Volvo produced its last diesel car, saying goodbye to a 45-year history PiataAuto.md

March 27, 2024, 2:00 p.m
PiataAuto.md editors

The Swedes have promised for some time that they will retire all the diesel engines in the Volvo range, then it will be the turn of the gasoline ones, including those in hybrid systems. And now the promise has been fulfilled, with Volvo producing its last diesel car, thus ending a history that lasted 45 years.

The last Volvo diesel car was produced yesterday, March 26, at the plant in Torslanda, Sweden, and it was an XC90. This last example will not be sold, but will go to the World of Volvo museum in Gothenburg, where it will remain for history.

The engine of this Volvo was a 2.0-liter turbo, from a family of engines that debuted in 2013. Curiously, this family of diesel engines was only the second of its own in the nearly 100-year history of Volvo, since a large part of the time Volvo took over diesel engines from other manufacturers. The first own diesel engine was developed in 2001 and was one with 5 cylinders in line.

The first Volvo models with diesel engines, however, appeared in 1979, 45 years ago, and they were equipped with engines from the VW group. Back then, the first Volvo car to receive it was a 244 GL D6, and a similar 245 followed soon after. The engine at that time was one with 6 cylinders in line and came from the range of LT vans and vans. With the new engine, Volvo models had become among the fastest diesel cars in the world and thus could compete excellently with diesel versions from Mercedes.

By the way, a Volvo 245 with such a diesel engine traveled 2.6 million kilometers, the car held up excellently except for the engines, which had to be replaced 2 times, so 3 were needed in total. The Swedes said then that only the VW part did not last in that Volvo.

Later, Volvo models also received diesel engines from Renault, then from Peugeot-Citroen, but also from Ford, during the period when Volvo was owned by Ford. In fact, Ford and PSA Peugeot Citroen also had joint diesel developments.

At one point in 2008, Volvo had a DriveE diesel engine with such a co-developed 1.6 liter engine that had a range of 1,300 km on a tank! Due to the low emissions, the version qualified as environmentally friendly in Sweden at the time.

Now, Volvo is on track to have a range of fully electric models in 2030. Its current electric sales have a better share than other European manufacturers, in 2023 they will reach 16% of the total, and their growth in 2023 will used to be 70% at Volvo. However, for now, plug-in hybrid versions account for more, at 21.5% of sales. So, together the two types amount to 37.5%, which means that the majority of sales still came from conventional combustion engines, and possibly mild hybrids.

Photo: Volvo EX30, the electric model that came to symbolize the new era of Volvo

NEWS YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN