New Volvo S60 will be the FIRST new Volvo with NO Diesel engine option

The new Volvo S60 saloon – launching later in 2018 – will be the first new Volvo which doesn’t offer a diesel engine option in its range.

Last summer Volvo’s boss, Håkan Samuelsson, said that all Volvos will have some form of electrical assistance in the range from 2019, confirming a promise made by Volvo back in 2015.

A year after promising every model in Volvo’s range will get electrified options, Samuelsson also declared that hybrid engines will sound the death knell for diesels within a decade, and now Volvo are doing their bit to see that happen.

According to the FT, Volvo is set to announce that the new S60 – the saloon take on the new V60 Estate – will not be offered with a diesel option when it arrives later this year (even though the V60 is), but with a range of petrol and plug-in hybrids.

That will probably mean that in addition to the petrol options, the new S60 will be offered with both Volvo’s T6 and T8 Twin Engine plug-in hybrids, and it’s possible we could see a 48V mild hybrid version too.

Volvo will carry on offering diesel engines in the current range – although it will not launch any new cars with a diesel engine in the future – and believe that electrical assistance will deliver petrol-engined cars with emissions and economy equivalent to diesel.

But although Volvo has fallen out of love with diesels, it’s as much to do with the ever increasing cost of making diesel engines compliant with emissions targets as it is about ‘Dirty’ diesel.