Volvo S90 to debut new three-cylinder hybrid tech

Volvo has revealed its all-new big luxury sedan will come with an tiny turbocharged 1.5-litre hybrid petrol that it will roll out to all its vehicles.

Co-developed alongside its Chinese car-maker owner, Geely, the new all-new state-of-the-art powerplant has been developed for vehicles underpinned by both the new Scalable Platform Architecture (SPA) and the smaller Common Modular Architecture (CMA) that both the Swedish and Chinese firms share, according to British mag, Autocar who broke the story.

Based on the current 2.0-litre petrol used in the XC90, the smaller 1.5 will come with front-wheel drive only and thought to generate in excess of 110kW.

Unlike the range-topping 300kW Twin Engine hybrid, according to Autocar, Volvo will not offer the hybrid with plug-in capability.

Instead, the new engine is expected to offer similar efficiency to a conventional small diesel with a similar power output.

Confirming the smaller hybrid for the S90, Volvo’s R&D boss, Peter Mertens, said the new engine will “definitely be used in the 40 models [S40, V40, XC40] and 60 models [V60, XC60] - so it so it goes across CMA and is also suitable for our larger Scalable Platform Architecture (SPA)”.

Mertens confirmed the new engine is already at the prototype stage with the S90 but hasn’t confirmed when it will join the line-up. An announcement at the Detroit motor show, as well as more technical details, is expected in January.

A non-turbo version of the 1.5-litre is set to power future Geely models based on the smaller CMA platform, says Autocar.