Volvo is taking a shotgun approach to vehicle electrification, essentially blasting away with a whole lot of concepts to see what hits the bullseye.

The Swedish automaker’s already wowed us with the slick C30 Electric, a car that it really ought to go ahead and sell already. Volvo keepts telling us we’ll see the C30 electric (pictured) in 2013. Then it wheeled out the diesel-electric V60 Plug-In Hybrid, which could be in (some?) showrooms next year.

Now it’s experimenting with extended-range electrics, which are another way of saying plug-in hybrids that use gasoline engines to boost electric range. One is a straight-up riff on the Chevrolet Volt, a car Volvo vp of business development Paul Gustavsson told us is “a milestone in the industry.”

Although range-extended drivetrains are more complex than either internal combustion or electric systems, they offer the flexibility of a conventional car, the efficiency of an EV and the reduced greenhouse gas emissions of a hybrid.

“This is an exciting expansion of our increasing focus on electrification,” Derek Crabb, vp of powertrain engineering, said in a statement. “Battery cost and size mean that all-electric cars still have a relatively limited operating range. With the range extender, the electric car has its effective range increased by a thousand kilometers, yet with carbon dioxide emissions below or way below 50 g/km.”

Volvo is developing three variations on the theme, each using a small three-cylinder gasoline engine in increasingly sophisticated drivetrains. Volvo says the system boosts range by 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) over the battery alone.

The simplest of the concepts is a series-hybrid Volvo C30 with a 60-horsepower engine. The engine drives a 40 kilowatt generator that provides juice to the 111 horsepower electric motor when the battery winds down.

This is the concept most like the Volt, but in a unique twist, the driver also can choose to have the engine-generator charge the battery, something the Volt doesn’t do. Volvo says the li-ion battery had a range of 110 kilometers (68 miles).

The second variation is a parallel-hybrid Volvo C30 with a 190-horsepower turbocharged engine. The engine primarily drives the rear wheels through a six-speed automatic transmission, but it also drives a 40-kilowatt generator that charges the battery.

The engine and 111-horsepower electric motor can drive the car in tandem, and Volvo expects the car to do zero to 100 km/hr in less than six seconds.

Installing all that hardware required using a smaller battery; Volvo says it has a range of 75 kilometers (46 miles).

The third variation packs all the hardware under the hood of parallel-hybrid V60. The 111 horsepower electric motor is paired with a 190-horsepower turbocharged engine. Electricity is the only thing driving the car at speeds below 50 km/hr (31 mph). Beyond that, the engine drives the car while also charging the battery via a 40-kilowatt generator.

The battery pack is good for 50 kilometers (31 miles). The car also can run on E85 ethanol.

Volvo’s experiment in range-extended electrics is being underwritten by a 1.2 million euro ($1.6 million) grant from the Swedish Energy Agency. At this point the cars are merely “potential technology combinations” and there’s no guarantee we’ll ever see any of them. Volvo says it will begin testing the cars next year.

Images: Volvo