Volvo to replace extant five and six cylinder engines with smaller engines

Volvo is planning to dump its five and six cylinder heavy engines to give way to smaller three and four cylinder engines. The Swedish automaker is going ahead with this plan to meet the strict emission norms all over the developed countries. The move expected to be achieved by 2013, has been inspired from car giants like BMW and Ford who are boasting with their three cylinder turbo diesel engines and EcoBoost range of powerful, fuel efficient and low emission direct injection, turbo petrol engines, respectively. The company is taking its technological future into their hands. Volvo has chalked out plans to be on par or even beat their toughest competitors in crucial areas such as driving dynamics and fuel economy by its new architecture and the smaller engines.

   See More Volvo XC 90 Pictures                                                                   Read More on Volvo XC 90

The new engines are expected to be almost 90 kg lighter. These engines will be more fuel efficient than the five and six cylinder engines. The three and four cylinder engines could get hybrid power of Volvo’s hybrid engine technology as a supplement. Volvo V70 Diesel Hybrid is one of the first commercially available diesel hybrid cars in the world. Volvo may also go by the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS), an excellent engine technology used in Formula1.

   See More Volvo S60 Pictures                                                                         Read More on Volvo S60

These new developments can eventually cascade to Indian market as Volvo plans to assemble select high volume Volvo cars through Completely Knocked Down (CKD) kits in India. Peter Mertens, Chief of Volvo’s Research and Development said that before the end of the decade, all Volvo models will have engines with no more than four cylinders. Volvo will develop four-cylinder engines with higher performance than today’s six-cylinder units and lower fuel consumption than the current four-cylinder generation. The flywheel system to be used in KERS, offers the driver an additional 80 hp power while reducing fuel consumption by up to 20%.

Read More on : Volvo S 80 detailed review