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Volvo Cork Week is the biennial sailing regatta based around Crosshaven and Cork harbour. This year it runs from Sunday 15 to Saturday 21 July. Over the 40 years of its history, Cork Week has cemented its reputation as a world class sailing experience, flavoured with the key ingredients of friendly competition, varied sailing and superb entertainment. In partnership with Johnson & Perrott, Volvo Cork Week has seen a surge in entries for this years event as 110 boats and crews from all over Ireland, the UK and from as far away as Dubai, Australia, Hong Kong, USA have already signed up. With 28 clubs represented, it makes 2018 one of the most successful regattas to take place in Crosshaven. Gavin Deane, General Manager of The Royal Cork Yacht Club, recognises the importance of the local economy saying “it is worth up to 2 million euro to the locality”. Competitors can enjoy a packed line-up of events and nightly entertainment on-site. There are fun packed family events such as ...

Volvo Cars has today inaugurated its first US manufacturing plant, in Charleston, South Carolina, establishing the company as a truly global car manufacturer with plants in all three major sales regions, writes Trish Whelan. It follows the company’s global manufacturing strategy, ‘Build where you sell’. The facility complements its two manufacturing plants and an engine plant in Europe, three car factories and an engine plant in China, and assembly plants in India and Malaysia. The Charleston plant starts production of the new Volvo S60 premium mid-size sports saloon in this autumn. From 2021, it will also build the next generation of the XC90 large premium SUV. Cars built at the plant are destined both for the home US market and international export. Volvo Cars is investing around USD 1.1 billion in its US manufacturing operations and will create around 4,000 new jobs at the Charleston site over the coming years. Approximately 1,5000 staff will be employed ...

Volvo has had to increase production of its XC40 SUV following greater than anticipated demand, writes Brian Byrne . Production boosts are being undertaken both in Europe and in China, following the receipt of more than 80,000 orders to date for the compact SUV. A new model on the same platform which deputed with the XC40 is also to be produced, as a replacement for the current V40. Launched in late 2017, the XC40 became the first ever Volvo to get the European Car of the Year accolade this past March.

Volvo's new S60 saloon won't be available with a diesel engine, writes Brian Byrne . It will be the first model in recent years not to have a diesel option, and highlights the fact that all Volvo models from next year will be available as either a mild petrol hybrid, plug-in petrol hybrid or battery electric vehicle. The company aims for fully electric cars to make up 50pc of its global sales by 2025. Pictured above are the current Volvo models with the Twin Engine hybrid powertrains — Volvo S90, V90, XC60 and XC90. The new S60 will be built only at the company's plant in South Carolina, USA and exported from there to other markets.

The first new Volvo V60 five-door, mid-size premium estate has now arrived in Ireland,  writes  Trish Whelan . The hand-built demonstration model can be seen for a limited time in Volvo’s Scandinavian-inspired pop up shop on Dublin’s Merrion Row. From 11 May to 8 June, visitors will get a chance to see this new estate car. Customers are invited to experience first-hand the look and feel of Volvo’s latest premium offering in the comfort of a relaxed, Scandinavian environment while enjoying traditional Swedish *Fika. The pop-up shop is open seven days a week until 8 June. Emma O’Carroll, Brand and PR specialist at Volvo Car Ireland said the company is delighted to open their third pop up shop on Dublin’s Merrion Row to give customers a preview of the new V60 before it arrives in dealerships later this summer.   The new car replaces the original V60 and comes with a comprehensive list of safety features that come as standard including advanced driv...

Volvo says it is aiming for 50pc of its cars sales to be fully electric by 2025, writes Trish Whelan . This reflects the company's ownership by Chinese interests, as China is the world's biggest market for electrified cars. China is also Volvo Cars’ largest individual market, with 2017 sales passing 100,000 units for the first time. Last year, Volvo said that all new models released from 2019 will be available as either a mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid or battery electric vehicle. Pictured is the new T5 XC40, debuting the plug-in hybrid powertrain for the car.

The new Volvo XC60 midsize SUV has been named World Car of the Year 2018 at the New York Auto Show, writes Trish Whelan . The World Car of the Year win is the first in this competition for Volvo Cars. Volvo say the XC60 is one of the safest cars they have ever built. It also scooped the prestigious North American Utility of the Year Award earlier this year while the XC40 small SUV was named European Car of the Year at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this month. In the XC60, Euro NCAP’s best overall performer in 2017, Volvo’s City Safety Autonomous Emergency Braking system has been enhanced with steering support for when automatic braking alone may not help avoid a potential collision. In addition, Oncoming Lane Mitigation with Steer Assist which helps mitigate head-on collisions and Blind Spot Information System with Steer Assist has been added to reduce the risk of lane-changing collisions.   XC60 scored a near-perfect 98 per cent in the Adult Occupant cat...

If it hadn't already been announced that the Volvo XC40 is the European Car of the Year 2018, I'd be making a very strong case for it to be, writes Brian Byrne . If I had a vote there, though I don't. But after my recent week with the car, I'm already going to have to be given some very strong reasons why it shouldn't be close to the top of the Irish COTY 2019, on which I will be voting towards the end of this year. Am I jumping the gun? Nope. Just laying down a marker for every other contender. This is the one that, so far, I think they're all going to have to beat. That thought said, let's move to the car as experienced. It looks, well, very distinctive. The latest in a line of new and revamped crossover/SUVs from the iconic Swedish carmaker — now Chinese owned, but that's not proving to be a problem — it is styled in a much edgier fashion than the recent vehicles which have worked to bring Volvo back from the precipice over oblivion it had te...