GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN – Volvo Cars has one of the car market’s broadest ranges of E-85 models. All told, five models are on offer, each available with one or two Flexifuel engines. Most recently, the Volvo V70 and Volvo S80 were introduced with a five-cylinder 2.5L turbocharged Flexifuel engine producing 200 hp (147 kW) and 300 Nm of torque.

Both the Volvo V70 and the S80 have since the end of 2007 also been available with a four-cylinder 2L Flexifuel engine (2.0F) producing 145 hp (107 kW) and 190 Nm of torque. This means that Volvo Cars has one of the market’s broadest Flexifuel ranges. All told five models — the Volvo C30, S40, V50, V70, and S80 — are available with one or a choice of two E-85 engines.

The Flexifuel variants of the Volvo S40, V50, and C30 have a four-cylinder 1.8L engine (1.8F) producing 125 hp (92 kW) and 165 Nm of torque. All the engines and relevant components have been modified to run on E-85.

The fuel consumption (EU, mixed cycle) of the new 2.5FT is 9.4 l/100 km (V70) and 9.2 l/100 km (S80) with manual transmission and 10.4 l/100 km (V70) and 10.1 l/100 km (S80) with automatic transmission. For the other models, fuel consumption (EU, mixed cycle) is 7.3 l/100 km (C30 1.8F), 7.4 l/100 km (S40 1.8F and V50 1.8F), 8.6 l/100 km (V70 2.0F), and 8.3 l/100 km (S80 2.0F).

The Flexifuel cars can be run on bioethanol E-85 or on 95 octane unleaded petrol, or on any mixture of these two fuels. When driving on E-85, fuel consumption increases by 30 to 40 percent since bioethanol has lower energy content. The exact difference depends on factors such as driving style, ambient temperature and variations in fuel specification.

Volvo Cars is launching its Flexifuel models on increasing numbers of markets. In addition to Sweden, these models are sold in France, Norway, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Thailand. They are also set for introduction in many European countries. All told, Volvo Cars expects to sell 20,000 Flexifuel cars in 2008.