Volvo wants to phase out diesel engines worldwide by early 2024
By 2024, diesel will be dead for Volvo as the Swedish automaker plans to produce its last compression-ignition car early next year.
When the last diesel Volvo hits the market, the Swedish brand will be one of the first heritage brands to make the transition from diesel.
Today’s announcement at Climate Week NYC is not unexpected, as Volvo has previously stated that it plans to do so fully electric car manufacturer by 2030and aims to be climate neutral by 2040.
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In Australia, the company has an even more aggressive goal: it plans to do this Only electric vehicles by 2026.
Locally, Volvo dropped diesel engines from its lineup in 2022, and the UK followed suit this year. In these two markets, as well as in the USA and China, Volvo only sells plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid cars with petrol engines or purely electric vehicles.
Volvo said diesel-powered cars still accounted for a majority of its sales in Europe in 2019. Accordingly ReutersIn 2022, diesel vehicles accounted for just 8.9 percent of Volvo’s European volume.
The news agency also understands that 33 percent of Volvo sales in August were electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids.
This reflects a broader trend across the continent, where diesel cars are becoming increasingly popular in the wake of Volkswagen Group’s Dieselgate emissions cheating scandal.
As we recently reported, For the first time, purely electric vehicles overtook diesel engines across Europe in July 2023. That month, diesel vehicles accounted for just 13.4 percent of sales, down from over 50 percent in 2015.
Volvo’s move away from gasoline and diesel engines began in 2019, when the company merged its internal combustion engine development and production activities with those of parent company Geely to form Aurobay. Volvo sold its stake in Aurobay in November 2022.
In a prepared statement, the company said: “We are no longer spending a single crown of our research and development budget on the development of new internal combustion engines.”
Volvo recently launched its first two all-electric models, the EX90 And EX30 Crossovers. Electric versions of these are also sold XC40 And C40 Crossovers.
