Volvo Phasing Out Gas-Only Engines

Volvo hopes you like its current range of gasoline engines, because it says it won't be developing any more of them.

That was one of the takeaways from a recent reveal of the Swedish brand's new 2019 V60 compact station wagon, where Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelson told Road & Track magazine that the brand won't be sinking resources into any more gas-only powerplants.

If we're honest, we're not entirely surprised: Volvo was the first automaker to declare its future allegiances will lie with electrified powertrains, with a summer 2017 announcement that every new model launched from 2019 would have an electric motor.

At the heart of Volvo's engine range is a 2.0L four-cylinder engine to which turbochargers and superchargers are applied — at the same time, in some cases, to produce power characteristics of larger six-cylinder engines. It also teams that engine with electricity to make V8-like power in plug-in hybrid variants of certain models. And Volvo offers a three-cylinder engine for some markets in its latest crossover model, the 2018 XC40.

Volvo says it will switch to solid state batteries for its electrified powertrains around 2025, technology that is said to be safer than current lithium-ion batteries while packing more energy into a smaller package.

In the nearer term, Volvo will also produce a sedan version of the V60 — dubbed S60, naturally — at its new plant in South Carolina.