Volvo’s 2015 Drive-E powertrains fuel-efficient
2.0 litre, four cylinder in all 8 models
LAS VEGAS — You may have been wondering what’s been going on at Volvo lately. Since the Swedish automaker was snatched up by China’s Geely Automotive from America’s Ford Motor Co., four years ago, the brand has appeared to be in a product development coma.
Witness the departure of the S40/V50/C30/C70 compact family and the V70 station wagon from Canadian Volvo showrooms. But in the background, and with what the automaker is saying has been an $11-billion investment in “technological independence,” the “new Volvo” is slowly being revealed.
For the 2014 model year, Volvo went through what it says was the largest model “refresh” in its history, with revised styling of its midsized S60 sedan, V60 Sportswagon, XC60 crossover, fullsized XC70 wagon/crossover and S80 sedan. For 2015, the big news is the introduction of its new Drive-E powertrain family, the first of which will be a pair of gas powertrains coming to five Canadian Volvo models for the 2015 model year, including the new-toCanada V60 Sportswagon.
In a radical departure from the industry standard, Volvo’s Drive-E family is based on a single engine: a 2.0-litre four-cylinder. From this single mill, eight Drive-E engines will power all Volvos going forward from its smallest to its latest vehicles.
Four Drive-E gasoline engines will range from the 111 horsepower and 270 poundfeet of torque Drive-E T3 to the 225-hp and 400 lb-ft Drive-E T6, and a quartet of Drive-E diesels will span from the 88-hp and 250 lb-ft Drive-E D2 to the 170-hp and 480 lb-ft Drive-E D5.
Volvo says its new Drive-E powertrains will be able to match the performance of larger five-, six- and eightcylinder engines with the addition of technologies such as direct injection, turbocharging, supercharging and electrification.
For example, the T3 gas engine gets a single turbocharger, while the more powerful T6 gets a turbo and a supercharger. Eventually, Volvo says it already has plans to add plug-in gas-electric hybrid Drive-E powertrains to the family as well.
Initially, Canadians will get a pair of gasoline DriveE powertrains: the 240 hp, 258 lb-ft of torque Drive-E T5, and the turbocharged and supercharged Drive-E T6 with 302 hp and 295 lb-ft. For now, the Drive-E engines will be available only in front-wheel-drive form (allwheel drive is in the plans).
Specifically, the Drive-E T5 will become the base engine in every 2015 Volvo, except the soon-to-be-replaced XC90 crossover.
For the one-day media ride and drive Volvo held in and around Las Vegas, we had access to the $37,750 (all prices are base MSRPs) 2015 Volvo S60 T6 FWD sedan and the $39,800 2015 Volvo V60 Sportwagon T5 FWD. And although these were brief driving impressions, Volvo’s Drive-E powertrain promise of excellent fuel economy without sacrificing performance seems to be well founded.
The new 2015 V60 Sportswagon Drive-E T5 FWD forms the base model in the lineup. Along with its turbo four-cylinder, like every new Drive-E engine, the T5 is mated to an also-new eightspeed automatic transmission with stop-start engine technology as standard equipment. As such, Volvo is estimating its combined city and highway fuel consumption at 6.3 L/100 kilometres — better than gas-engine rivals such as the Audi A4 Allroad, BMW 3 Series Touring and Cadillac CTS Sportwagon.
(The three other 2015 V60 Sportswagon models will use existing engines, sixspeed automatic transmissions and Haldex all-wheeldrive systems, as in the $41,800 V60 T5 AWD with its 250 hp turbocharged fivecylinder engine, the $46,050 V60 T6 AWD sporting a 300 hp turbo six-cylinder and the 325-hp $50,950 V60 R-Design AWD. A fifth V60 model — the limited edition, highperformance Polestar — is expected to be unveiled later this year.)
But don’t think Volvo’s downsized Drive-E engine strategy is only about saving fuel. The 2015 S60 T6 FWD sedan, which we also got a chance to drive, takes only 5.6 seconds to go from zero to 96 kilometres an hour, faster than an Audi A4 2.0 TFSI, BMW 320i and Mercedes-Benz C250. Plus, with a combined 8.7 L/100 km estimate, the S60 T6 FWD sips less fuel than the Acura TL, Infiniti Q50, Lexus IS 250 and Mercedes-Benz C250. During my time behind their wheel, both the T5 and T6 engines were incredibly smooth, responsive and quiet.