Preview: Volvo’s radical Drive-E powertrains arrive in Canada

Story by John LeBlanc LAS VEGAS – You may have been wondering what’s been going on at Volvo lately. Since the Swedish automaker was snatched up by China’s Geely Automotive from America’s Ford Motor Co. four years ago, the brand has appeared to be in a product development coma. Witness the departure of the S40/V50/C30/C70 compact family and the V70 station wagon from Canadian Volvo showrooms. But in the background, and with what the automaker is saying has been an $11-billion investment in “technological independence,” the “new Volvo” is slowly being revealed. For the 2014 model year, Volvo went through what it says was the largest model “refresh” in its history, with revised styling of its midsized S60 sedan, V60 Sportswagon, XC60 crossover, full-sized XC70 wagon/crossover and S80 sedan. For 2015, the big news is the introduction of its new Drive-E powertrain family, the first of which will be a pair of gas powertrains coming to five Canadian Volvo models for the 2015 model year including the new-to-Canada V60 Sportswagon I also drove here for the first time in Sin City. For my first drive review of the new 2015 Volvo V60 Sportswagon, click here In a radical departure from the industry standard, Volvo’s Drive-E engine family is based on a single motor: a 2.0-litre four-cylinder. From this lone mill, eight Drive-E engines will power all Volvos going forward, from its smallest to its largest vehicles. Four Drive-E gasoline engines will range from the 111 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque Drive-E T3 to the 225-hp and 400 lb.-ft. Drive-E T6, and a quartet of Drive-E diesels will span from the 88-hp and 250 lb.-ft. Drive-E D2 to the 170-hp and 480 lb.-ft. Drive-E D5. Volvo says its new Drive-E powertrains will be able to match the performance of larger five-, six- and eight- cylinder engines with the addition of technologies like direct-injection, turbocharging, supercharging and electrification. For example, the T3 gas engine gets a single turbocharger, while the more powerful T6 gets a turbo and a supercharger. Eventually, Volvo says it already has plans to add plug-in gas-electric hybrid Drive-E powertrains to the family as well. Initially, Canadians will get a pair of gasoline Drive-E powertrains: the 240 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque Drive-E T5 and the turbocharged and supercharged Drive-E T6 with 302 hp and 295 lb.-ft. For now, the Drive-E engines will only be available in front-wheel-drive form (all-wheel-drive is in the plans). Specifically, the Drive-E T5 will become the base engine in every 2015 Volvo, except for the soon-to-be-replaced XC90 crossover. For now, the more powerful Drive-E T6 will be offered as an option in the S60 and XC60. While in the transition, all-wheel-drive Volvos will still be powered by the existing, non-Drive-E five-cylinder and six-cylinder engines. For the one-day media ride and drive Volvo held in and around Las Vegas, Nevada, we had access to the $37,750 (all prices are base MSRPs) 2015 Volvo S60 T6 FWD sedan and the $39,800 2015 Volvo V60 Sportwagon T5 FWD. And although these were brief driving impressions, Volvo’s Drive-E powertrain promise of excellent fuel economy without sacrificing performance seems to be well founded. The new 2015 V60 Sportswagon Drive-E T5 FWD forms the base model in the lineup. Along with its turbo four-cylinder, like every new Drive-E engine, the T5 is mated to an also-new eight-speed automatic transmission with stop-start engine technology as standard equipment. As such, Volvo is estimating its combined city and highway fuel consumption at 6.3 L/100 kilometres — better than gas-engine rivals like the Audi A4 Allroad, BMW 3 Series Touring and Cadillac CTS Sportwagon. But don’t think Volvo’s downsized, Drive-E engine strategy is only about saving fuel. The 2015 S60 T6 FWD sedan we also got a chance to drive takes only 5.6 seconds to go from zero to 96 kilometres an hour, faster than an Audi A4 2.0 TFSI, BMW 320i and Mercedes-Benz C250. Plus with a combined 8.7 L/100 km estimate, the S60 T6 FWD sips less fuel than the Acura TL, Infiniti Q50, Lexus IS 250 and Mercedes-Benz C250. And during my time behind their respective steering wheels, both the T5 and T6 engines were incredibly smooth, responsive and quiet. With rivals sporting cylinder counts all the way into double-digits, Volvo’s new four-cylinder-only Drive-E strategy may seem risky at first blush. The fact Volvo is achieving these performance levels using carryover platforms seems promising, though. However, the true measure of the Swedish automaker’s overall plans will have to be judged with the arrival this fall of the next-generation Volvo XC90, a full-size, three-row crossover that will be the first in a new generation of models built off the brand’s new Scalable Product Architecture vehicle platform. At that point, we’ll have a better idea of what the “new Volvo” really means.

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