Volvo leaps ahead with Drive-E engines

Volvo is claiming a series of industry and segment benchmarks for its new generation of Drive-E petrol and diesel engines, set for launch here around March 2014.

As part of its concerted tilt at Germany’s dominant luxury brands, the Swede has spent the past two years elbowing its way to the forefront of the downsizing pack, bearing out its 2011 announcements pointing to an exclusively four-cylinder future.

The most dramatic shift has been in its recently announced next-gen T6 petrol engine -- down by a third in size, yet quicker, cleaner and more economical. In the MY14 T6, the current 224kW 3.0-litre six gives way to a 2.0-litre four.

Power is up to 228kW via the addition of a ‘twin-charge’ formula using crank-driven supercharging for off-the-mark boost, moving to turbocharging once the revs are up. A drop in torque from 440 to 400Nm, is mitigated by weight reductions, we’re told.

Volvo is claiming a new performance/emissions benchmark for the S60 T6. The company says it’s the first pure-combustion car in its segment to exceed 2hp per gram of CO2 emitted.

This means low fuel consumption and emissions. No local figures are available yet, but a UK-spec V60 T6 wagon is good for an official 4.2L/100km and 149g/km NEDC with a new eight-speed auto transmission from Japanese maker Aisin (4.1L/100km for the S60 sedan, 4.6 for the XC60 SUV).

There’s no compromise to performance, either, with the S60 T6’s official 0-100km/h sprint time of 5.9 seconds bettering the six by two points.

Alongside it will come a new generation of D4 diesel.

The upscale oiler drops from five to four cylinders, with nothing but decent performance hikes and substantial drops in consumption and CO2 emissions to show for it.

The S60 D4 manual comes with a healthy output of 135kW -- up 15kW on the current car. For some specs, Volvo is claiming a sub-100g/km CO2 -- a first, it says, in the premium diesel segment. In the V60, the figure rises to just 111g/km.

In manual form, the S60 D4 is good for 99g/km and fuel consumption of 3.8L/100km on NEDC. With wheels up to 17 inches, the V60 D4 wagon matches its sedan sibling at 99g/km.

Performance is up noticeably. The existing S60 D4 is good for 0-100km/h in 9.2 seconds.

Torque characteristics change slightly, with the new oiler maintaining its predecessor’s 400Nm peak, but narrowing its rev band to 1750-2500rpm, helping improve economy (the outgoing D4 serves it up from 1500-2750rpm).

The new D4 is already out in Europe, available in six-speed manual or eight-speed auto in the S60, V60, XC60, V70, XC70 and S80.

All Drive-E engines have been designed from clean sheet for the future addition of electric motors with maximum flexibility. Under the bonnet, Volvo has kept the block volume to a minimum, allowing room to integrate the electric motor alongside the combustion engine, or place it on the rear axle. To keep the centre of gravity low and optimise weight distribution, the vehicles are designed to accommodate the battery pack between the axles.

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