In an interview with
the Financial Times, Samuelsson revealed the 2019 S60 won’t be offered with a
diesel engine. The car will be unveiled in South Carolina this summer and built
at the company’s new Ridgeville factory which is located in the state.
The decision not to offer the S60 with a diesel
engine is a big change but it builds on the announcement that all future Volvo
models will be electrified. The company has also stated it wants 50% of their
sales to come from electric vehicles by 2025.
Samuelsson wasn’t completely dismissive of diesel
engines as he noted their only advantage is lower fuel consumption figures than
traditional gasoline engines. However, he said mild-hybrid technology can make
petrol engines much more efficient.
Volvo will continue to offer diesel-powered models
but the lack of a diesel engine in the S60 is a sign of things to come.
Eventually, the automaker will drop diesel engines altogether but there’s no
word on a timeframe.
Since we now know the S60 won’t be offered with a
diesel engine, it appears only petrol engines from the V60 will carryover. As a
result, we can expect a 2.0-liter T6 producing 310 PS and 400 Nm of torque. There could also be an entry-level T5 as well as two plug-in
hybrid variants with outputs of 340 PS and 390 PS.
