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Volvo’s current generation of gasoline and diesel engines will be its last. Speaking to Road & Track, CEO Håkan Samuelsson said Volvo will not develop the Drive-E family of three- and four-cylinder engines any further, aside from potentially adding a third (electric) compressor on the 2.0-liter to help it reach 400 horsepower before any hybrid assistance.
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Samuelsson stated in July 2017 that all future models would be hybrids and EVs beginning in 2019, which “marks the end of the solely combustion-engine-powered car.” Weeks earlier, he had announced Polestar as a separate performance brand using only hybrid and EV powertrains. Volvo will continue selling Polestar trims for its high-performance gasoline-powered cars, as the company recently clarified.
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Geely, Volvo’s parent company, has already launched Lynk & Co as a Volvo-based Chinese EV brand and also plans to shift its home-market Geely lineup to Volvo platforms and technologies. A final, complete transition to battery-electric Volvo and Polestar models won’t happen for some time, but it is Samuelsson’s ultimate goal.
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- Prototype Drive: 2020 Lynk & Co 01: A Volvo-Based Chinese Luxury CUV
- First Drive Review: 2019 Volvo XC40
- Volvo Electrifying Entire Lineup in 2019, But Gas Isn’t Dead
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The Drive-E family that Volvo unveiled in 2013 was a quiet revolution among mainstream internal-combustion engines, designed from the onset to accommodate turbocharging, supercharging, and electric assist—or all three—while complying with future global emissions regulations and taxes favoring 2.0-liter displacements. To expect these engines to serve another 20 years isn’t out of the question. Volvo’s previous modular engine family, first introduced in 1990 as a 2.9-liter inline-six for the flagship 960, powered Volvos for more than two decades. The Drive-E didn’t replace the last of Volvo’s various four-, five-, and six-cylinder engines, all derived from the unit that debuted in the 960, until the 2017 model year.
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