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LOLVO Volvo V60 video leverages the power of cats on cars

You know what we haven't posted in a long time? A very weird, car-related video. It's high time we address this failing.
As strange videos go, this one is truly bizarre. The two-minute clip focuses on the Volvo V60 R-Design, although you're not going to be learning anything about the car. Instead, you're going to be focused on the weird narrator (and the cat decals on the windows).
It's like someone taught the Swedish Chef to speak English, but with a ridiculous accent and a script that's been fed through Google Translate. The result is a weirdly cerebral voice speaking in a manner that borders on gibberish mixed with information about the car. We're particularly fond of, "In accordance with Volvo tradition... the car... is... of course... furnished, with an inside." "Floor bibs," in reference to the floor mats, was an office favorite, as well.

Volvo EX30 U.S. arrival delayed until at least next year

Despite an aggressive campaign ongoing for more than a year to market Volvo’s compact all-electric SUV in the United States, the Swedish-based company said today that it will delay introduction of the EX30 until next year. Russell Datz, a Volvo spokesman, said in an email that the on-sale date of the EX30 is “due to changes in the global automotive landscape.” Datz also attributed the delay to a “ramp up of production at our plant in Ghent, Belgium, with a 2025 target delivery date to be announced.Â’Â’ Volvo though its own channels began taking pre-orders for the 2025 EX30 after it was introduced formally just year ago; the anticipated U.S. price was announced at that time as starting at $36,145, including an $1,195 destination charge Datz added that Volvo “will offer customers with existing preorders several options to drive a new Volvo until their EX30 arrives.Â’Â’ No specifics about that, so stay tuned. “Importantly, we remain committed to bringing EX30 to the US and are working hard to get it into customer hands,” he said. It “remains a cornerstone of Volvo CarsÂ’ ongoing strategic transformation and reflects our ambition to build cars where we sell them as much as possible.” The EX30 is now sold in European markets. During a conference call with dealers today, Volvo executives suggested that the move to shift assembly to Belgium and away from China was an effect of the “geopolitical” situation. Reading between the lines, one might assume that recent moves by the Biden administration to impose high tariffs on cars imported here from China mightÂ’ve motivated the shift. Deliveries of the EX30 to the States was first expected earlier this year. Volvo said it would be offered with two powertrain options, both of which rely on a 69-kilowatt-hour cobalt-lithium-manganese-nickel composite battery, 64 kWh of which is usable. The base model, called Single Motor Extended Range, will have a rear-wheel-drive layout and produce 268 horsepower and 253 pound-feet of torque. Volvo expects this version to have a range of 275 miles on the U.S. EPA test cycle.

Celebrate Volvo's 89th birthday with some neat facts

Volvo, arguably Sweden's best-known non-ABBA export, will celebrate the big 9-0 next year. The company has always operated somewhat under the radar, but it has its share of stories to tell despite an image formed by decades of solid, safe, and sensible cars. To celebrate the occasion, here are five lesser-known facts about Sweden's last remaining car brand. 1. It opened North America's first foreign car plant. Idyllic Halifax was a small fishing city of about a quarter-million in the early 1960s when Volvo arrived and became the first import brand to build cars en masse in North America. American consumers on the East Coast developed a fondness for the Volvo Amazon line in the late 1950s, leading Volvo to seek out a plant in the Americas. Halifax ponied up incentives, allowing Volvo to take advantage of a pact eliminating tariffs on cars built and exported between the United States and Canada. Volvo built cars there until the end of 1998, when it said its facility was no longer viable compared to larger factories in Europe. That brings us to The Netherlands, where Volvo bought a quirky, innovative automaker that once sold a car called the Daffodil (which was actually its luxury model). 2. You can thank Volvo for CVTs – even though it doesn't use them. Volvo wasn't interested in picking flowers. It wanted the automotive arm of truck manufacturer DAF, which would include its assembly plant, its Renault engines, and the first mainstream application of the CVT gearbox. Volvo acquired DAF's car business over the course of a few years in the early 1970s and, in typical Volvo safety-oriented style, it slapped big bumpers and head restraints on the little DAF 66 and rebadged it as the Volvo 66. The Dutch assembly plant would grow to include a partnership with Mitsubishi in the early '90s. Today, it operates as NedCar and builds Mini Coopers for BMW. Volvo is no longer involved in NedCar or DAF (which sold its CVT division to Bosch, by the way), but its acquisition of DAF helped ensure the success of CVTs. Ironically, even though Volvo's investment helped make CVTs mainstream, the Swedish automaker's affair with them was brief, and today it utilizes only conventional automatics. 3. The Swedish carmakers were pals. Over its 89 years, Volvo has been closely connected to a number of automakers – most notably Ford, which ran the company for a decade, and its current owner Geely. But Volvo is most closely linked to its longtime competitor, Saab.