Carsales Staff•8 May 2014
NEWS
Volvo rolls out Drive-E engines in Oz
S60, V60 and XC60 now offer T5 and D4 versions of fuel-saving engine – combined with eight-speed autoVolvo is officially selling its Drive-E four-cylinder engines in Australia, slightly later than originally planned.
The 2.0-litre powerplants in diesel and petrol form were scheduled to go on sale here during the first quarter. But in a case of 'better late than never', the new engines are now available across all three models slated to introduce them here – the S60, V60 and XC60.
Volvo has also coupled the engines – developed jointly with Polestar – with new eight-speed automatic transmissions to eke further kilometres out of each tank of fuel. Drive-E is a marketing name for the family of engines previously known as VEA (Volvo Environmental Architecture) and utilised by Polestar in its racing C30 S2000 run in the WTCC up until 2011.
In production cars supplied to the Australian market the Drive-E engines will be in D4 (diesel) and T5 (petrol) states of tune. For the diesel engine that means 133kW and 400Nm and the petrol engine is rated at 180kW and 350Nm. In that regard both engines have raised the stakes. The previous diesel developed the same torque figure, but only 120kW; and the superseded petrol engine – basically the Falcon EcoBoost engine in a transverse mounting and developing lower output – produced less power (177kW) AND less torque (320Nm).
With the new D4 engine, the S60 is nearly two seconds faster to 100km/h (now 7.4 seconds, versus 9.2) and consumes 1.7 litres less for every 100km travelled (previously 5.9, now 4.2L/100km). And it's the same with the T5 engine as well: 0-100km/h time is now 6.3 seconds for the S60 sedan (formerly 7.5) and fuel consumption has dropped to 6.4L/100km (previously 8.6).
"Drive-E technology proves that increased efficiencies don't have to be at the expense of performance," said Matt Braid, Volvo Australia MD, quoted in a press release.
"Our new Drive-E engines have been fine-tuned by the same engineers responsible for the Volvo engine currently powering the Volvo Polestar Racing S60 in the V8 Supercars Championship, so performance and drivability, as well as fuel efficiency, was always going to a point of focus."
Volvo claims the new engines offer fuel economy and driveability superior to rivals from Audi and Mercedes-Benz. BMW's 320i and 320d match or surpass the Drive-E S60, but the Volvo comes much closer to the 3 Series equivalents than it was. The new-found economy and performance are enhanced by the eight-speed auto – replacing a six-speed transmission – but the gains are primarily a result of the new engines, which feature i-ART, a system that individually monitors and adjusts each fuel injector for optimal efficiency, and the auto-stop/start facility seen in the V40 hatch.
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Written byCarsales Staff
Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalists
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