunned to not see extra votes for the Alpina D3 S, though in voting for it, Cropley’s My Week In Cars podcast co-host (new episodes each Wednesday out of your favorite podcast supplier) Matt Prior maybe defined why: “The Alpina D3 S, so long as it was on the continent so I didn’t have to stress about potholes.”

New over-the-air update improves Apple CarPlay experience in Volvo cars

Our latest over-the-air update makes the infotainment system even better for Apple CarPlay users, arriving to Volvo cars globally with Google built-in.

The most notable improvement in this update is that Apple Maps and other supported navigation apps are becoming available in the driver display, just behind the steering wheel.

The driver display now also presents call information. You can answer, reject and end calls using the buttons on the steering wheel, and with the centre display you can directly hang up or mute the call. The CarPlay tile in the centre display now also features media information. The improved media interaction makes it easier for you to play, pause and skip between songs.

“When our customers get in their Volvo car, we want it to be a better experience than the day before – our over-the-air updates are a cornerstone in this ambition,” says Alwin Bakkenes, our Head of Software Engineering. “The latest update on CarPlay features is an excellent example of how we continuously improve and add features and functions together with our technology partners, making our customers’ experience richer over time.”

Since we started rolling out over-the-air updates, we’ve constantly increased the number of customer cars reached, cementing our position as one of the industry leaders when it comes to updating car software remotely. Our previous update brought the total number of delivered over-the-air updates over the one million mark, and this update alone will be sent out to a record high number of more than 650,000 Volvo cars.

This update also brings a range of changes that improve the experience for all drivers. From now on, you can switch between driver-support functions using the steering wheel buttons and choose whether the door mirrors should fold or not when locking the car. Other changes include minor engine calibration optimisations and bug fixes.

The small print

  • The functionality of over-the-air updates is available only on Volvo car models with Google built-in.
  • Google, Google Play and Google Maps are trademarks of Google LLC.
  • Availability of the features and services mentioned may differ between markets.
  • For the full release notes for the software 2.9, follow this link. Choose country, car model and model year to see the details