The Swedes officially said goodbye to the production of once popular diesel engines. The last manufactured piece has left the production line and is heading to the factory museum.
After 45 long years, Volvo finally ended the production of diesel engines. Already from 2030, the popular Swedish brand wants to be purely electric, and saying goodbye to diesels is one of the most significant steps towards a greener and more sustainable future. The carmaker started producing diesel engines at the end of the seventies, and the last manufactured car with a turbodiesel under the hood remains in the factory collection.
Historically, the last diesel Volvo will probably forever be the flagship internal combustion SUV XC90 in dark blue metallic Denim Blue paint. It rolled off the production line in Torslanda on March 26, 2024, and the Swedish automaker will park it in its official World of Volvo museum in Gothenburg. The main technology of this car is a turbocharged two-liter inline four-cylinder from the VEA (Volvo Engine Architecture) engine family, which the automaker introduced in 2013.
The internal combustion Volvo XC90 will continue to be sold alongside the electric flagship EX90, but no longer with a diesel unit. In the past, diesel engines have enjoyed a lot of interest in Volvos, and the brand says that between 2012 and 2016 they accounted for half of all global sales. Volvo says it has produced more than 9 million diesel cars since 1991, but factory records don’t go back to the very beginning of production.
The very first Volvo with a diesel engine was produced in 1979. Volvo borrowed the six-cylinder diesel engine for the 244 GL D6 model from the German Volkswagen, while at the time it also cooperated with the PSA/Peugeot-Citroën company (today the Stellantis concern). The last diesel, currently discontinued, was only the second generation of the brand’s own diesel engines. It launched the first generation in 2001.
In 2008, Volvo in cooperation with PSA introduced the new 1.6-liter Drive-E diesel unit, which promised a maximum range of up to 1,300 kilometers on a full tank and was recognized as an environmentally friendly engine in its home country of Sweden. Today, however, ecology has a different face and diesels are gradually disappearing into the abyss of history.
