Volvo unveils clean-burning 1.6 turbo engines

Volvo has announced the first details of its new 1.6-litre four-cylinder GTDi (Gasoline Turbocharged Direct Injection) petrol engines -- dubbed T3 and T4 -- which are claimed to offer improved fuel consumption without compromising on performance.

Both engines will be available in the all-new Volvo S60 and Volvo V60 later this year (at least in European markets).
 
The 1.6 GTDi T3 produces 110kW while the T4 pumps out 132kW. Both engines serve up 240Nm of torque, but in the T4 an automatic on-demand overboost function bumps up twisting force to 270Nm, which, according to Volvo, "results in excellent pulling power across the entire rev range".

Explaining the rationale behind the new powerplants, Volvo senior product development boss Magnus Jonsson says: "Small, high-performance GTDi engines are a part of our bid to get more energy out of smaller engines".

Both engines feature direct injection, which is said to help the turbo spool up earlier and provide swift response, even from low engine revs. According to Volvo, this promotes fast acceleration, good driveability at low speeds, and lower emissions.

"This is the most modern injection technology in existence and Volvo played a major role in its development," boasts Jonsson. "Our cooperation with Bosch, which manufactures the system, has been ongoing for a number of years and is highly successful."

"We estimate reductions in fuel consumption and exhaust emissions in the region of 20 per cent compared with a conventional petrol engine with larger displacement and similar performance."

The 1.6 GTDi T3 and T4 engines will be offered as standard with a six-speed manual gearbox, with the latter powerplant also available with Volvo's six-speed (dual-clutch sequential) Powershift transmission.

Manual versions feature a Start/Stop function that kills the engine when the car is stationary -- provided the driver releases the clutch and puts the gear lever into neutral. As soon as the driver presses the clutch again the engine restarts.

Meanwhile, the Powershift version has a technology that automatically shifts the transmission to neutral if the driver releases the accelerator when the car is rolling. Volvo says this creates less rolling resistance and improves fuel consumption.

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