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LCP 2000 - Yesterday's future turns 30

Lightweight materials, alternative fuels, extremely low fuel consumption - key words for the car of today. Yet, these were the very properties that formed the basis for the LCP 2000, Light Component Project. This was a concept car study aimed at the future and the environment, presented by Volvo Car Corporation () in 1983 - 30 years ago.

The Story behind Volvo’s LCP 2000 The idea for the LCP was born in 1979, partly out of an electric car study which Volvo Cars did in 1976 led by genial engineer Rolf Mellde and partly out of an ultralight small car project called Ellen. The requirements demanded a driveable prototype for a future lightweight car which was extremely fuel efficient, yet at the same time very safe and practically usable by the year 2000.

The team, headed by Mellde, was supposed to take advantage of both the new materials and new technologies that existed as well as those that were still under development at the time. LCP had to accommodate a minimum of two people, have a maximum weight of 700 kgs and a maximum fuel consumption below 4 litres per 100 km. Virtually an unrealistic combination in 1979.

Four cars were built - all of them with minor technical differences - and they were shown for the first time at an environmental seminar in Stockholm during the late spring of 1983. LCP2000 looked like a car, but different; a wedge shaped two-door hatchback with an upright rear end and a plastic tailgate that also served as an entrance door into the rear seat. This was rearward-facing for safety and space purposes. And yes, there was also room for luggage. If you look closely at the LCP today, you will recognise some design features of the Volvo 480 which was introduced three years later.

The LCP cars were equipped with specially designed transverse turbodiesel engines of two types. Both types were three cylinder engines but one was a 1.3 litre 30kW (50 hp) lightweight magnesium engine, whereas the other was a cast-iron 1.4 litre 60kW (90 hp) engine, heat-insulated without a cooling jacket in the cylinder head and using the engine oil as coolant instead. It ran on any oil fuel, like rape seed oil, which gave the car a nice smell of fish & chips when it drove past. All LCPs had front-wheel drive, and either a five-speed manual transmission or an electronically controlled CVT.

Different types of plastic, magnesium and aluminium were extensively used throughout the design, both from a weight perspective and for recycling reasons and future availability. A small sensation was the use of carbon fibre for the door frames, then a completely new and untried material.

The market, however, was not yet ready for an environmental car in 1983. Conventional cars still dominated and power and performance were the key words of the day. LCP2000 created a lot of interest as a concept study and idea project.

Studies of the total energy consumption of the LCP - the life cycle from raw material through production and service life to eventual scrapping - were later to form the basis for Volvo Cars' environmental strategy EPS and the subsequent environmental declaration of new cars, the EPI, that followed in 1998.

Today the LCP 2000 is on display in the Volvo Museum and is still as interesting as it was 30 years ago, maybe even more so today than back then. It bears witness to a forward-looking innovative and creative ‘outside-the-box' way of thinking that characterises Volvo Cars and that can be found, in further developed form, in the Volvo cars of today.

South Africa and Electric Vehicles Even though Volvo Car South Africa does not yet offer any of our Electric, Hybrid or Flexi-fuel vehicles on the local market, mainly due to insufficient infrastructure and SA’s ‘dirty’ electricity, we are proud to demonstrate our leadership and innovation in alternative fuels and mobility. In South Africa we offer the most advanced and viable solutions for customers who want to keep their carbon footprint to a minimum – this includes diesel engines emitting as little as 94g/km of C02.

We take pride in its dedication to reducing its carbon footprint through electrification and factories that run entirely on clean energy. Volvo Cars is continuously evolving and improving its eco technology. The Swedish company is a leader in environmentally friendly mobility and was one of the first international companies to adopt an eco-friendly approach to manufacturing.

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**See related release on Volvo’s latest in Eco-Technology: The second-generation Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV).

About Volvo Cars and the environment

Environmental Care – a Volvo core value Volvo has over many years committed itself to help maintain a healthy environment and – through renewed and dedicated research and development – contribute to cleaner emissions from its cars that would assist in the effort to curb global warming.

For Volvo Cars it is fundamental that personal mobility should not come at the expense of damaging the environment or other social values. This, and the belief that mobility and care for the environment can be combined, forms the basis for Volvo's core value of environmental care which was adopted in 1972.

This is very much in keeping with the Volvo way of putting people at the center of everything we do. Environmental Care covers not only the future for people on earth but also the environment that people find themselves in - in and around our cars - right now.

Drive-E – A Volvo Innovation Brand At Volvo, we want to demonstrate how we’re designing our cars around you in areas that today’s drivers really care about - like sustainability, safety and connectivity.

