As automakers around the world continue to invest large sum of money into electrification, the end for internal combustion engines or ICE for short, is sooner than you think.
Earlier this month, Volvo announced that the company is aiming for 50 per cent of its sales to be fully electric by 2025. The Swedish carmaker has now gone one step further with a bold decision of not offering diesel engines anymore from 2019.
The new generation S60 sedan – to be launched later this spring – will be the first Volvo to be produced without a diesel engine. All new Volvo models launched from 2019 will be available as either a mild petrol hybrid, plug-in petrol hybrid or a battery electric vehicle.
“Our future is electric and we will no longer develop a new generation of diesel engines,” said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars. “We will phase out cars with only an internal combustion engine, with petrol hybrid versions as a transitional option as we move towards full electrification. The new S60 represents the next step in that commitment.”
The new S60, a mid-size sports sedan, is based on Volvo’s in-house developed Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which also underpins the company’s new 90 Series and 60 Series cars. The S60’s estate sibling, the V60, was launched earlier this year in Stockholm.
The new S60 will initially be available with a range of 4-cylinder Drive-E petrol engines as well as with two petrol plug-in hybrid versions. Mild hybrid versions will follow next year.
Production of the new S60 will start this fall at Volvo Cars’ new manufacturing facility outside Charleston, South Carolina. The Charleston plant will be the only manufacturing location for the new S60, meaning American-built S60s will be sold in the US market as well as overseas through exports.
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