Volvo Car Group has begun production of the first engine alternatives of the new high-efficiency Volvo Engine Architecture (VEA) four-cylinder engine family.
The strategy to concentrate on four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, together with electric power is the path Volvo Cars has chosen for the future.
The decision to downsize marks an important milestone for the Swedish car maker, which during the development of the VEA made an important strategic decision to go for four-cylinder turbo engines only and combine it with electrification.
The new VEA engine family replaces the previous eight engine architectures on three different platforms. The all-new powertrains will be introduced between 2013 and 2015. Volvo expects to produce almost 20,000 engines in 2013, with production topping out at 2000 units a week by the end of the year.
The first of these variants will be fitted to the Volvo S60, V60, XC60, V70, XC70 and S80 from September 2013.
Volvo has spent more than $300 million on the group’s new engine plant in Skovde, Sweden, with all the engine alternatives produced on the same production line, thus providing extremely efficient production.
Volvo believes by having total control of the development and production of engines and transmissions in combination with fewer engine alternatives increases flexibility and influences quality.
Volvo Cars developed VEA in conjunction with it’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) – that consists of shared modules and scalable systems and components that will form the basis of all future Volvo models starting with the XC90 replacement in 2014.