For these areas of focus we’ve created innovation sub-brands to complement our main Volvo brand. The sub-brands are a way of grouping and encapsulating our abilities and product features so we can talk about them holistically, in a way we’re really proud of.

With these innovation sub-brands we want to show that we’re listening to our customers and providing them with differentiated solutions that will make their lives easier.

Volvo’s three Innovation brands are: Intellisafe (intelligent safety technology), Drive-E (Volvo’s dedication to a smaller carbon footprint), and Sensus (keeping you and your Volvo connected)

Volvo’s Drive-E Innovation brand is our all-encompassing approach to sustainable driving. It’s the innovative thinking behind a whole range of technologies that give you more power, more efficiency and greater driving enjoyment, while also respecting the environment. This thinking has led us to develop new, efficient and powerful engines, plug-in hybrids, high-output batteries, Start/Stop technology, energy recovery systems, even sustainable manufacturing. Planet-friendly mobility is central to our philosophy of intelligent, thoughtful luxury. It’s at the heart of every Volvo we make.

A SUMMARY OF VOLVO CARS’ ENVIRONMENTAL HERITAGE:

1945 Volvo introduces remanufactured spare parts - an exchange system still in use 1972 UN Global conference on the environment in Stockholm: Volvo raises the critical role of the car in society 1976 Three-way catalytic converter with oxygen sensor (Lambdasond®) removes up to 90% of noxious exhaust fumes 1982 Torslanda plant begins to use waste heat from local oil refinery 1987 Torslanda water treatment plant removes 90% of harmful effluents 1989 New, proactive environmental policy 1989 Life-cycle assessment using EPS (Environmental Priority Strategies in product design) 1989 Volvo demonstrates alcohol power technology: cleanest car tested to date 1989 Introduction of internal environmental audits 1989 Plastics in marked to facilitate recycling 1990 First award of Volvo Environment Prize 1991 Volvo Cars first to introduce car free of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) 1991 Paintshop at Torslanda plant is world's cleanest 1992 Asbestos eliminated from car production 1992 Volvo Environmental Concept Car (ECC) 1993 Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) no longer used in climate systems of series-produced Volvos 1994 ECRIS, a new research facility for environmentally optimised dismantling 1995 Volvo Bi-Fuel, Volvo Cars' first generation of methane-driven cars 1995 Introduction of standards to improve dealers' environmental activities 1995 Launch of Car & Eco Care, the Volvo Cars range of environmentally labelled car care products 1996 Dialogue on the Environment provides environmental training for all employees 1996 Introduction of environmental standards for suppliers 1998 Introduction of PremAir® - a radiator coating designed to convert harmful ground-level ozone into pure oxygen 1998 Volvo Cars is first carmaker to publish environmental product information (EPI) for cars (originally named EPD) 1999 IAQS (Interior Air Quality System) introduced for cleaner cabin air 2000 Tailpipe emission control technology from Volvo Cars' ULEV engines becomes available globally 2001 New generation of Bi-Fuel cars 2002 Volvo Adventure environmental education programme for young people (formerly Volvo Young Environmentalist Award) 2002 PZEV engine introduced in California 2002 New Volvos designed for 85% recyclability 2003 Volvo Cars achieves global ISO 14001 certification 2004 Introduction of particulate filter for diesel engines 2004 Volvo Cars' new V8 engine is world's first V8 to comply with ULEV II 2004 Volvo 3CC sustainable mobility concept car unveiled 2004 1.6D is first Volvo with fuel consumption less than 5 l/100 km 2005 Bio-ethanol (E85) powered Volvo S40/V50 FlexiFuel launched in Sweden 2006 Volvo FlexiFuel launched in eight more markets 2007 IAQS & Automatic ventilation recommended by Swedish Asthma & Allergy Association 2007 Volvo FlexiFuel offer launched in several more European markets 2007 Volvo FlexiFuel offer broadened - 3 models and 5 engines introduced 2007 Volvo ReCharge Concept - a plug-in hybrid with 100 km battery range - introduced 2008 Volvo uses only green electricity (hydropower) in European manufacturing units 2009 Volvo announces a joint venture with energy company Vattenfall to ensure all electric Volvo's run on clean energy. 2010 Volvo joins in the One Tonne Life project to measure the potential for lowering emissions in real-life situations. 2011 Volvo and Siemens announce a joint venture to produce electric engines on a larger scale than ever before. Volvo’s C30 BEV goes into commercial production. 2012 Volvo produces the first diesel plug-in hybrid – the V60 PHEV. 2013 The second generation of Volvos C30 BEV goes into production.