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Volvo joins Australia's V8 Supercars series [w/video]

It was just a rumor, but now it's official, mates: Volvo will be joining the V8 Supercars series in Australia with an official team for 2014. Volvo is partnering with Garry Rogers Motorsport and its own Polestar tuning firm to create Volvo Polestar Racing.
A V8 engine will be produced by the Swedish arm of the racing effort, and will be supplied to the Garry Rogers team, which will get the whole shebang ready for the track. The outfit will be running two V8 Supercars "based on the production S60 road car." Considering that the S60 uses a range of transversely mounted engines with four, five or six cylinders (powering either the front or all four wheels) while the new race car will employ a V8 sending about 650 horsepower to the rear wheels, make that very loosely based on the production S60...
Volvo claims this is the first factory-backed entry in the V8 Supercars series from a luxury brand. We should note, though, that Mercedes-Benz is represented in the series with an E-Class sedan, but that outfit isn't quite an official entry from the car's German parents. In any case, you're encouraged to watch the teaser video and read the press release below for all the details.

Volvo to convert all SUVs and sedans into EVs, develop electric luxury van

Volvo Cars is gearing up for an electric blitz to convert all its mainstay models — three SUVs and two sedans — into electric vehicles and to introduce a luxury electric van aimed at boosting sales in Asia, two people with knowledge of the plans said. The Swedish carmaker, 82%-owned by ChinaÂ’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is expected to launch at least six new battery electric vehicles through 2026, the two people told Reuters. Volvo has announced an objective to make its entire lineup fully electric by 2030. The companyÂ’s Australia unit has said it plans to sell only EVs in that market by 2026. The previously unreported product plans amount to the largest revamp of VolvoÂ’s model line-up since Geely acquired the brand from Ford in 2010. Under Geely, Volvo initially started to share technologies such as car platforms with Geely. The makeover for Volvo, a Swedish brand that built a reputation for safety and utilitarian design, follows from a greater focus on customer trends in Asia and a push to win sales there, the people said. The two people with knowledge of VolvoÂ’s planning asked not to be named because details have not been announced by the company. Geely declined to comment. Among the new battery electric cars being planned for the next four years is a Volvo-branded MPV or van that would be based on a vehicle GeelyÂ’s Zeekr brand sells in China. Called the Zeekr 009, the hulking, battery-electric van pictured above, which starts at about 500,000 yuan ($74,179), offers three rows of seating. The vehicle competes against the likes of the Toyota Alphard, a business or family van, with airplane business class-like seats for passengers that has proven popular in Asian markets such as China and Japan as a limousine alternative. Volvo has moved development work on sedans and the coming people-mover model to its Shanghai research and development hub, they said. That center, which has tripled its design staff to about 60 people, has recently moved to a new and larger building in Shanghai, one of the sources said. The first of VolvoÂ’s new planned electric models, the EX90 sport-utility crossover, was unveiled late last year. It is expected to hit showrooms in early 2024. Other battery electric cars in the pipeline include electric versions of VolvoÂ’s mainline products – the XC90, XC60 and XC40 crossover vehicles and the S60 and S90 sedans, the sources said.

Volvo Polestar reveals new V8 Supercars engine

Volvo may be better known for turbo fives and inline fours, but in 2005 it launched the XC90 with a new eight-cylinder engine built for it by Yamaha. Fast forward to this past June when Volvo announced its intention to enter Australia's V8 Supercars series, where it would compete with the likes of Ford, Holden, Nissan and Mercedes-AMG. This is the engine with which it intends to do so.
Revealed this weekend at the Sydney 500, this competition-spec powerplant is based on the same B8444S that powered the XC90 and S80 (not to mention the Noble M600), but tuned for racing duty to be shoehorned into the new S60 touring car. The 60-degree aluminum block has been bored out from 4.4 liters to 5.0, its compression ratio boosted to 10:1, modified to run on E85 bio-ethanol and its redline increased to 7500 rpm. Volvo also promises a unique engine note from its new racers.
While Volvo and its racing partner Polestar haven't released official output numbers, regulations call for outputs between 620 and 650 horsepower - in any event, a whole lot more than the 311 hp it produces in stock form. (Noble managed to squeeze that much out of the same block, but that required twin turbochargers while this unit remains naturally aspirated.) Scope out the details in the press release below and the photos from the reveal in the gallery above.