They announced it a year ago and on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, the time came. Volvo stops manufacturing diesel cars. The last unit was a Volvo XC90 that left the production line in Torslanda (Sweden) and that will not be sold, since it went straight to the museum World of Volvo in Gothenburg where it will be exhibited.
Since 1991, the year in which car production records began for the brand, more than 9 million Volvos with diesel engines have been manufactured. The manufacturer's relationship with engines powered by this fuel began much earlier, 45 years ago. It was the 244 GL D6, powered by a Volkswagen six-cylinder engine. It wasn't until 2001 that it built its first in-house powerplant, a five-cylinder that was built at the automaker's powertrain plant in Skovde, Sweden.
In 2008 it launched its Drive-E line, a 1.6-liter diesel resulting from a collaboration with PSA. They advertised that it could travel 1,300 km on a full tank (no range anxiety) and had emissions levels so low that in Sweden it was classified as an “eco-engine”.
Between 2012 and 2016 it represented half of its global sales. It was then that the VEA (Volvo Engine Architecture) family was launched, which debuted in 2013, with examples such as the 2.0-liter turbocharged inline four-cylinder diesel block fitted to the last Volvo XC90 diesel manufactured and which was the second diesel created and produced internally by Volvo in its 97-year history.
Now, the Skovde plant is switching to manufacturing electric motors (the last diesel-powered vehicle for a customer was a Volvo V60 manufactured in Ghent last March). And in 2030, Volvo aspires to be an exclusively electric brand. Other brands have announced that they are delaying their electrification goals, but Volvo seems not to back down. At least plug-in hybrids like this one will remain:
