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Volvo XC70, the true sports car

27 January 2008

The words "sports car" can be interpreted in two different ways. You can consider the car itself as a piece of sports equipment - a sexy beast with more power and torque than most would dare to unleash. Or you can view the car as the thing that enables you and your gear to get halfway up a frozen mountain in search of an extreme challenge. As Johan Bexell, Sport Sponsoring Director at Volvo Cars says, "Volvo cars become an integrated part of your favourite adventures. That's what makes them the finest sports cars in the world."

The Volvo XC70 has all the functionality you need to challenge the Arctic conditions of the white wilderness that is called Lapland. It represents Scandinavian design at its best - that is to say every little detail has been designed with one hundred percent focus on clean lines and intelligent functionality. This car is more than ready to accommodate all your gear, whether that includes long objects like skis, snowboards or kites, or bulky items like bags and tents - you can easily fit it all into the XC70. The Volvo XC70’s rear seat splits into 40/20/40 - two comfortable seats with a convenient arm rest in between. The centre back rest can be folded down to make additional room for skis or snowboards, without compromising the comfort of the other 4 adult seats.

The back rests also can be folded down separately to create an entirely flat floor. A foldable back rest in the front passenger seat allows for greater loading flexibility, with plenty of room for surfing or windsurfing equipment.

The luggage compartment floor is equipped with aluminium rails and movable anchorage points to secure the load. The anchorage points can be tucked down into the rails when they are not in use so they are entirely out of the way. The side panels also have built-in load anchorage eyelets to keep luggage securely in place. What‘s more, they can be supplemented with multifunctional rails for a variety of hooks, load-anchoring nets, cargo space dividers and other load-related accessories. In order to protect the luggage compartment floor there is a wide range of mats, including one that can be folded down double for normal use or opened out across the entire luggage compartment floor when the rear back rests are folded down.

Arrive in better shape
Comfort in the front seat includes superb seats and ergonomically designed instruments - including an elegant, super-slim centre stack. The climate unit is ready to tackle extreme conditions and the audio system is of absolute world-class. "One could say that the XC70 has a dual personality. On weekdays it's a sophisticated and elegant car for an active urban life. During the weekend it transforms into a rugged partner for all kinds of exciting adventures," says Tobias Gröber director of ispo group after testing the XC70 for six months. Stefan Jansson, Program Chief Designer at Volvo Cars adds: "Our design department is full of men and women that are crazy about sports and sports equipment. They are inspired both by the Scandinavian environment and the sports equipment they see every year at ispo winter and they enjoy sports during the whole year. The harsh Scandinavian winter is also a fantastic environment to ensure that the cars have world-class winter properties."

Multi-energy and energy efficiency
"No single renewable fuel can replace petrol and diesel by itself." says Niklas Gustavsson, director of environmental issues at Volvo Cars. He continues: "We believe in a multi-energy society where many different fuels and technologies are developed in parallel. E85 is a strong alternative that reduces dependency on fossil fuels, and the Volvo Flexifuel programme which we now also offer for V70. This is an important part of the company's strategy to contribute to sustainable personal mobility.

Our environmental aspects on the XC70 design are:

Production and Assembly
All electricity used in the production process comes from climate neutral hydro-power.

Aerodynamics
Our recently upgraded wind-tunnel uses state of the art technology to help us optimise aerodynamics. It allows us to simulate that the car is rolling - which gives a complete picture of the aerodynamics.

Exterior Color
Our production plants are leaders in the field of reducing the use of solvents. Our Torslanda plant in Sweden is still one of the cleanest production plants in the world.

Climate Unit
The climate unit has a carbon filter and an air quality sensor. If the level of air pollutants is low or moderate, the carbon filter will reduce the level significantly. In more polluted areas, the sensor closes the air intake completely.

Interior Air
Volvo cars has a panel of people responsible for odour testing and to make sure that there are no strong or unpleasant odours inside the car. This panel consists of eight people who use a smell scale from 1 to 6.

Interiors and Seats
The interior materials consist of a large number of various chemical substances. A small portion of them are not fully solid and may evaporate. In order to offer a car environment free from these emissions we attempt to reduce these emissions to an absolute minimum by modifying or changing the components.

Door Handles, Belt Buckles, etc
Nickel is the most common cause of skin contact allergy in Europe and we have made sure that interior components such as door openers, belt buckles are free from nickel leakage!

Textiles
Our textiles have been Öko-tex certified since 1998. This means that they have passed tests for a number of hazardous substances.

Leather
Chrome allergy can be triggered by leather products because chrome is used in the tanning process. All leather details in our cars are produced using a vegetable or synthetic, chrome-free tanning process.

Recycling
The Volvos being scrapped in Europe today are recovered to 85% of their weight. Our cars are designed for a recovery of up to 95%.

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