The last diesel-powered Volvo was an XC90, which will be showcased at the new World of Volvo museum.
While perhaps not the most exciting of scenes to see a blue XC90 roll down the production line, this particular example however does mark a rather significant milestone for Volvo. Such is as this very car you see here, with its 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot oil-burner, will the last diesel-powered production to ever be made by the Swedish automaker (for now at least, anyway…)
As confirmed by the automaker, this oil-burning XC90 rolled off the brand’s production line at its Torslanda plant in Sweden on March 26th. This particular blue SUV will soon be showcased at the new World of Volvo museum, due to open to the public on April 14th.
Volvo had previously announced back in 2017 that it planned stop development of its diesel engines, and earlier this month a V60 marked the end of diesel production at its Ghent production site in Belgium. The particular XC90 meanwhile fully brings an end to Volvo’s 45-year relationship with the oil-burning power plants, and thus makes it the first major ‘legacy’ automaker to entirely ditch the fuel type.
The automaker has previously stated regarding its choice to ditch diesel comes from the fact that that while the oil-burning power plant was the automaker’s bread and butter in Europe just four short years ago, its diesel models these days account for not even 9% of its global sales. Instead, it is now its electrified lineup (be it fully electric or with a plug-in hybrid powertrain) that has taken the share of its sales once held by the diesel engine.
Moving forward, Volvo is currently planning to sell only fully electric cars by 2030 and aims to be fully climate neutral by 2040. Its EX30 compact crossover and EX90 large SUV will be spearheading its new-get EV lineup, as the automaker proudly touts for it to no longer to be spending ‘single krona of [its] R&D budget on developing new internal combustion engines’.
Looking back meanwhile, Volvo’s dalliance with diesel began way back in 1979 with its 244 GL D6, which interestingly featured under the hood a naturally aspirated six-cylinder unit borrowed from Volkswagen. In the subsequent 45 years, the automaker estimates that it has produced over 9 million oil-burning models.
