Volvo Has Built Its Final Diesel Car

Once upon a time, a diesel-powered Volvo was a symbol of durability, frugality and effortless mile-munching. Those days, however, are well and truly over, as Volvo has built its final ever diesel-powered car.

Volvo announced its intention to ditch diesel globally last September, as part of its commitment to have an entirely electric lineup by 2030. It’s only taken a few short months for it to make good on that intention, with the final diesel Volvo, a blue XC90, rolling out of its factory in Torslanda, Sweden, this week. Meanwhile, its plant in Ghent, Belgium, produced its last diesel, a V60 estate, in February.

Volvo got into diesels earlier than a lot of other manufacturers, introducing its first oil burner, the 244 D6, in 1979, when diesel was still a niche choice outside of commercial vehicles. That car’s engine, a 2.4-litre straight-six, was based on the five-cylinder diesel used by Audi at the time and was the first six-cylinder diesel engine in a passenger car.

Diesel saw a boom in popularity throughout the 1990s and 2000s, particularly in Europe, where it became the predominant choice in Volvo’s lineup. Its first self-built diesel engine, the much-loved five-cylinder D5, was introduced in 2001 and produced until 2017. It was known for being able to withstand mileage well into six figures, reaffirming Volvo’s reputation for making incredibly durable cars.

2012 saw Volvo launch the first-ever plug-in hybrid diesel, the V60 D6. This setup would steadily become more prevalent across its range.

It won’t have escaped your attention that diesel has fallen sharply out of favour in the last few years, a combination of the aftermath of Volkswagen’s Dieselgate emissions scandal, stricter deadlines for the outright banning of internal combustion, and a sharper focus on urban air quality.

It’s pretty much disappeared from small cars across the board, but Volvo is one of the first companies to kill it off globally in all its models, including large SUVs.

Of course, the last year or so has seen Volvo shift rapidly away from what it’s traditionally been known for: it killed off its saloon and estate cars in the UK market last year and now, with the death of diesel, it’s a very different company to the one we knew a few years ago.