After 45 years, the end of March 26, 2024 for Diesel at Volvo.
In the midst of the transition to electric, Volvo has officially produced its latest car equipped with a Diesel engine. Having left the Torslanda factory, this XC90 will be exhibited at the Swedish brand's museum. Diesel still accounted for half of its sales in the middle of the last decade. Volvo has the ambition to become a 100% electric brand by 2030 and is aiming for 50% of its cars sold without any thermal engine under the hood by 2025.
The line of Volvos equipped with a Diesel engine has experienced two main trends: first supply by another manufacturer, then design and production in-house. The first model equipped with a Diesel was marketed in 1979, it was the 244 GL which was supplied by Volkswagen. It was a 2.2 liter in-line 6-cylinder naturally aspirated engine which developed 196 hp and 170 Nm (DIN values) for 0 to 100 km/h in 12.9 s and a top speed of 171 km/h. h. The average consumption was then 11.2 l/100 km!
Volvo will then use engines supplied by Peugeot-Citroën, the famous 1.6 HDI with which Volvo announced a range of 1,300 km on certain models which were equipped with it. It was only in 2001 that Volvo began producing its own diesel engines. The first and last diesel model in Volvo history.
The second generation of Diesel engines made by Volvo will be launched in 2013. Volvo then offered a 2.0 liter turbo four-cylinder from the Volvo Engine Architecture family, some of the components of which were common to the gasoline variant.
The heyday of Diesel engines within the Volvo range lasted from 2012 to 2016. During this period, one in two new Volvos sold was equipped with a Diesel engine. According to the brand's archives, which do not go back further than 1991, more than 9 million Volvo Diesels have been produced over the last 33 years.
The most nostalgic will miss the launch in 2008 of the Drive-E engine, a full tank of diesel allowing you to travel up to 1,300 kilometers. Another era.
Volvo therefore joins the list of rare car manufacturers to have completely abandoned diesel engines, after Smart (now 100% electric), Bentley and Porsche. However, this energy has already disappeared from the catalog of many models in recent years, particularly among city cars.
For Volvo Trucks the story continues...
