Speaking to news agency headlineauto, the brand outlined its plans to launch a D4 twin-turbo diesel developing 179bhp and 295lb.ft of torque plus a supercharged and turbocharged T6 petrol unit with 302bhp and 295lb.ft in the UK.

The D4 will be available in the “60-series” family as well as the V70, XC70 and S80. The T6 will, for now, only be offered in the S60 saloon and V60 estate, but is destined to go into the all-wheel drive XC60 crossover later.

Eventually the Drive-E family will expand to eight engines, seven of which will be offered in the UK. All will be 2.0-litre direct-injection units with varying levels of turbocharging.

The diesels will deliver between 128 and 236bhp, and the petrol units 138 to 302bhp. They have been prepared for eventual use in hybrid drive systems. 

The current range of Ford four-cylinder engines and in-house five-cylinder diesel and six-cylinder petrol units will be progressively phased out.

Volvo says the new engines are up to 35% more fuel efficient than those they replace, an average of 50 kilos lighter and smaller. The S60 D4 will bring CO2 emissions down to as low as 99g/km, while even the T6 emits only 149g/km. 

‘We can see a clear trend towards downsizing,’ said Volvo's vice-president of powertrain engineering, Derek Crabb. ‘Today the V12 is dead, tomorrow the V8 will be dead and later six-cylinder engines will go the same way.

‘The power an engine develops is not governed by the number of cylinders it has but by the amount of air going through it, and we have found ingenious ways of increasing the airflow.’

Volvo began thinking about the new engine family for environmental reasons in 2007, but became more serious in 2009 after it became clear that Ford wanted to sell the company. New owner Geely sanctioned the £2bn investment in the engines in 2011.

The Drive-E units meet all future emissions regulations up to 2017, without expensive after-treatment in the case of the diesels.

Volvo now offers a new eight-speed Aisin Warner automatic transmission with the D4 and T6 as an alternative to the revised six-speed Getrag manual gearbox.

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