After 45 years, Volvo will stop building diesel cars

“Dear Diesel, it’s time to say goodbye.” This is how Volvo opens a press release that has been coming for a while. Volvo previously announced that the brand would phase out diesel cars sometime as early as 2024. That time has now arrived. In the Netherlands you could no longer buy a diesel Volvo for a while, but this is now universal. Naturally, Volvo is discontinuing production of diesel cars to move one step closer to an all-electric range.

The last Volvo with a diesel engine is the XC90 you see above. It was built at the Volvo factory in Torslanda, Sweden. The last Volvo station wagon with a diesel engine is the V60 which was assembled in Ghent.

The diesel story began with Volvo and trucks in 1940. Due to the war, the construction of the first diesel engine for a Volvo truck was postponed until 1946. Then in 1979 the first Volvo road car was equipped with a diesel engine: 244 D6. , a five-cylinder that Volvo borrowed from Audi. Volvo’s first diesel engine debuted in 2001. The D5 engine gave the brand a better image. A year later, Volvo ran a diesel engine in the S60 you see in the gallery. They were good times.

Volvo recently sold a lot of diesel cars

But now the switch should be turned. Volvo says that the diesel moratorium is due to stricter emissions requirements, but also the demand for diesel cars. ‘Just five years ago, the diesel engine was our trademark in Europe, as it was for other car manufacturers. Most of the cars we sold in Europe in 2019 were diesel, with electric models on the rise.

Today, most new Volvos are fully electric. The number of electric Volvos sold increased by 70 percent last year. Reason enough for the Swedish-Chinese brand to focus entirely on EVs. However, it will still take some time before all petrol and hybrid models are phased out. Volvo hopes to be fully electric by 2030 and completely climate-free ten years later.